CONFINTEA VI
UNESCO’s Sixth International Conference on Adult Education (CONFINTEA VI) will be hosted by Brazil in 2009.
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CONFINTEA VI Asia and Pacific Regions Preparatory Conference 6-8 October 2008
Hosted by the Republic of Korea, Seoul
During the conference the NZ Ministry of Education's report "The Development and State of the Art of Adult Learning and Education - National Report of New Zealand" was be presented. Read the the report
Observations and Analysis from ASPBAE: A Civil Society Debriefing Paper. Download the document
Visit our Conference Photo Album
It's been a challenging day today as the task has been to finalise the Conference document that will be presented from this Asia and the Pacific Conference to next year's CONFINTEA conference in Brazil. We worked on the issues, challenges, key strategies, recommendations and benchmarks, first as a whole group, then as a sub-group, then as a NZ group and finally as a whole group again. With so many people, languages and issues it was quite a task! It's been a good opportunity to network with Greg Peart from Adult Learning Australia as well as many Ministers and representatives from the Pacific and as well from ASPBAE - (Asia and South Pacific Bureau of Adult Education). All of us feel so much richer for the global relationships we've made, the new knowledge we've gained and the persepctives we now have that will impact on our lives in NZ for many days to come. We are all very appreciative of the opportunity to be here, It's 7.30pm and the conference is over and we are now out to one final dinner in the city hosted by UNESCO. The Korean government have been amazing generous - the staff here are perfect and so helpful. At lunch today we had the most superb cabaret entertainment of semi-traditional Korean dancing - and a four course lunch and the lovely raspberry Korean wine again. It was so impressive - however it did make this afternoons sessions hard - and am still in session now at 7pm. Still we're being taken on a shopping tour of the markets tonight - the bus returns at 1.30am!!!!!!
Wednesday in Seoul
Hello from all of us on our final day here in Seoul.
But we have achieved it!
Hello again,
Have been struggling all afternoon as we try and work on policy recommendations on behalf of all the countries that are here -32 countries- and although the conference language is English - it is hard to not dominate by speaking, reading in English. NZ met with with Afghanistan, Cambodia, China, Fiji, Thailand, Tajikistan and Turkey - what do we have in common and can agree to? So the challenges begin!! Pauline and Bronwyn were the recorders and fed back superbly
Hi all,
In the middle of Conference sessions on Tuesday morning listening to presentations from Ministries of Education in Korea, Thailand, Kyrgzstan and the Phillippines on their adult education policies.
Have had such a stimulating time meeting so many people from around this region and listening to many interesting speakers. After the presentations yesterday from Korea, Bangkok, Papua new Guinea and India we heard from the Minister of Education in Thailand talk about Adult Basic Education in her country. Mr Manzoor Ahmed then presented his synthesis report on adult learning and education in Asia and the Pacific Region - who is the writer of the regional Synthesis Report for CONFINTEA VI.
We then spent the afternoon discussing the key issues, trends and challenges of this report for our sub-region - Australia, Fiji, NZ, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. As delegation head, Pauline was invited to be part of the drafting committee and with all our support she graciously invited Bronwyn to work alongside her. This is an honour for NZ to have this involvement. After a two hour discussion Pauline was allowed to present just one page on behalf of our sub-region and then after a formal dinner last night, Bronwyn and Pauline worked late to reduce this to 4 lines to be included in the full region additional report.
The formal dinner was an absolute treat with a 40 piece orchestra, opera singers, traditional Korean drummers and dancers and a particularly lovely raspberry wine with dinner!
Currently (10am ) we are listening to presentations - Tracey is helping Sandy with her power-point presentation soon and Wendell and I are putting out ACE Aotearoa newsletters and ALW/HTM cards etc
Have attached a couple of photos (click here to view)- yes there are just a few already!! So good to be here!!
warm regards from everyone,
Jennifer
