Neu: 2001-08-27 Contents of this issue: ======================================================================== August 27th, 2001 Collective Action:Pacific member countries of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) ended their biennial consultation with a strategy of coordinated action for UNESCO's coming general conference. The conference is to be held in Paris in October. "A coordinated and collective action will benefit the whole Pacific region," Samoa's Education Minister, Fiame Naomi Mata'afa, said in her opening address to the Pacific meeting at Nadi. The Minister has represented the Pacific Islands in UNESCO's executive board since 1997. The consultation at Nadi was also attended by the education ministers of Fiji, Nauru, Tonga, and Vanuatu, and other high level delegates from 14 countries. The head of UNESCO's Pacific Office, in Apia, Edna Tait, said: "We have come together not only to prepare for the General Conference but to celebrate work in the Pacific region that the UNESCO family has carried out in the past two years in the fields of education, science, culture and communication." The delegates welcomed the education strategy developed by the Pacific Ministers of Education earlier this year. They noted it included education for all, with its emphasis on literacy. Technical and vocational education and a qualification framework for the Pacific are also in the strategy. .The delegates also gave priority to the development of and access to both traditional and new media, as well as expanding production of local content for radio, TV and the Internet.(PINA Nius OnLine) __END__
