UNESCO has five major themes to its programs which include
1) education,2) natural sciences, 3) social and human sciences ,4) culture ,and 5)communication and information.
UNISCO is also actively working to achieve the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals but it is focused on achieving the goals of significantly reducing extreme poverty in developing countries by 2015, developing a program for universal primary education in all countries by 2015, eliminating gender inequalities in primary and secondary education, promoting sustainable development and reducing the loss of environmental resources. The first of these is education and it has set various priorities for education that include , basic education for all with an emphasis on literacy, HIV/AIDS prevention and teacher training in sub-Saharan Africa, promoting quality education worldwide, as well as secondary education, technological education and higher education.
UNESCO deals with several issues related to education and ict.some issues are highlighted such as:
1- Unesco and parteners help teachers bring technology to the classroom
As part of its mandate to build capacity in education worldwide and enable all students to benefit high quality teaching , unesco initiated, in 2006, a project aimed at providing core standards for the integration of information and communnication technology (ICT) into the classroom.
The competency standards for Teachers( CST) were launched on 8 January 2008 after two years of development, at the Moving Young Minds conference, an intrrrernational seminar gathering 100 education ministers from around the world to discuss the role of technology in enhancing education.
Reflecting the growing importance of technology in today's information- based world, the CST initiative was motivated by the need to equip both young people and the education sector with the necessary knowledge and skills to succeed in the 21st century.While more school and universities are becoming equipped with computers, one of the challenges in incorporating ICT into education has been that teachers have not had the right training and knowledge to harness technology for teaching.
Bringing ICT into education is increasingly recognised as important to help students develop the skills necessary to live and work successfully in today world,support teachers to improve the learning experience for students through interactive tools and help them provide a stimulating and richer learning ennvironment.
Working in close consultation with technology leaders Microsoft, Cisco, and Intel as well as the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) and the Virginia polytechnic Institute and State University,UNESCO developed the ICT Competency Standards for Teachers(CST).The standards provide for the first time a clear set of internationally recognized guidelines on what constitutes appropriate ICT skills and professional development for teachers.
2- UN Decade Education for Sustainable Development Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) seeks to integrate the tenets, values and practices of sustainable development into all aspects of education and learning. ESD aims at provding every individual with the opportunity to acquire the values , competencies ,knowledge and skills that enable him or her to contribute to a humane , socially just, economically viable and ecologically sustainable future. Among other things , ESD promotes a sense of both local and global responsibility, encourages future-oriented, anticipatory thinking, builds recognition of global interdependence and emmphasizes cultural changes that embrace the values of sustainable development.Rather than remaining passive in the face of the above-mentioned challenges, ESD seeks to empower societies , communities and individuals everywhere to shape their future actively and responsibly. ESD is relevant not only to formal education settings, training and workplace learning but also to public awareness-raising and non-formal and informal learning of many kinds. Thus, ESD should not be seen narrowly as another subject or concern to be added onto the formal education system or a workplace training programme.Rather, ESD is a teaching and learning process through which understanding of and orientation towards sustainable development become embedded in the core education and learning processes to be found in societies everywhere.
In whatever setting , ESD encourages an interdisciplinary and holistic approach to teaching and learning and promotes critical creative thinking in the educational process. To holistically address the development of ESD initiatives, four main thrusts have been identified: access to quality education, the reorienting of existing education systems to address sustainability concers, public awareness and understanding initiatives, and training programmes to address specific social, environmental and economic sustainability issues.
3 - The UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development IN December 2002, by Resolution 59/237, the UN General Assembly declared the years 2005 - 2014 the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development ( DESD ). Member States thus committed themselves to intensified efforts to integrate the principles, values and practices of sustainable development into education and learning. The UN General Assembly designated UNESCO the lead agency for the global implementation and coordination of the DESD. The DESD should also help to give an enhanced profile to the important role of education and learning in promoting sustainable development. In this context, the IIS proposes four main objectives for the DESD: to facilitatenetworking, linkages, exchange and interaction among stakeholders in ESD; to help countries make progress towards and attain the Millennium Development Goals through ESD efforts; and to provide countries with new opportunities to incorporate ESD into education reform efforts.As global coordinator, UNESCO's role is to catalyze new partnerships; encourage monitoring and evaluation; facilitate the development of a research agenda for ESD; provide a forum for bringing together important stakeholders;share good practices; promote exchange between Member States on ESD; convene working groups on specific ESD topics; and provide strategic guidance. The DESD needs to be seen in conjunction with other international priorities in development and education. The Millennium Development Goals ( MDGS ) provide the relevant framework for international development cooperation; the six Education for All ( EFA ) goals aim at extending the reach of basic education to everyone; and the United Nations Literacy Decade ( UNLD ) focuses on the contribution of youth and adult literacy to building knowledge societies in which all may participate. With its orientation towards the principle of sustainable development, the DESD focuses specifically on the content and purpose of education and learning.