UNESCO Member States unanimously adopted a new global Framework for Culture and Arts Education. Among the commitments made: to give greater priority to culture and arts education in teacher training, to put more emphasis on local and indigenous cultures and heritage in the classroom, and to better recognize artistic and cultural skills within the professional world. To translate this Framework into action, UNESCO and the United Arab Emirates also announced a new major initiative.
As a UNESCO study highlighted last year, arts education
helps students develop emotional intelligence, creativity and critical
thinking. It improves their well-being and academic results. Artistic education
also promotes openness to others and respect for diversity within society at
large. I thank our Member States for this new global agreement which will make
culture and arts a greater priority in education, while taking into account the
use of digital technology,” said Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO.
The World Conference
on Culture and Arts Education, organized by UNESCO and United Arab Emirates in
Abu Dhabi (13-15 February), brought together nearly 1,000 culture and education
stakeholders – including 90 ministers, 125 representatives of UNESCO Member
States, policy-makers, experts and NGOs, as well as UN agencies, academia and
the private sector.
The new UNESCO Framework stresses the need for lifelong
learning in culture and art within all types of educational settings, and for
placing culture and the arts at the heart of education policies, strategies,
curricula, and programmes. The Framework broadens the understanding of
“culture” to encompass built, natural and living heritage, cultural
expressions, as well as the cultural and creative industries. It also focuses
on the capacities of digital technologies in culture and arts education to help
promote intercultural dialogue and linguistic diversity.
The text adopted also recognizes that learning in, through
and with cultural diversity is vital for overcoming divisions and fostering
mutual understanding. It underlines the need for greater emphasis on local –
and especially indigenous – cultures and heritage. It also calls for
strengthening relationships between educational and cultural institutions. This
means creating more partnerships between schools and cultural institutions and
propertie, including UNESCO’s World Heritage sites, as well as the cultures,
traditions, and festivals inscribed on UNESCO’s List of Intangible heritage of
humanity.
Building on the legacy of the UNESCO Lisbon Road Map (2006),
the Seoul Agenda (2010) and the MONDIACULT Mexico Declaration (2022), this
Framework is the outcome of two years of multistakeholder consultations,
dialogue and negotiations with Member States.
The adoption of this Framework is not an end in itself. Its
recommendations must now be translated into tangible public policy. UNESCO will
support this process, by enabling Member States to share experiences, launch
innovative reforms and share best practices. UNESCO and the United Arab
Emirates announced a first major initiative including grants and international
mobility program for teachers, as well as capacity building for African Member
States through experts’ visits, knowledge sharing and vocational training.
This new initiative will rely on three main pillars. It will
provide grants to those that implement exceptional practices for arts education
in each region. It will engage teachers – in particular those in the more than
12,000 UNESCO Associated Schools. Educators who design and deliver effective
pedagogies for arts education will be allocated international mobility grants.
In addition, the programme will support African States through experts’ visits,
knowledge sharing and Technical and Vocation Education and Training (TVET).
