Speech by Minister of State Conor Lenihan TD at the Third Level Development Education Conference, Dublin City University, Thursday 23 March 2006
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
I am honoured and delighted to be here this evening on the occasion of the opening of the Development Education Conference sponsored by Irish Aid. I would like to thank our host, Professor Ferdinand von Prondzynski, President of Dublin City University.
I congratulate Dr. Peadar Kirby and his fellow committee members for their hard work and commitment in organising this wonderful conference.
I welcome the distinguished Mr Thandika Mkandawire, Director of the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development. I look forward to hearing his keynote address on the challenges facing international development from a social policy perspective.
I offer a warm welcome to all participants and speakers here today, especially those who have travelled form overseas to be with us.
I am pleased that Irish Aid has been able to support the participation of some of our overseas visitors.
Today I am going to talk about the crucial role which education plays in development, and why we place such an emphasis on it in the Government’s Aid programme.
I am also going to talk about our plans for working with Higher Education institutions here in Ireland, in pursuit our development goals.
Finally, I’ll be emphasising the value for Irish students of learning about development issues, and the ways in which we can support this important work.
Irish Aid Programme and Education
Education is a key focus area for Irish Aid.
The Irish Aid programme has as its absolute priority the reduction of poverty, inequality and exclusion in developing countries and we are well aware of the role education plays in reaching these goals.
In the years 2000 to 2004, Irish Aid’s expenditure on education amounted to almost €200 million. Of this, almost €170 million was spent in support of education in our Irish Aid partner countries in Sub Saharan Africa. Most of this money went into support for primary schooling.
Ireland’s own experience of education is one of the strengths that we bring to our partner countries. The Irish education system is held in high regard and rightly so.
Our colleagues in the Department of Education and Science have been very supportive in sharing that expertise with ministries of education from our partner countries.
Countries supported by Irish Aid are making gains in basic education.
They are:
- increasing enrolments of primary school age children
- improving pupil: teacher ratios
- narrowing the gender gap
- building more classrooms
- providing more and better learning materials.
This progress is encouraging and we are committed to continuing our support.
I recently launched UNESCO’s 2006 Education for All Global Monitoring Report in Ireland. This report measures progress every year towards the Education for All goals which were agreed by the international community in Dakar in 2000. This year, the report focused on literacy.
Basic literacy is the foundation of all learning. We know, for example, that for every year a child is denied access to reading and writing skills, the risk of remaining poor, of being exploited and of being vulnerable to disease is increased.
The 2006 report points to the increase in school enrolment figures in sub Saharan Africa, including Uganda and Tanzania where Irish Aid has been particularly active.
In Uganda, enrolments in primary education have increased from 6.6 million in 1998/99 to nearly 7.4 million in 2002/03 - an increase of 11%.
Tanzanian achievements are even more impressive with primary education enrolments increasing from 4 million to over 6.5 million in the same period, an increase of over 60%.
I agree with the report’s findings that we must emphasise the quality of education; that real development is about more than just the numbers of people attending school.
It is crucial to overall development to ensure that people can fully share in the fruits of economic growth and global opportunity.
Education is transformative – it increases civic participation and helps create a confident people better able to articulate their own needs and demand better services.
While the focus of Irish Aid is on basic education provision in Developing Countries, we are acutely aware of the role higher education plays in achieving this objective. This is especially true in relation to teacher education.
In Uganda, Irish Aid has provided €2 million for a Teacher Training College in the Rwenzori area and is now in the process of supporting the college to introduce ICT as a learning tool.
In Ethiopia, Irish Aid, in partnership with a number of other donors, supports an innovative teacher training programme aimed at helping the Ethiopian Government to increase the number of qualified teachers and upgrade their skills.
I want to see Ireland’s contribution to this kind of work continue in the years ahead.
I am fully committed to increasing levels of expenditure on basic education. Recently I announced a contribution of €3 million to the Global Education for All – Fast Track Initiative. Support for education is central to the Irish Aid programme and will remain a high priority.
Education and HIV/AIDS
Our commitment to education stems from our belief that it is crucial to the development of a country. Its importance cuts across all sectors.
For example, education plays a vital role in raising awareness and understanding of HIV/AIDS in developing countries. This is an area of particular priority for Irish Aid and one in which we are fortunate to draw on the support and expertise of the many Irish NGOs, missionaries and other individuals who are active throughout the world in the struggle against HIV/AIDS.
I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to Fr. Michael Kelly of the University of Zambia on the occasion of Irish Aid’s recognition of his contribution to the control of HIV/AIDS in Africa.
Fr Michael has worked tirelessly as a HIV/AIDS education consultant in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean.
Irish Aid was one of the first agencies to identify the impact of HIV/AIDS on the education sector and to advocate for more concerted action.
As a consequence, Uganda, one of Irish Aid’s programme countries has made significant progress in reducing the HIV/AIDS prevalence from 18% to a national adult rate of 6.4%. Among children below 5 years the prevalence rate has reduced dramatically down to 0.7%. These figures signal huge changes for the better for the country as a whole and impact specifically on the education sector.
At the same time, while we welcome such progress, there is no room for complacency. HIV/AIDS remains a major ongoing threat to the future wellbeing and very life of the citizens of these countries.
