REPORTS FROM PORTO ALEGRE LAUNCHING THE CAMPAIGN FOR THE RIGHT TO LEARN THROUGH LIFE Organized by ICAE/GEO, REPEM and CEAAL within the framework of the World Education Forum TOWARDS INTEGRAL VISIONS AND APPROACHES ON EDUCATION FOR ALL Held within the framework of the annual meeting of the Collective Consultation with NGOs, EFA UNESCO THE CAMPAIGN WAS LAUNCHED! By Celita Eccher January 19th Today, Sunday, in a very sunny and hot Porto Alegre the Campaign for the Right to Learn Throughout Life was launched. ICAE/GEO/REPEM women arrived to the meeting wearing the T-shirts featuring the logo of the campaign, breaking away from the formal dressing code of UNESCO meetings. The red bookmarkers on the tables claimed for the right to have opportunities for educating ourselves in any moment of our lives. Actually, when we arrived in Porto Alegre, we were able to appraise the tangible results of the significance of this kind of education: at the airport, the taxi driver heard the address of our hotel, and it seemed he didn't understand, but told us "don't worry, we'll arrive safely, God willing". And then we told him that "we came for the Forum", and that was the key sentence. He started to speak in a mixture of Spanish and Portuguese, welcomed us very warmly, reassuring us that he was there to help us, commenting very proudly that taxi drivers had been given a course last December aimed at receiving the participants of the forum properly, while learning some rudiments of English. Afterwards, they got certificates and identification cards. Something similar occurred yesterday when I was buying fruits, and the employee who was attending on us asked us in proper Spanish if we came for the Forum, and welcomed us very warmly. These anecdotes and the ones that would surely come tell us of the rightness of insisting once and again on the need to highlight the right to education throughout life, a non-discriminatory education with gender justice. However, at the opening of the UNESCO Consultation, the first thing we saw was a panel with six men and only one woman, who acted as the moderator. The language used by several of the panelists was sexist, therefore making women invisible. It was also said "Another world is possible, may the possible become a reality". In that panel once more, in practice, we saw the still rampant inequity and inequality in gender relations. Launching the campaign by Alejandra Scampini, REPEM At the first morning of the Annual Meeting of the UNESCO Collective Consultation with NGOs on Education for All, Carlos Zarco, Secretary-General of CEAAL, made a call to the participants to join the Campaign for the Right to Learn Throughout Life, organized by GEO/ICAE, REPEM and CEAAL, which was carried out every day at noon in the external stage of the Gigantinho, where the World Education Forum presentations were taking place. The campaign was launched after many hours of rehearsals and preparations. On January 19th, the doors of the Gigantinho opened to embrace hundreds of people that gathered there. A blue and limpid sky and a Senegalese beat accompanied the rhythms and the voices that launched the campaign. There, among the registration stands, the booths that sell books, T-shirts and food, a stage was mounted for holding several events, and ours was the first one. African-Brazilian rhythms, capoeira and dancing accompanied the reading of testimonies that presented the experiences and the feelings of men and women worldwide, telling us how lifelong education impacted positively on their lives. While some of us read the testimonies, others handed out card fans, and bookmarkers/calendars with the logo of the campaign. For us who were on the stage it was very moving to see how people waved their fans and applauded and cheered the testimonies with joy and enthusiasm. We were there every day at 1 pm on the stage of the Gigantinho to share more testimonies and recruit more people for our campaign. QUESTIONS By Fanny Gomez, REPEM Colombia UNESCO Consultation: Dialogue with the civil society. There were approximately 100 persons who attended the meeting representing Asia, Africa, USA, Canada, Arab region and Latin America. Why not invest in a more plural dialogue? The participants were 80% women and 20% men. Is the education of humankind mainly a concern of women? If so, why are illiteracy rates higher among women? To what extent does education favor democratic control? And to what extent does democratic control favor education? OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE WORLD EDUCATION FORUM In a stadium full of people, mostly women, the World Education Forum opened on January 19th, at 8:00 pm, in the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil. The party was charged with energy. The Ballet do Loureiro and the Flute Orchestra Villa Lobos welcomed us, and they won the audience which responded with applauses, singing and dancing. Afterwards a tribute to Pierre Bordieu was made by the authorities, educators and friends. Closing the event, the new Brazilian Minister of Education, Cristovam Buarque, spoke about education and the government of Ignacio "Lula" Da Silva. WORLD EDUCATION FORUM Porto Alegre, January 20, 2003 By Alejandra Domínguez, REPEM Argentina, and Lourdes Angulo, REPEM Mexico The first working day of the World Education Forum began with the conference of Marina Subirats, President of the Comisión City and Culture, City Hall of Barcelona, Spain. She addressed the issue Education and the City. Some questions