Learning to Be: The World of Education Today and Tomorrow by Edgar Faure Review by: Douglas S.

Ward The Journal of Developing Areas, Vol. 8, No. 1 (Oct., 1973), pp. 104-105 Published by: College of Business, Tennessee State University Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4190097 . Accessed: 20/07/2013 19:11
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Book Reviews

RONALD E. NELSON

LEARNING TO BE: THE WORLD OF EDUCATION TODAY AND TOMORROW. By Edgar Faure et al. Paris: UNESCO, and London: Harrap, 1972. Pp. xxxix + 313, $6.00. This volume is the first report of the UNESCO Commission on the Development of Education, appointed in 1971 and chaired by Edgar Faure, former French prime minister and minister of education. Other members of the commission are Felipe Herrera (Chile), Abdul-Razzak Kaddoura (Syrian Arab Republic), Henri Lopes (People's Republic of the Congo), Arthur Vladimirovitch Petrovski (U.S.S.R.), Majid Rahnema (Iran), and Frederick Champion Ward (United States). The members of the commission appear as authors; in addition, a secretariat of seven staff members of UNESCO, headed by Aser Deleon, and numerous outside consultants contributed to this significant work. Extracts from the 81 documents listed in the appendix are to be published in a second volume of the commission's report. The commission was directed upon its appointment "to assist governments to formulate national strategies for the development of education." The present report includes a section on "the heritage of the past" and current characteristics of schools throughout the world, with the notable exclusion of the People's Republic of China. Characteristics of the kinds of education which the authors believe to be called for by contemporary world realities are competently developed. A concluding section is entitled "Towards a Learning Society." The significant innovations recommended take the form of 21 principles to guide those developed and developing nations willing to undertake major school reforms, which the report holds would require "indispensable remoulding of education [to include] all its elements-theory and practice, structures and methods, management and organization ... from one and the same point of view" (p. 233). Prescriptions for procedures leading to the kinds of goals the report elaborates, for the most part brilliantly, are something of a letdown following the exhaustive array of varied data inputs (from principally non-U.S.

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Book Reviews

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sources) and carefully argued rationales. National educational leaders are urged to have "a broad vision of the future . . . as a defined aim" (p. 169) and to strive for "internal reform and continual improvement of existing educational systems" (p. 177). Their scope should encompass "all countries at all development levels . . . [but with] special consideration to developing countries" (p. 235). An excellent, although short section on international technical assistance recommends that aid to education "can and must be increased." It adds that bilateral aid "should not be discouraged," but be reduced to a level below that of multilateral aid (which would need to be increased fourfold to meet even present levels). The United States is pointed out as an aid laggard; although its GNP represents half the total of the DAC countries, it contributed only 0.55 percent thereof in 1968. (The U.N. recommendation has been that 1 percent of GNP go from developed to developing nations.) The report distinguishes capitalist and socialist nations and refers to commission member A. V. Petrovski's view that "developed countries [but not socialist countries] derived enormous profits during the colonial period from exploiting . . . the developing countries" (p. 257). The conclusion of the report recommends the establishment of an "international programme for education innovations" to serve as the mechanism through which individual nations, acting in some measure of international cooperation, would undertake the proposed revolutionary changes in education. Among its recommendations are lifelong education, dispensed and acquired through a multiplicity of means in a flexible framework; abolition of barriers between different educational disciplines and between formal and nonformal education; preschool and infant nutrition programs; indivridualized education; and active involvement of teachers and students in the planning and management of educational programs. Perhaps its most imaginative proposal is for "equal chance of success" in place of mere equal access to education (p. 72). The volume is obviously the work of numerous authors and incorporates widely diverse views, which produced formidable problems of organization and editing. For the most part this mammoth task has been creditably accomplished, but numerous omissions of sources for facts cited and a few misleading or inaccurate graphics occur throughout the volume. The educational statistics contained in 20 pages of appendixes support the doleful report that illiteracy is increasing in the world, although the adult illiteracy rate of 44 percent in 1950 is projected to decrease to 29 percent in 1980. "Even the most optimistic of assumptions is not going to drop the number of illiterates (adults) below the 650 million mark by the year 2000" (p. 298). The present volume is invaluable for any serious study of development problems. It should be available in public libraries throughout the world, for it presents in one economical source a wealth of responsible opinion and significant data concerning present realities and future needs of education throughout the world. DOUGLAS S. WARD Northwestern University

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