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Sri Lanka dragging its feet on UNESCO teacher centre
View(s):By Nadia Fazlulhaq
Education authorities are now struggling to secure the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recognition for the South Asian Centre for Teacher Development (SACTD) ahead of the final evaluation and renewal of recognition due by the end of the year.
The South Asian Centre for Teacher Development Centre built at a cost of Rs. 400 million was opened on May 13, Here Prime Minister Dinesh Gunewardena and Education Minister Susil Premajayantha are seen at the opening of the hostel complex consisting of 53 rooms, built according to international standards. Indian High Commissioner Gopal Baglay and Bangladesh High Commissioner Tareq Md Ariful Islam were also present on the occasion. Pix courtesy: Education Ministry and Indian High Commission
SACTD located in Meepe was established in 2014 as a category II centre under the auspices of UNESCO with the Sri Lanka Government being a service provider, standard setter and a research management centre in the field of teacher development in the South Asian sub-region.
The Education Ministry now has to contend with the last and final extension until December 9.
A final evaluation with recommendations on the renewal of designation of the SACTD as a centre under the auspices of UNESCO is due to be undertaken by UNESCO before year end.
Without an official website, or the strategic plan for the next five years, and delays in being a self-financing autonomous centre, the Education Ministry is under pressure to implement requirements or risk losing UNESCO recognition.
“Getting UNESCO recognition was no easy journey. It was my concept while being a member of the UNESCO executive board back in 2011. There were several discussions with the UNESCO director general and the UNESCO secretariat, assisted by the then secretary general of the Sri Lanka National Commission for UNESCO, Prithiviraj Perera, who was involved in the development of the concept paper. The proposal was submitted to the UNESCO executive board for approval at its 190th session held in 2012,” former education minister Bandula Gunawardena told the Sunday Times.
“It was only following these long procedures that the proposal to establish the Centre under the overall framework of the National Institute of Education (NIE) was initially approved by the UNESCO General Conference. As this was just after the end of the conflict, Western countries voted against the proposal. But the majority of countries, aware of the literacy level and quality of education here voted in favour,” he said. An agreement was signed between the Government and UNESCO for a six-year period from June 2014 to 2020.
During the signing at UNESCO headquarters in Paris in 2014, the former director general of UNESCO Dr Irina Bokova said the centre is a testimony of Sri Lanka’s strong commitment to UNESCO’s work in education. Initially an IT laboratory with 100 computers was opened at the centre.
“All education ministers from the SAARC region attended. Unfortunately, change in governments, ministers and secretaries, the pandemic, political instability and economic crisis led to the centre being neglected. This centre has the ability to attract foreign exchange while being a focal point for teacher education in the region,” Mr Gunawardena said.
SACTD was established to serve as a centre for professional development for teacher educators, counsellors, advisers and to do research on teacher development and training, curriculum development and text book writing and have distance learning and repository services. Looking into capacity development in the areas of teachers ICT competency and e-pedagogy, piloting of inclusive education models in South, promoting education for peace and sustainable development were some objectives.
The centre proposed to train, provide short- and long-term courses and seminars not only for teacher educationists here, but also for teacher trainers from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, and Pakistan.
The Sunday Times learns that apart from several Maldivian teacher trainers, there were barely any from other member countries.
UNESCO has done several independent evaluations since the first one January, 2020. The second was in October, 2020. The third was in September, 2021 and the fourth in January, 2023. This January’s evaluation said that recommendations from the last evaluation were not implemented and that the centre remained within the overall legal framework of the National Institute of Education with a limited budget, staff and partners.
In previous evaluations, the UNESCO has emphasised the need for the centre to seek legal autonomy, for the budget and staff to be operational, as well as to develop partnerships and the involvement of regional institutions in its work.
“While the centre made efforts to appoint a director in 2020, prepared a business plan and recruited consultants to work on a teacher development courses, these activities did not allow SACTD to develop a proven track record of excellence. The business plan for SACTD has not been implemented and its strategy for 2023-2027 has not been developed as foreseen. The nature and efficiency of the centre’s governance, including management, human resources and accountability do not allow for the effective functioning of the centre,” UNESCO stated in its evaluation early this year.
UNESCO also said that the geographical coverage of the institute’s activities has been limited to the national level.
Prithiviraj Perera, former secretary general of the Sri Lanka National Commission for UNESCO said: “It will only be a crying shame if Sri Lanka loses out on such a rare and important opportunity to become a regional hub for teacher development under the aegis of a global leader in education such as UNESCO and after going through long and stringent processes to obtain UNESCO recognition.’’
He urged the Government to immediately finalise the strategy for 2023 to 2027 and make recommendations for autonomy of the SACTD from the NIE, develop and launch a website, prepare a road map with timelines to get competent human and financial resources.
If the ministry gets these done before the next evaluation at year end and request a new agreement with UNESCO, the country will have a better chance at securing the UNESCO endorsement.
Among other proposals are to establish a partnership with like-minded UNESCO institutes, such as the Mahatma Gandhi Centre for Education for Peace and Sustainable Development in India, a UNESCO Category 1 Institute and establish a partnership with the International Centre for Higher Education and Innovation (ICHEI) in Shenzhen, China involving science and technology for innovation targeting teacher educators.
Director general of the National Institute of Education (NIE) Dr. Sunil Nawaratne said a loan has been provided by the NIE to prepares courses, while the Education Ministry secretary is exploring a World Bank grant to fulfil other requirements recommended by UNESCO.
“We have informed UNESCO officials of delays, but want to make it a self-financing, independent institution as the Cabinet approval has been given. The website will be finalised as well as the strategic plan. Setting up hostels, too, has been completed.’’
Kamal Pathmasiri, former district secretary of Colombo heads the centre. “Throughout the past few years more emphasis was given on improving infrastructure. Now that it is completed, we are now focusing on the requirements set by UNESCO. A five-year strategic plan is currently being developed.’’
Mr. Pathmasiri said talks are underway with embassy officials. “There is a lot of work to do to promote courses offered at the centre. We have signed an agreement with the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology on conducting courses in future. The centre has also joined the International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030.’’
A pool of eminent educationists of South Asia will be formed to develop courses required for the region.
The hostel complex of the centre, built at a cost of Rs 400 million opened on May 13. It has 53 rooms. The Prime Minister Dinesh Gunewardena and Education Minister Susil Premajayantha were on hand, alongside Indian High Commissioner Gopal Baglay and Bangladesh High Commissioner Tareq Md Ariful Islam.
The SACTD does not have any social media pages or an official email address.
| One final chance for unrealised undertaking UNESCO has given Sri Lanka’s Government and educational authorities one final change to set up the teacher development centre that the Government proposed and undertook 12 years ago in 2011. On March 23, UNESCO noted that the centre was approved at its 36th session in 2011, under the auspices of UNESCO focusing on teacher development. UNESCO has now given Sri Lanka one final chance in granting “its last one-year extension of the agreement until June 9 2023’’. UNESCO said it will “exceptionally extend the agreement between UNESCO and Sri Lanka on the centre for six months, until December 2023, to allow for a final evaluation, the results of which will be presented to the executive board at its 217th session’’. The proposed centre was a category II entity, which is not legally part of UNESCO but associated with it through formal arrangements approved by the general conference. | |
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