from the coordinator of the table, Pablo Gentili, were: How can our cities be different? How do educator cities educate? How do fragmented cities, with divided educational systems, educate? Ms. Subirats affirmed that the balance of the educational systems render ambiguities and paradoxes: First paradox: the extent of our knowledge today is larger than in any other age in history, we have more professors, but there is a constant crisis of these very systems and a difficulty to prevent the deterioration of the education on values. Second paradox: on the other hand, while the family has less and less time to pass on the elements of ethic education, the media are educating in a sense that is contrary to the values, education at school is receiving more and more claims and is being assigned an increasing responsibility in relation to ethic education. But school is part of society: it increasingly reproduces inequalities. However, she also suggested that school is not only the reproducer of the unequal city, but we can generate changes and face the increasing dangers of a school that serves social segmentation. But the school alone cannot take care of everything, we have to find other educational agents that contribute with the knowledge which was previously provided by the family and the community. We need to find the ethic impulse somewhere else, and we must find it in the community, in the proximity, in the identities (CASTELS). The city plays a fundamental role in this regard, but we must provide the resources, not only economic, but also cultural spaces in order that permanent programs can be implemented. Some of the examples presented by Marina Subirats that are being carried out in Barcelona are the following: Working in the field of values, while trying to connect education on values, equality among women and men, and inter-cultural relativity. In the curricula of the school there are subjects that favor the learning of domestic work. The objective of this is that boys and girls have the capability of taking care of other people.Educate on the value of preserving nature: teaching to consume only what is necessary and avoid the superfluous things; the school Agenda 21 is already in motion; boys and girls participate in taking care of the water cycle, in the preservation of trees through the recuperation of the school gardens, in the care of plants and flowers. The city can make possible that poor and rich boys and girls take care of the urban space. It is important that the city teaches that the urban space is everyone's heritage. Furthermore, there is a program of public hearings for the participation of schools. In these hearings town councilors, teachers and students discuss proposals and commit themselves to implement it, aiming at fostering the sense of responsibility. Other proposals that are being discussed are the following: the need of revaluing the practical knowledge and not only the intellectual one. the need of establishing the connection between young and adult generations, therefore school must also favor not only the acquisition of high-quality quantitative knowledge but it must also foster assuming responsibilities in relation to others' literacy, to others' care. MOVA (Movement of Young and Adult Literacy) - REFLECTIONS AND CHALLENGES World Education Forum, January 20th, 2003 From the 32 workshops scheduled for today, plus the alternative activities, some of us were able to attend the debates on the MOVA. The workshop was organized by the Paulo Freire Institute, Acao Educativa, and the Education Secretary of the state of Rio Grande do Sul. More than 10 panelists expressed themselves through most diverse and interesting reflections on the collective experience. In the MOVA NGOs and town halls come together to develop an experience on popular education for young and adult people. Liana Borques explained that "MOVA" is a movement and not a campaign; it does not have literacy defined in advance. Maria Clara di Pierro, Acao Educativa, highlighted that in each municipality the MOVA acquires its own characteristics, but always aiming at promoting a movement of participation and autonomy of the persons, while linking the idea of the fundamental human right to being educated throughout life. Thus, with the idea of considering the person in a integral way and fostering the construction of an individual that would be capable of exercising an active citizenship, each one of the experiences was carried out in each municipality. The second meeting of MOVA that took place past July focused on the challenges. Priority items of the agenda were agreed upon, such as promoting diversity, gender equity, and the movement in favor of democratization for all. During the debate and from the questioning on how to incorporate gender perspective in this popular education movement, they recognized the need of getting training as well as identifying clear strategies that would allow the incorporation of women's issues and visions as well as of matters of ethnic and racial discrimination. They recognized the efforts MOVA is making in this regard, but they also point out the deficits that imply to incorporate gender perspective to this public policy in a transversal way. The debate had its crucial moment when other literacy proposals were presented, and the participants debated and analyzed which would be the proposal to be adopted by Cristovam Buarque, Minister of Education, as part of the young and adult education policy to implement throughout Brazil.