Ongoing research into HIV/AIDS and other priority development issues is the key to deepening our understanding of the development challenges we face today.
Irish Aid Proposed and the Higher Education Sector in Ireland
Developing countries need to be encouraged and supported to find local solutions to their unique development problems and issues.
One form of support that Irish Aid is developing is in the area of capacity building and research for higher education institutions in our partner countries.
I intend that Irish Aid and the higher education sector in Ireland should in future work more closely and more strategically together in pursuit of our goal of poverty reduction in the developing countries in which we work.
I know there is great interest among Irish universities and colleges in deepening their involvement and expertise in development work and I welcome this interest.
In recent months I have consulted with a considerable number of representatives of Irish universities and institutes of technology.
They have all expressed great interest and enthusiasm for deeper engagement with the Irish Aid programme.
I believe there is potential for the Higher Education sector in Ireland to play a significant role in assisting us.
The most effective way forward is not a piecemeal approach, but rather a coherent strategy that offers the possibility of engagement right across the whole of the higher education sector in this country.
Within Irish Aid we are already working toward drawing up a suitable strategy. Our basic starting point is that it should contribute to the objectives of Irish Aid in our partner countries. But it should also offer attractive opportunities to the widest range of higher education institutions throughout the country that will encourage them to engage.
I see a number of ways and possibilities for engagement. These include encouraging networking and collaboration between third level institutions. They might also include working directly with third level institutions in our partner countries either through linking or twinning arrangements. They might also include exchanges of staff or students.
Initial consultation has already taken place between my officials, the Department of Education and Science and the Higher Education Authority to seek their views and advice.
Our next step will be to prepare a draft of a strategy that we can discuss with the higher education sector. I think it would be useful for Irish Aid to set out within this draft its own priorities as regards themes and sectors in which it would welcome third level support.
Drafting has already begun and I hope to arrange a meeting on a draft strategy with representatives of universities and institutes of technology before the summer.
I expect the sector’s input at that meeting will help ensure that we develop the best possible strategy through which we can work together in pursuit of our objectives.
Finally, it is my intention that the strategy will be set in place well before the end of this year and that we initiate its implementation from the very start of 2007.
Higher Education Sector and Development Education
More immediately, I would like to say a few words about the role universities have to play in the education of Irish people on development issues.
Development education here in Ireland is a key part of the Irish Aid programme and one where we are pleased to support and partner the work of universities, schools, NGOs and individuals throughout the country.
In 2005 we spent €545 million in total on our aid programme. €734 million will be spent in 2006. By 2012 this will have risen to €1.5 billion a year as we meet our Millennium Development target of 0.7% of GNP. This is Irish taxpayers’ money.
Money which will be put to work helping the very poorest of our neighbours in the global village.
As we move towards this target, and our aid programme increases in size, I want everyone in Ireland to have the opportunity to engage with development. I want them to learn about it at school, at university. I want them to see it on their television screens. I want them to read about it in the papers. I want them to hear about it through campaigns. I want them to ask questions, to form opinions, to have arguments.
It is important that open and vibrant debate takes place on these issues. This is one of the reasons why, as part of our overall aid programme, we support development education here in Ireland.
We support the work of higher education institutions and development education organisations working to bring development issues into the classrooms and lecture halls of Ireland. We also work directly with schools and colleges to enable them to deliver development education to their students.
Through this work, we hope to make global and development issues part and parcel of an Irish education.
This work is important, not just in the context of the next few years, as we expand our programme, but in the long term.
I have recently undertaken a series of information meetings about development in secondary schools around Dublin. I have been gratified to see the interest which young people have in development issues. It has been fascinating to hear their opinions.
Many of these students will undoubtedly progress to third level education in years to come. The interest and curiosity they have now about global development should be further nurtured throughout their education. We want to work with the universities and colleges of Ireland to ensure that can happen.
The theme of this conference ‘Linking the Global and local: Education for Development in a Globalising World’ reflects one of the key development challenges we face- to work for a world in which all have the opportunity to reap the benefits of globalisation.
Education is one of the many fronts on which we face this challenge - for it is the key to unlocking the potential of people, communities and nations.
We, in Ireland, know this perhaps better than most as education has played such a vital role in our own development. And I pay tribute to the Higher Education sector here for its record of excellence for which it is known worldwide.
Irish Universities and colleges are now competing in a globalised education market. In some ways the theme of this conference- ‘linking the global and the local’-echoes their challenge too.
Notwithstanding the highly competitive market in which they operate it is my belief that Irish Higher Education institutions can play a critical role in development and particularly in the strengthening of the interface between development studies and development education.
Your institutions are ideally placed to undertake research which can support and assist the integration of a development perspective in the priority area of teacher education.
In addition your institutions can contribute to the development of professional pathways for development educators and other professionals.
Through bringing development into the classrooms and lecture halls of Ireland, giving the young people of Ireland an opportunity to understand their responsibilities as global citizens, we will help to ensure that Ireland can continue to play her part in global development for generations to come.
I would like to wish you every success with the conference programme.
Thank you.
For more information on the Third Level Development Education Conference, Dublin City University, Thursday 23 March 2006 please go to: http://www.devedconference2006.com/ |
