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WHAT IS THE VISION OF EDUCATION AID ?
The first years of the 2000's represent a critical, challenging and defining
moment for humanity. On the one hand enormous problems and difficulties
still remain on the global agenda: war, violence, disease, ignorance,
unemployment, poverty, civil and political conflict, crime, world hunger,
the degradation of nature and the environment, drug abuse, despair, militant
nationalism and racialism, inner city problems, violence and sexual abuse
against women and children, religious conflicts..... In the aftermath
of the tragic events of September 11th 2001, and the continuing conflict
in the Middle East the global situation remains poised on a knife-edge.
At the same time we all know that there are answers to these problems.
Details apart, all who think long and clearly can see that education holds
the key to the future: education, in all its variety, complexity and depth:
- formal and informal - scientific, ethical and spiritual - from primary
school and kindergarten, through secondary and up to higher education
and the work of Universities and beyond.
The problem is that education is itself in crisis. Funding resources for
education, on a global and national level, are never given the priority
they deserve. Too few resources are stretched to do more and more. Schooling
suffers in quality as resources diminish. Teachers' time is taken up more
and more with administrative detail, such that the subtle art of teaching
and inspiring minds to wonder and to question for themselves becomes a
luxury few experience. Authorities argue about the role of religion in
education. University education remains the privilege of the few, and
one which becomes increasingly expensive to obtain. At the same time large
proportions of the world's population struggle with illiteracy and the
daily tasks of basic survival.
WHAT CAN EDUCATION AID DO TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE ?
This major new initiative is designed to help all of us generate both
practical funding resources and new inspiration for educational work nationwide,
and globally. All can play a part in this project, enjoy themselves, learn
together in the process, and also help provide the financial basis for
the massive educational development of our human intellectual and social
wealth which the world situation so desperately needs. E.A. is designed
from inception as a global initiative, drawing on the best educational
traditions of each continental region: Europe, North & Latin America,
Australasia, Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, Russia, South and
East Asia...
First developed as a result of a feasibility study conducted at the Institute
of Education, University of London, Education Aid is developing a simultaneous
annual fundraising networking initiative among the world's formal (and
informal) educational structures. Modelled on existing fundraising initiatives
in other sectors (e.g. Live Aid, Band Aid, Comic Relief, Children in Need)
we feel it is time that the world's educational sector utilised its tremendous
resources by organising imaginative events in educational institutions
world-wide: schools, colleges, universities, academies, research institutes
etc. as both fundraising events, and as important educational happenings
in their own right.
All these events will be open to and supported and sponsored by the general
public and by companies, businesses and charities, involving attractive
and interesting conferences, lectures, seminars, exhibitions, etc. on
the contributions which education can make to the re-building of a troubled
world too long suffering from the ravages of war, poverty, famine, illiteracy
and fear.
All funds raised from Education Aid events will be donated solely towards
educational work in the places where this is most needed e.g. schools,
universities and communities which cannot afford teachers or basic textbooks
etc.. A certain agreed percentage of funds raised locally by participating
institutions would be retained by the fundraising Institution concerned
for immediate educational use. The balance will go to the overall charity
pool of funds (retained in each country of origin) to be spent on worthwhile
educational events throughout the country concerned, with a percentage
also going abroad (varying according to the countries GDP). Criteria for
awarding such funds are being developed by the Trust, in consultation
with a board of Advisors and senior educationalists.
EDUCATION AID IS A CHALLENGE FOR THE COLLECTIVE MANIFESTATION OF GOOD
WILL
What sort of events could be included ? Concerts, exhibitions, theatrical
and artistic performances in general, scientific lectures and demonstrations
- in schools, libraries, museums, village halls, training centres, hospitals,
company offices, religious centres, churches, mosques, gurdwaras, temples,
ashrams, synagogues - wherever people come together for learning ! Television,
internet, radio, newspapers: such media will also be involved in sharing
and disseminating the most significant of such events to a mass audience.
For the educational superstars there could be, e.g. simultaneous live
satellite debates on matters of critical educational and spiritual significance.
The challenge facing Education Aid is exciting and awesome: no less than
organising the world's enormous reserves of creativity, intellect and
educational wisdom for the collective good of the global community.
OBJECTS AND AIMS OF EDUCATION AID
1. To support and advance the work of educators and educational institutions
worldwide through an international cooperative fundraising initiative
2. To promote innovative and visionary educational initiatives worldwide
3. To work alongside official governmental and intergovernmental educational
authorities, to stimulate and encourage parents, children, students and
staff to mobilise their energies and enthusiasm for concerted educational
fundraising events on an annual simultaneous basis
4. To raise the long term credibility and profile and morale of educators
and students worldwide
5. To support and encourage the development of ethically engaged and socially
responsible complementary pedagogies alongside the more conventional academic
curriculums
6. To encourage and support both the state sector in education and also
the independent sector, without seeking to provide substitutes to statutory
governmental funding regimes
7. To fund creative initiatives in education, including the establishment
of new schools, colleges, departments and educational projects, which
fulfill the criteria of selection of the Trust
8. To fund innovative research and development projects in education which
have a direct effect on advancing the quality of life of people worldwide,
including the following fields:
1. Peace, conflict resolution, nonviolence and mediation studies
2. Environmental education and ecology
3. Human rights education
4. Gender studies and peacemaking between the sexes, women's rights, love
and altruism research
5. Interfaith and religious education
6. Development studies, economics, politics and international law and
international relations
7. Multiracial and multicultural education
8. Scientific, medical and technological research and development for
a sustainable future
9. Global historiography & philosophy
10. Social sciences, the humanities, the arts etc.
11. To support the establishment of national and international centres
of educational excellence concerned with the study and promotion of peace
education at all levels of the curriculum
HOW DO I GET INVOLVED IN EDUCATION AID ?
As an Educational Aid Networker, you will be based at or allocated to,
a particular School or Institute or centre, and charged with organising
a local Events Committee. Write to us and ask us for further information,
enclosing a stamped addressed envelope and information about your own
educational work, or send us an email.
WHO IS BEHIND EDUCATION AID ?
A core committee of committed educationalists and internationalists associated
with the work of the International Institute of Peace Studies and Global
Philosophy has been formed to advance the work of Education Aid. Further
nominees and volunteers are welcome. Education Aid is designed as a cooperative
effort involving the concerted good will of many actors and individuals
concerned to make a difference to planetary problems through the power
of education and learning.
FOR FURTHER DETAILS PLEASE CONTACT:
Dr. Thomas C. Daffern, IIPSGP, European Peace Mueum / Museum of the Muses, 13 Grande Rue, Betete, 23270, Limousin, La Nouvelle Aquitaine, France
Telephone:+33 05 87565489- Mobile: +44 07500 238523. Email: iipsgp@educationaid.net
website: www.educationaid.net
Email: iipsgp@educationaid.net.
Website: www.educationaid.net
Other contacts are in formation in: The Americas, Australasia, Africa,
The Middle East, South Asia, East Asia, Europe, Pacifica.