In addition, there exist a number of international schools., which provide an excellent testing-ground. The directors of these schools have several times been convened by Unesco. In 1950, Unesco is to assist them in organizing, at the Geneva International School, a summer course, at which a, number of teachers front various countries will be able to learn practical methods of teaching about international problems. In 1951 they will meet again to discuss the results of this first experiment.
The programme resolutions for 1951 are given below :
1.3 EDUCATION FOR INTERNATIONAL UNDERSTANDING.
1.31 CURRICULA AND METHODS. The Director-General is authorized :
1.311 To complete the comparative study of curricula in History, Geography and Social studies and before their publication, to submit the conclusions of this study to the educational authorities and to the national and international associations of teachers;
1.312 To hold the international seminar prepared in 1950 on the, teaching of History in Primary and Secondary Schools;
1.313 To prepare a seminar to. be held in 1952 on the leaching of living languages and its contribution to the promotion of international understanding.
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1.314 To take steps, in co-operation with the United Nations and Specialized Agencies, to secure the participation of all Member States in educational programmes designed to promote the healthy mental and social development of pre-school and early school age children, in order to lay a basis for international co-operation.
1.3141 And, to this end, to explore ways in which a long-range programme might be undertaken by Unesco including the feasibility and usefulness of a world conference to be preceded by two or three years research and study in Member States.
(B) Textbooks and Teaching Material.
In accordance with the programme adopted by the General Conference at its first section., Unesco submitted to its Member States in 1949 a specimen plan for the critical consideration of textbooks and teaching material with a view to improving their effectiveness as instruments of international understanding. It is intended to apply this plan to teaching material for the various subjects in turn ; Unesco and its Member States, will take three years for each series of studies, the first for preliminary research the second for the actual critical studies, and the third for implementation of the conclusions arising out of this examination and for a comparative study of the results obtained in the various countries. Unesco intends to open one of these cycles each year.
The year 1951 will be taken up with the last phase of a series of studies on History textbooks, which have been carried out simultaneously in several countries since 1949. As a result of these studies efforts have been made in several countries to prepare model textbooks. In 1951, Unesco will take step to stimulate similar experiments in other countries.
Further headway will be made with the enquiries and studies on Geography textbooks Initiated in 1949. A Committee of Experts will be requested to consider the results of this work together with the contribution made by the 1950 seminar on the teaching of Geography. The information and advice thus Collected will be used for the publication of a guide for the use of authors and publishers of Geography textbooks.
The same year will mark the last stage in a campaign for the improvement of textbooks and material used in the teaching of foreign languages. The work- carried out in Member States as a result of this campaign will facilitate preparations for the seminar to be held on this subject in 1952.
Furthermore, Unesco will in 1951, open a new series of studies on the improvement of auditory and visual aids to teaching and will prepare for a campaign of concerted activities in this field for 1952.
The programme resolution for 1951 are given below
1.32 SCHOOL TEXTBOOKS AND TEACHING MATERIALS. The Director-General is authorized
1.321 To encourage, through suitable -studies and enquiries, the improvement of textbooks and various aids used in the teaching of living languages, and to cause a general report to be drawn up on the results of those enquiries;
1.322 To disseminate the results of the enquiries carried Out in 1950 on the improvement of Geography textbooks.
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1.323 To continue, by extending them to other countries, the experiments carried out since 1949 as regards the preparation of sample History books.
1.324 Member States are invited to initiate or pursue the examination of there textbooks, with particular reference to the work of the 1950 Seminars on the improvement of textbooks, particularly of History textbooks, and on the teaching of Geography to promote international understanding.
(C) Higher education.
Through the training of teachers, education for international understanding in Primary and Secondary schools is closely bound up with higher education. Unesco is therefore, making every effort to extend this education to higher learning in general, and hence to encourage universities to take similar steps in this field the part that may be played by higher education in development of international understanding was Well brought out by the Conference of Representatives of Universities held at Utrecht in 1948 Special. emphasis attaches to the teaching of international relations.
This is a matter not merely of combining the courses already provided by Universities oil international relations (International Law, History, Geography, etc), but of coordinating the legal, economic historical and geographical, Sociological and psychological points of view, in order to make a direct and separate study of the problem of international relations.
