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Conference: “Indigenous Education in a Changing World” 19-21, June 2012, Windhoek Country Club Resort, Windhoek
There are an estimated 370 million indigenous people in the world, representing approximately 5% of the total world population. Indigenous people account for more than 5,000 languages in over 70 countries on six continents; i.e. nearly 75% of all languages believed to exist. Despite two UN decades on indigenous people, the “International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People (1995-2004)” and the “Second International Decade of the World’s Indigenous Peoples (2005-2014)”, these groups continue to face serious discrimination in terms of access to basic social services, including education and healthcare. A great number are marginalized and live in precarious conditions, often due to forced displacement and the impacts of globalization and climate change.
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Across Southern Africa, the San constitute the most marginalized ethnic communities. Educational achievement among them is very low, with less than 1% obtaining a school-leaving certificate. Despite various efforts to improve participation in the formal education system over the past 20 years, San students continue to drop out at very high rates. There is an urgent need to address the education and training needs of the existing population of youth and adults having very low levels of schooling, in addition to improving educational access for out-of-school children. Effective approaches must be community-based, and built upon local knowledge, culture, language and livelihood opportunities. They must also allow San communities to remain flexible in a rapidly changing world.
Building on previous conferences, including most recently the 2009 Southern African San Education Forum (SASEF) Conference held in Windhoek, the Working Group of Indigenous Minorities in Southern Africa (WIMSA) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Windhoek Office, are convening a sub-regional conference entitled “Indigenous Education in a Changing World”. The purpose of the conference is to determine what efforts have been made to improve formal education for San communities, and also to identify alternative learning options that could help San communities meet their educational aspirations.
The overarching goal of this conference will be to facilitate the creation of an environment in which San and other marginalized communities can access education that is relevant to their cultural, social and economic aspirations. In order to do this, the conference will work with a common understanding of education having the primary purpose of meeting basic learning needs. The conference will address the issue of what these learning needs are for San communities, and how they can best be met.
The conference is overseen by an Organizing Committee, chaired by UNESCO and including representatives from the Working Group of Indigenous Minorities in Southern Africa (WIMSA) and the University of Namibia (UNAM). The conference will accommodate up to 100 participants from Namibia, Angola, Botswana and South Africa, as well as international experts, and will be held with the participation of the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) and the Ministry of Education (MoE) from 19 to 21 June 2012 at the Windhoek Country Club Resort, in Windhoek, Namibia.
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| Author(s) |
UNESCO Office Windhoek |
| Source |
UNESCO Office Windhoek |
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| Editorial Contact: |
Ms Cecilia Barbieri |
| - Email |
c.barbieri@unesco.org |
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| Publication Date |
18 Jun 2012 |
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