 INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

Indian National Commission for Cooperation with UNESCO (INC) with its Secretariat in the Department of Education has been contributing significantly to UNESCO's work particularly in the formulation and execution of its programmes. Indian National commission also continued to provide effective intellectual inputs in UNESCO's regional programmes.

The Department of Education hosted the Education For All Summit of Nine High Population Countries in New Delhi in December 1993 in which the beads of three U.N. Agencies UNESCO, UNICEF & UNFPA also participated as co-sponsors. As a follow up of the EFA Summit, following steps were taken during the year.

a) A meeting on Education for All of Nine High Population Countries was held in Copenhagen in March 1995 on the occasion of the World Summit for Social Development. Prime Minister chaired the meeting being the host of the first ever EFA-9 Summit meeting held in New Delhi in December,1993.

The meeting adopted a joint communique reiterating the commitment of the nine participating countries to Basic Education as expressed in the World Declaration on Education for All at Jomtien and reaffirmed in Delhi Declaration adopted in December, 1993.

The Heads of the four U.N. Agencies UNDP, UNESCO, UNICEF and UNFPA also pledged to intensify their cooperation with EFA-9 countries in pursuit of the global goal of Education for All.

Minister for Human Resource Development and Education Secretary were members of the delegation led by the Prime Minister.

b) A Ministerial meeting of the Nine High Population countries on Education for All was held in Indonesia from 12th to 16th September, 1995 as a follow-up of the Education for All summit held in New Delhi in December 1993 and of the informal -meeting organised by the Prime Minister with EFA-9 Heads of States during the World Social Summit at Copenhagen. The meeting at Bali facilitated the exchange of experiences and activities in the areas of expanding access and improving quality of Education for All, particularly in the non-formal education, basic primary & adult education. Country papers giving status reports of EFA-9 countries were also presented. The Indian documents as well as Indian efforts in EFA came

in for appreciation. In addition, Action Plan of UN organisations UNESCO, UNICEF, UNFPA and UNDP were also circulated.

Measures were taken to strengthen external academic relations by close monitoring of the implementation of the education component of more than 80 bilateral Cultural Exchange Programmes and other collaborative arrangements. Minister level delegations from People's Republic of China and Israel visited India.