Aluta Continua: Cuban Updates... issue #3

World education conference set for Cuba
Observer ReporterWednesday, October 13, 2004

The World Council of Comparative Education Societies will meet in Havana, Cuba from October 25 to 29 for its 12th conference on education.

Held every three years, the current talks will look at the 'vexed' issues of access, equity and cultural justice, the primary focus of the congress, according to Dr Anne Hickling-Hudson, a Jamaican educator and president of the World Council, a non-governmental organisation founded in 1970.

"The discussions will be centred around 14 themes regarding education worldwide," said Hickling-Hudson, among them the emerging area of peace and conflict studies.The theme of the five-day conference is 'Education and Social Justice'.

The educators will enter the talks sensitive to the fact that the links between different education systems worldwide are growing, and require comparative assessment.

Hickling-Hudson, herself a senior lecturer at the Queensland University of Technology in Australia, said: "As countries' seek to understand the challenges, frameworks and issues that link education systems worldwide, a comparative method will assist them to work out solutions that suit their countries needs and aspirations."

Educators, she adds, can only benefit from a global analysis of the systems in which they work.
The conference speakers will include professors Martin Carnoy and Robert Arnove of the United States; Rosemary Preston, Michael Crossley and Madeleine Arnot from the United Kingdom; Crain Soudien of South Africa; Mark Bray of Hong Kong; and Hyacinth Evans of the University of the West Indies.

More than a thousand educators, policy makers and representatives of development agencies and NGOs have registered to attend the congress.

oringinal link: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/html/20041013T000000-0500_67589_OBS_WORLD_EDUCATION_CONFERENCE_SET_FOR_CUBA.asp