Thank you for the opportunity to address the Annual Ministerial Review on the theme of implementing agreed-upon goals in regard to education.
We applaud the countries that have made significant progress in increasing enrollment and committing more resources to the education of their people. Such progress reflects the large body of evidence showing the positive effects of improving the state of education.
Despite this progress, it has been difficult to achieve a cultural shift towards prioritizing education; particularly education for girls and women, and changing discriminatory attitudes and structures that underlie the absence of girls in schools. It is now increasingly acknowledged that any effort to effect change for girls, if it is to last, must also consider the roles and attitudes of men and boys.
In thousands of neighborhoods around the world, the experience of the Baha'i community in the area of education is revealing a number of concepts salient to refining the quality, and learning outcomes, of educational processes. Our statement will touch on five such concepts.
First: Enduring change depends upon coherent efforts to transform both the individual and society. Social change is neither the result of ‘upgrading the individual’ (through secular or religious education), nor is it the result of an exclusive focus on reforming social and political structures. The challenge of increasing and maintaining children’s attendance in school, particularly that of girls, requires a systematic approach to transforming the attitudes, values and behaviors of individuals, their families and communities. Also necessary is a parallel change in institutional norms in ways that promote meaningful educational outcomes. Those who arise to undertake the education and training of young minds must come to be seen, and to see themselves, as rendering a most valuable service to their community and to society as a whole. Their task, after all, is no less than to regard each student as one full of potential and talent of great value, and must be able to help each to discover this potential and to develop it.
Second: The means of social change must be consistent with the ends. It is not enough to focus on enrolling girls and boys in school and keeping them there. Communities and nations must also generate a vision of the kind of society they wish to live in and then consider the kind of individuals that will bring this about. If we envision societies in which men and women of diverse ethnic backgrounds, classes and creeds can live side-by-side and enjoy mutual prosperity, then we must consider what kinds of educational processes can support that vision. This may involve, for example, education that fosters processes and behaviors characterized by rectitude of conduct, trustworthiness, and freedom from prejudice. It would also require creating relationships of reciprocity and genuine affection between the teachers, parents, students and the wider community. In this way, a rich web of support would be created for the children, parents, teachers, administrators and others involved in educational processes.
Third: The educational process should address both the material and the spiritual dimensions of individual development. The human being is not only an economic and social being, but one with a spiritual dimension, concerned with questions about the meaning and purpose of one’s life. Education, in its fullest sense, must provide the space and the environment to explore these fundamental questions, in a manner appropriate to one’s stage of development. Such an approach acknowledges the inherent nobility of the child or youth. Rather than seeing her or him as an empty vessel waiting to be filled, teachers can foster interactions and experiences that help each one to discover and to develop their technical, artistic, social, moral and spiritual capabilities.
Fourth: Service to society should be considered an essential component of education. Service to society helps individuals acquire skills and attitudes that enhance their potential to contribute to the betterment of society. This orientation towards service fosters coherence between learning and action -or, simply put, between ‘being’ and ‘doing.’
Fifth: Think in terms of process, not projects. The framework for the Baha'i community’s efforts in this area has been guided by an attitude of continuous ‘learning’. This orientation is characterized by cycles of action, reflection on action taken, and collective deliberation to refine action and determine next steps. The impetus for progress often comes from schools themselves, reflecting on their methods and practicing effective deliberation. The insights from this process help to determine the way forward, rather than looking to prescriptions for any one approach to education. In this way, schools are oriented towards helping each other to advance rather than trying to out-compete one another. Hence the objective is not simply to establish a set number of schools or the imposition of a particular model of education. Rather it sets into motion a process that builds the capacity of the community, its parents, teachers, administrators, community leaders and children, to create an environment in which meaningful and sustained education can take place.
To summarize, the experience of the worldwide Baha'i community in the area of education has yielded several concepts which are helping the community to refine the quality of its educational processes. These include: (1) the recognition that enduring change depends upon coherent efforts to transform both the individual and society; (2) that the means of social change must be consistent with its ends; (3) that education needs to address the material, social, and spiritual dimensions of human development; (4) that service to the greater good needs to be an integral component of education; and (5) that it is important to think in terms of process—particularly one informed by an orientation towards continuous learning by institutions and individuals.
Thank you.
