Shape new educational landscape: UNESCO

BANGKOK, Jan 20: The four-day Asia-Pacific Conference on Education for All 2000 (EFA 2000) came to a close today with a call from the UNESCO to shape an educational landscape making use of the new information and communication technologies and without being affected by the failure to meet the targets in the past ten years.

The way is now open for us to shape an educational landscape that meets the needs of the 21st century with a greater focus on the extraordinary potential of new technologies, UNESCO Director General Koichiro Matsuura told the delegates from 42 of the 44 countries of the region who took part in the conference to review the progress of the EFA programme in the last decade.

The fact all the EFA targets set in 1990 have not been met does not in any way affect the vision and principles of the EFA declaration adopted at Jomtien, near here, by over 160 countries, Mr Matsuura said.

However, it must affect the way in which we judge the levels of commitment required and the nature and scope of the action needed to achieve the goals.

Observing that the past decade had seen both successes and failures, he said today, ten years after jomtien, education is universally understood to be the key to all development and that is most encouraging.

For those countries which had more or less succeeded in ensuring universal access to primary education for girls and boys, the focus now was on reaching the unreached and on improving the quality of education, the UNESCO Director General said.

Analysing the efforts of various countries, he said perhaps one of the failures in basic education strategies over the past decade has been to focus too exlusively on the traditional age group and traditional structures of the primary school. Though this still remained the bedrock of basic education, it had few answers for those who did not fall within that framework, he explained.

In view of the problem, alternative delivery systems must be developed to reach street children and out-of-school youth, semi-literate or illiterate young adults, the poorest girls and women, isolated rural populations and those with disabilities.

Another important requirement was to give each individual the basic education that he or she needs when and where it is needed through all channels, from early childhood learning to adult literacy classes, and from intensive skills learning to community education, Mr Matsuura said.

Elaborating on the potential of latest technologies, he said today, all over the world, many children and young people are still not getting full educational opportunities, but on the streets of big cities, they see the internet cafes that have begun to spring up.

They see the advertisements for mobile phones and fax machines, for CDs and CD-Roms. They know that there is an exciting, connected world in which knowledge is not just a phase of life but a way of life. There is little need to convince either children or their parents that education is the passport to this life. (UNI)

Beatty to get award for work as producer

LOS ANGELES, Jan 20: Ok, Warren Beatty is not going to run for President, but he will get an academy award.

The actor, director and producer, who flirted with a run for the presidency last year, was chosen on Wednesday by the academy of motion picture arts and sciences to receive its prestigious Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award for lifetime achievement in filmmaking.

The Academy will present Beatty with the award for veteran film producers at its annual oscar awards on March 26.

Among others who have received it are Darryl Zanuck, Walt Disney, Samuel Goldwyn, Cecil B. Demille, Alfred Hitchcock, Jack Warner, Clint Eastwood, Billy Wilder, Ingmar Bergman and George Lucas.

Beatty, 62, won a best-director Oscar for "reds" in 1981 and is the only person to be nominated for Oscars as a producer, director, writer and actor on the same film, a feat he accomplished twice — for "reds" and for "heaven can wait" in 1978.

"In discussing this award for Warren, our Governors stressed his passion for film, for getting it just right, and his courage in producing pictures that many other producers might have considered too dangerous to try," Academy president Robert Rehme said.

The award was established in 1937 to honour those whose films "reflect a consistently high quality of motion picture production." Thalberg was one of Hollywood’s first whiz kids. By the time of his death from pneumonia in 1936 at the age of 37, he was production chief at metro-goldwyn-mayer.

Beatty, who starred in "bonnie and clyde" and "shampoo," generated considerable buzz in both Hollywood and Washington last year when he hinted that he would consider a run for the U.S. Presidency, a notion the long-time democratic party liberal and promoter of campaign finance reform has since dismissed. (REUTERS)

Pakistan positioning to sign CTBT before India

ISLAMABAD, Jan 20: Pakistan’s military led Government has made it clear that it would like to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), which was again on the agenda of visiting delegations from Britain and the United States here last week.

Despite the flak its been getting from the pro-nuclear religious right-wing groups, the Government is preparing the ground for signing before India.

British Chief of Defence Staff, Gen Sir Charles Guthrie who was on a rare diplomatic assignment for London, met with his counterpart-cum-Chief Executive of Pakistan, Gen Pervez Musharraf, to discuss this country’s relations with India, terrorism, a time frame for the restoration of democracy and the CTBT.

A four-member US Senate delegation of Tom Daschle, Harry Reid, Daniel Akaka and Christopher Dodd, who were visiting at the same time, also held discussions on "more of less" similar issues.

The outcome of both their meeting and that of Karl Inderfurth, US Assistance Secretary of State who will be in Islamabad before month end, could influence the decision of US President Bill Clinton’s to add Pakistan to his itinerary during his South Asia tour, scheduled for March.

Sir Charles Guthrie was all praise for the ongoing public debate on the CTBT, initiated by the Government. According to a foreign office spokesman, "the Government is trying to let the people see and come to a conclusion on what CTBT is and is not. The idea is to educate and increase their understanding of the treaty and evolve a consensus."

