Lifelong learning key to sustainability

Erwida Maulia ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Tue, 04/22/2008 10:40 AM  |  National

Indonesia is hosting the first South-South education forum on lifelong learning aimed at supporting sustainable development, encompassing issues such as poverty alleviation and the inaccessibility of formal education in some places.

Representatives from 19 countries in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa are attending the three-day South-South Policy Forum on Lifelong Learning as the Key to Education for Sustainable Development, which kicked off here Monday.

Brunei, China, India, Indonesia and Malaysia are among the Asian participants, while African countries taking part include Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

"The concept, education for sustainable development, is currently being developed. It is a multidisciplinary concept combining economic, social, cultural and environmental perspectives," Indonesia's National Education Minister Bambang Sudibyo said after opening the forum.

"Education for all, lifelong learning and education for sustainable development are new concepts which need to be integrated into the system. A country's education system must accommodate them all," said Bambang.

Indonesia has included the three concepts in its education system through the 2003 law on the national education system, he said.

The South-South lifelong learning forum is a collaboration between the Indonesian Education Ministry, the United Nations Educational, the Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL), the Indonesian National Commission for UNESCO and the UNESCO Office in Jakarta.

Director and representative of the UNESCO Office in Jakarta, Hubert Gijzen, said the forum was part of recommendations from the E-9 Ministerial Review Meeting on Education for All, held in Bali last month. E-9 comprises of the nine countries with largest illiterate populations in the world.

The focus of the forum is the potential role of non-formal and informal learning modalities in promoting sustainable development at the global, regional, national and local levels.

These include projects for socially disadvantaged groups, farmers' cooperatives, community-based organizations, trade union educational schemes and learning on the job within the informal economy.

According to UNESCO's official website, www.unesco.org, "Such learning modalities play an essential role, especially in countries where formal education is not accessible to all".

In a media statement, the Indonesian Education Ministry said there is no direct approach yet for the implementation and realization of the lifelong learning concept.

The goals of the forum are to promote partnership, share experiences and to identify ways of learning for each of the participating countries to end their dependency on the Western concept of education, according to the statement.

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