EDUCATION &
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Education has been the key issue for IFUW since its founding in the 1920s. In the 21st century, lifelong learning is the new key focus.

Education empowers women to take full advantage of the positive aspects of globalization. Emphasis must not only be on the quantity but also the quality of education. Training women and girls is a highly profitable investment, as many low-wage countries are able to raise their overall prosperity when they can provide a skilled workforce.

Participants in the World Education Forum in 2000 adopted the Dakar Framework for Action, reaffirming their commitment to achieving Education for All (EFA) by the year 2015. The medium term strategy is organized around two cross-cutting themes: "eradication of extreme poverty" and the "contribution of information communication technologies (ICT) to the development of education, science and culture and the construction of a knowledge society". The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), is the catalyst in bringing all partners in the EFA movement, including IFUW, together in order to reinforce member states' capacities to moblize the necessary resources.

In October 2001, UNESCO adopted the Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity. Its Director General stated that "This is the first time the international community has endowed itself with such a comprehensive standard-setting instrument, elevating cultural diversity to the rank of the 'common heritage of humanity', making its protection an ethical imperative, inseparable from respect for human dignity." The objectives include:

• basic literacy and numeracy for women and children
• closure of the gender gap in primary and secondary education
• programmes for open and distance learning (ODL)
• promoting education as a means to fight HIV/AIDS
• implementation of the benchmarks and targets set by the United Nations for basic education.

Higher education and lifelong learning are part of the global re-structuring process, where information and communication technologies (ICT) are playing an important role.

Open and distant learning packages are increasingly an alternative to the traditional campus education. The ideal of a virtual university is to overcome the constraints of time and place for each individual learner. However, there are some limitations, as access to information and communication technologies is not always available or is too costly, and credit transfers and accreditation are not easy when the learning environment is in a global network and no longer on a university campus.

If education is to empower women, action is needed:

• to encourage and enable women of all ages to continue to update their basic education
• to change the emphasis of education from that of providing information to that of teaching how to access and assess information
• to increase the role of global corporations in the training of employees
• to acknowledge and address the "digital divide", especially since traditional illiteracy remains a reality in many parts of the world.

National federations and associations can:

• advocate, lobby and encourage governments and large corporations in wealthy nations to provide aid for education in poverty stricken regions
• research educational programmes in schools designed to break down racial prejudice and address cultural diversity
• investigate educational opportunities available for marginalised groups seeking higher education, such as refugees and migrant women, indigenous women, or single mothers
• form a network of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to seek government or other funding for the education of adolescent mothers wishing to complete schooling
• participate in the United Nations Girls' Education Initiative (UNGEI)
• encourage girls to study science and engineering
• promote gender sensitive curricula
• offer training in leadership skills
• study whether women are benefiting equitably from learning opportunities in information and communication technologies (ICT) and expanding virtual university programmes in your country/region
• encourage the participation of women in the new learning platforms, both as learners and educators
• monitor educational material on the Internet, including virtual university programmes: look at them with a critical eye and establish web pages for interactive comments and criticism
• make recommendations for quality assessments of virtual university programmes

	International Federation of University Women 10 rue du Lac, CH-1207 Geneva, Switzerland Tel: (41.22) 731 23 80 Fax: (41.22) 738 04 40   E-mail: info@ifuw.org