Unesco, in 1951, will be specially concerned to prepare a list of Chairs specializing in the study of international relations and to make a comparative analysis of the teaching given. This study in which there will be joint participation by the Department of Social sciences, will be published and distributed so as to build up among national and international university associations a body of opinion favourable to the progress of specific teaching about international relations. This teaching is in turn, bound to have reprecussions on the traning of secondary and even primary school teachers.
The programme resolutions are given below :
1.33 HIGHER EDUCATION. The Director-General is authorized :
1.331 To draw up a list of the University professorships dealing with internationsl relations and to prepare a comparative analysis of the teaching given.
1.34 EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH The Director-General is authorized :
1.341 To draw, up a methodical record of the experiments carried out on the scope and results of various techniques in education for international understanding. so as to ensure liaison between the originators of those experiments
1.342 To entrust qualified institutes of higher education with the study of certain psychological, sociological and educational questions affecting education for international understanding.
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(D) Teaching about the United Nations and the Specialized Agencies.
Unesco b especially concerned with this aspect of the teaching of world-mindedness to children. who should gradually, become familiar not merely with the institutions governing the life of their country, but also with the machinery of international life. A series of Suggestions for Teachers' has been published by Unesco. A seminar was also held in this connection. In 1951 Unesco will appeal specially to teachers's training colleges in underdeveloped areas and will publish a Handbook on the Machinary of International Collaboration, prepared for the guidance of one of these areas. Unesco will also allocate Fellowships to a number of teachers to enable them to make a first-hand study, at Lake Success or and in Paris, of the working and activities of the United Nations and Unesco.
The programme resolutions for 1951 are given below
1.35 Teaching about the United Nations and the Specialized Agencies Member States are invited
1.351 To take all necessary steps, or to- continue whatever they may have undertaken in order to make children and adults familiar with the principles contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and with the United Nations system.
1.352 To check by experiments the various methods of teaching suggested for this purpose.
The, Director-General is authorized :
1.353 To encourage the- inclusion of teaching about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in school syllabuses, as soon as the, age of children allows it, and the working out of teaching methods adapted to different age-groups;
1.354 To contribute, on the basis of the same principles, to the development of teaching about the United Nations and the Specialized Agencies;
1.355 To associate the World Federation of United, Nations Associations with Unesco's programme of teaching about the United Nations system by giving to it financial assistance for the organization of courses and seminars on methods of teaching about the system of the United Nations in schools.
ANNEXURE
Summary of the Memorandum Unesco's task in the field of education is to cooperate with Member States in their efforts to ensure that, educational system are adequate to meet the requirements both of the individual and of the society. In addition to assisting Member States to. improve existing facilities Unesco takes the initiative in adding countries to extend their educational, system to meet the needs of specific groups which have not hitherto enjoyed adequate opportunities. The programme of Unesco emphasises the need for a new approach,
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of harmony between man and man, to education rather than better educational methods. The following are the concrete steps which the Organisation desires. to take to achieve the objects enumerated above:-
(a) Unesco shall assist the improvement of education by promoting exchange (if information and to this end it will finance international organizations such as International Bureau of Education engaged in collection of information about education; collect, analyse and assist in the preparation and exchange of modern educational material.
(b) Unesco shall place the technical resources of the Organization at the service of the Member States with a view to encouraging and assisting them to establish or develop fundamental education, adult education and the education of maladjusted children ; and to this end it will arrange for the services. of technical experts,encourage the setting up of training and production centres for fundamental education, and stimulate the formation of national associations for the development and improvement of fundamental education. Member States are expected to co-operate in this programme and to undertake research in fundamental education.
(c) Unesco shall help Member States to solve the individual and collective problems raised by maladjusted children and to this end it will encourage the development of psychological, educational and social assistance and encourage, especially, the establishment of observation and reeducation centres and of special schools or experimental classes.
(d) Unesco shall assist Member States to develop education designed to promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups. For this purpose it will encourage the study of the United Nations and the Declaration of Human Rights as well as the improvement of text books and teaching materials from the point of view of international understanding Member States are required to initiate examination of their text books, particularly Their History and Geography text-books and to include teaching about the United Nations in their school syllabus.