Role of Universities in EFA : Asia and the Pacific Region

1. MOLLY N.N. LEE, UNESCO BANGKOK, email: m.lee@unescobkk.org Role of Universities in EFA : Asia and the Pacific Region

2. Universities’ Contribution in 4 Main Areas I. Education and Training II. Research and Development III.UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs IV. University student body

3. I. Teacher Education: Early Childhood Education • Training of kindergarten teachers • Examples: University of Science Malaysia and Australian universities

4. I. Teacher Education: Primary Schools • Bachelor of Education Programmes: Pre-service, in-service, on-campus and distance learning • Examples: All the public universities in Malaysia, and Open University Malaysia • Short-term in-service programmes

5. I. Professional Training of Educational Personnel • For school heads • For teacher educators, curriculum developers, school counselors, and education administrators through post-graduate programmes by Faculty of Education in most universities.

6. II. Research on EFA • Policy and Planning • Teaching and Learning • Curriculum Development • Teacher Education • Educational Administration and Management • Assessment and Evaluation

7. II. Policy and Planning: Examples • Educational Planning: demand and supply of teachers, school mapping, staffing ratio • Educational Expenditure: unit cost at various educational level, public subsidies, cost of different types of schools, private provision • Decentralization strategies • Language policies

8. II. Teaching and Learning: Examples • Class sizes and Classroom processes • Monitoring student learning • Pedagogical studies: How to teach a particular subject better? • The use of educational technology in teaching-learning • Process of learning • Cognitive development • Motivation and school learning

9. II. Curriculum Development: Examples • Civics and Citizenship Education • Values Education • Education for Sustainable Development • Life skills • Literacy and reading • Mathematics curricula • Science curricula • Language teaching

10. II. Teacher Education: Examples • Desired characteristics of a good teacher • Teacher competencies, values and beliefs • Teacher as reflective practitioner • Teacher as action researcher • Assessment of teaching • When and where in pre-service teacher education

11. II. Education Administration and Management: Examples • Decentralization • Effective schools • School-based management • School supervision and monitoring • School leadership and management • Family and community participation in schools

12. II. Assessment and Evaluation: Examples • Review of system of examination and assessment • Learning achievement studies • Measurement of educational performances • Evaluation of educational programmes

13. II. Development of Materials in support for EFA • Teaching materials for primary school teachers • Curriculum materials for rural schools and multigrade classrooms • Teaching modules for children with special needs • Educational softwares and coursewares for teaching

14. III. UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs • China: UNESCO Chair on Literacy and Adult Education for Training of Personnel in Rural Areas (The Agriculture University of Hebei) • India: UNESCO Chair in Teacher Education Through Distance Mode (Indira Gandhi National Open University) • Kazakhstan: UNESCO Chair on Science Education and Teacher Training (Almaty Abai State University)

15. IV. University Students • Community development • Extra tuition • School co-curricular activities