Political observers say the Government is keen to sign the CTBT before India does, to win the approval of the west, particularly the United States, and to secure financial relief for its cash-strapped economy. Both the main political parties, Nawaz Sharif’s Muslim League and Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party, have expressed support for the CTBT.

On January four, Abdus Sattar, Foreign Minister in the military Government, took the debate to the hardline Jamat-i-Islami Party’s ‘Institute of Policy Studies. But it has bckfired. One day after the meeting, 16 religious parties, led by the Jamat, made their opposition very clear in a statement denouncing the Government’s efforts to evolve a consensus on the CTBT.

A war of words which was sparked off between Sattar and Jamat Chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed had ‘The News’, a leading English-language daily, commenting on January 13 that the country "is even further away from forging a consensus ... Regretably opinions on the CTBT are degenerating into another unsavoury quarrel and the real issue is getting lost in the miasma of claims and counterclaims."

Sattar argued for a "sound policy" which would keep "Pakistan in the mainstream rather than push us to the fringe, liable to international isolation." Signing has "no identifiable cost even though the benefits too are more tangible than concrete", he said.

Other participants at the meeting of nuclear hardliners, including retired Army Generals, Mirza Aslam Beg and Talat Masood and diplomats Dr Tanvir Ahmed and Maqbool Bhatti however changed their stance to favour signing the CTBT but not ratifying "as long as the United States, Russia and China do not complete the process of adhering to the treaty".

In December, the Foreign Minister invited known anti-nuclearist Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy, who is professor of nuclear and particle physics at the Quaid-e-Azam University here to brief a dozen foreign office officials and members of the foreign policy advisory group on the CTBT.

Hoodbhoy who has been passionately arguing for the CTBT in Pakistan for years now, said the signing is "an insignificant thing" since Pakistan conducted nuclear tests in May 1998. "Pakistan has already tested its nuclear weapons and demonstrated that these are powerful enough to destroy a city."

By refraining from future tests, "Pakistan loses nothing in terms of the military and political significance of its nuclear capability". The treaty does not prevent Pakistan from possessing nuclear weapons or increasing their numbers.

Instead "Pakistan can hope for a modest economic and political dividend by signing the CTBT. Many countries, including aid donors, have asked Pakistan to sign. Given the precarious condition of the economy, signing could make a real difference."

His view is echoed by another leading pro-disarmament activist, Dr A H Nayyar who is associate professor in the Department of Thysics at the Quaid-e-Azam University. "The main pressures on Pakistan is the state of the economic mess ... And the immediate advantage would be restoration of Japanese aid (blocked since the tests in May 1998)."

Dr Nayyar believes the military Government wants to use its decision to sign, to persuade the United States to exert pressure on India to resolve longstanding issues of dispute, "Kashmir in particular".

"The moot point is what Pakistan stands to gain by signing before India does," observed ‘The Dawn’ newspaper last week. All that observers are able to say for certain now is that by signing Pakistan will certainly not be risking international isolation. (IPS)

US official in Pak with weighty agenda

ISLAMABAD, Jan 20: US Assistant Secretary of State Karl Inderfurth arrived in Pakistan today with a packed agenda for talks with the country’s military and civilian leaders.

Issues of terrorism, troubled relations between India and Pakistan, and return to civilian rule are to top the agenda, said US officials.

Inderfurth is expected to meet Pakistan’s military ruler General Pervez Musharraf, as well as the Foreign Minister and representatives of Pakistan’s defunct Parliament.

The most senior US official to visit Pakistan since last October’s Army coup ended 11 years of nascent democracy in Pakistan, Inderfurth’s arrival follows on the heels of visits by several US delegations. A delegation of democratic senators led by minority leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, as well as Republican Sen Sam Brownback of Kansas and Sen Tim Johnson were in Pakistan. Pakistani observers expect Inderfurth to press Musharraf to shut down the Pakistani-based offices of militant Islamic groups, like Harakat-ul Mujahedeen, successor to Harakat-ul Ansar, declared a terrorist group by the US.

A member of Harakat-ul Mujahedeen, Maulana Masood Azhar, was one of three pro-Kashmiri militants freed by India to end last month’s 8-day highjacking drama and secure the safe release of 155 passengers and crew aboard the Indian Airlines plane parked in Southern Afghanistan.

In Azhar’s first speech after returning to Pakistan he declared a Jehad or holy war against both the US and India, although he later distanced himself from waging war against the US. He also has publicly announced his plans to launch a recruitment drive for militants to fight in Kashmir.

Earlier Washington said Pakistan would probably be withdrawn from Clinton’s South Asian agenda, which is to include India and Bangladesh, because of the Army takeover. But there has been no final decision, according to US and Pakistani officials.

Irwin said the details of Inderfurth’s talks with Pakistan’s military and civilian leaders will be conveyed to Clinton.

But it is not his mission to scope out the situation and recommend either a red light or green light for a visit to Pakistan by the US President, said Irwin. (AP)

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