UNESCO Program for Chemistry Teaching The Thursday morning plenary session was a panel discussion of the UNESCO Program for Chemistry Teaching. Following is alist of the panelists and some paragraphs taken from John Kingston's introduction.
Panelists Chair: John Kingston Division of Scientific Research and Higher Education UNESCO, Paris
Messan Adjangba
Afzal Ahmad
Department of Chemistry University of Benin Lome, Togo
Depaltment of Chemistry Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad. Pakistan
Daniele Cros
Chang-Hwan Kim
Universite des Sciences et Techniques du Languedoc Monlpellier. France
Department of Chemistry Yonsei University Seoul, Korea
Musa Nazer
Javier Padilla
Depaltment of Chemistry University of Jordan Amman, Jordan
Facultad de Ouimica Universidad Nacianal Autonoma MCxica, Mexico
Krishna Sane Depanment of Chemistry University of Delhi Delhi. India
Selected Paragraphs from Kingston's Introduction For many of you UNESCO is an organization that produces nice books about science, education, and culture. My colleague, Dr. Samady, at an informal gathering, reminded us that UNESCO is an intergovernmental organization. That navine means that we have 153 sovereien countries who are . , .. m r m h r s . Thry iieaide what m ~ pr~~drams r u.111Ire. The wmk furce or 11NKSC'O is concerned nirh rive nlaior in " urueram; . education, the natural sciences, the social sciences, culture,
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Journal of Chemical Education
and communication. The Secretariat, as we workers are called, is multinational. I t consists of scientists, educators, and social scientists. ueoule from all sorts of different backgrounds, speaking ail sorts of different languages, and ~ o n t ~ o l l eof d, course, by a fine body of bureaucrats. Chemistry in UNESCO has grown up with the organization. Initially, it was a vital part of the science education program. More recently, in its present form, it is twins. One twin is in the education sector and deals mainly with the area of preuniversity chemistry teaching as well as teacher training. It is administered by my colleague Henri Teterin. The other twin, is in the natural sciences sector, and I am the program specialist responsible for higher education. The nroeram of chemical sciences is the vouneest uroeram in our s'cience sector. It began in 1976 and it 6as e&enG& two parts. One deals with research and training and the other with university level and post-university level chemical education. This latter uroeram in chemical education has benefited con~iderahl~from our joint program with the United Nations' Development Program UNDP. I t is the organization for the United Nations, which has the funds. We merely execute their programs. Research and training has heen the central theme, and like all other UNESCO programs, i t concentrates on the development of endogenous capabilities. Endogenous means coming from within the skin. The idea is that we must help local people develop local programs locally. I t alsomeans that although we are responsible to all 153 member states, we are aware of the glaring differences between the industrialized north and the developing Third World countries of the south. So there is a tendencv t o concentrate on the urohlems of the IWI I, , ~ t a 16:Third \\'urld. \Ye run program; at a ~iarioni~i ti~~~~ eional level, and ro 3 \.(.r\.lirnitcd extent. ~nc o l l , i l s ~ r ~xilh ynternational professiokd communities, a t a global level.
