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The 10th Commemorative
International Forum on Lifelong Integrated Education |
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| << Day 2 << Day 3 |
| DAY 1 November 8, (Mon.) Room II |
Just around 1:30pm on the first day, November 8th, people started to gather
in front of the Room II, the venue for the first plenary session, at the
UNESCO Headquarters. Among old familiar faces, there were many who were
to meet for the first time.
It was notable for this forum that there were many ambassadors from the
permanent delegations to and officers of UNESCO because all the sessions
for the three-day conference were held at the Headquarters. There were
some participants who attended the conference turn and turn, taking time
out from their busy schedules. It brought about a feeling of significant
change of the time as there were great interests and expectations toward
the Nomura Center in contrast to the very early years when the founder
had a difficulty in gaining the understanding of people to holding a forum.
Giving a profound consideration for the beginning that made possible the
"present", we found a great deal of meaning of accumulation of
continuous efforts. |
At 2:00pm, Mrs. Yasuko Ubukata, Director of the Nomura Center, declared
the forum open, and introduced the chairperson, Mr. Noboru Noguchi, Director-General
of the National Federation of UNESCO Associations in Japan and Vice President
of the Bunkyo Gakuin University, who started the opening ceremony. |
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Opening addresses were given by Dr. Qian Tang, Assistant Director-General
for Education of UNESCO, Dr. Barbara Ischinger, Director of the Directorate
for Education of the OECD, and Mr. Isao Kiso, Ambassador Extraordinary
and Plenipotentiary and the Permanent Delegate of Japan to UNESCO. Following
that, Director General Yumiko Kaneko talked to the audience as the organizer.
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 Then, in a video message, Mrs. Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO
gave her address to the Forum.
Following that, in commemoration of the 10th anniversary, the video "History
of International Forums on Lifelong Integrated Education" was played.
It started with our founding director general Mrs. Yoshiko Nomura in the
interview talking about her realization that human being share the common
destiny on earth. This realization came out of her experience during her
first world trip in 1969 when she had the objective view of the earth sent
from the Apollo 11. Then she went on to say that from that point her activities
expanded globally as if the water in a cup overflows. And it traced the
history of the previous nine forums up to this 10th.
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The presentation by Prof. Denis Lawton, the former Director of the Institute
of Education, the University of London, was originally scheduled for the
next program. But he could not attend the forum in the last minutes because
of unavoidable circumstance. Chairperson Mr. Noguchi read his new presentation
titled "Nomura/Lawton Discussions about Lifelong, Integrated Education".
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After a short break, Director General Mrs. Yumiko Kaneko's keynote address
on the theme, "Lifelong Integrated Education as a Creator of the Future
- Human Restoration of the 21st Century" was started at 3:40 p.m.
She started her address by talking about the meaning of having the 10th
Commemorative International Forum and expressed deep appreciation to our
Founder for her embarking for this activity.
Touching upon the 20th century, the time when our Founder lived, and a
historical background that inspired her to initiate Nomura Lifelong Integrated
Education, she talked about the true purpose of education and "what
is a human being" by explaining precisely the essence of human beings
and impediments to developing it.
Then, she talked about the Principles of Nomura Lifelong Integrated Education
and the challenges we were now facing. In order for us to address these
challenges, she said it was indispensable to nurture human beings who will
create our future.
Finally, she closed her keynote with deep and reverent awe and thankfulness for the Founder telling the audience that she herself was one of the youth for whom Mrs. Nomura felt pain in the 1960s. She said she could restore her human dignity through learning and implementing this educational theory of Nomura Lifelong Integrated Education, and referred to the theme by saying this process as the actual proof of a human restoration of the 21st century. Admirable applause from the floor lasted for a while.
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| << Day 1 << Day 3 |
| DAY 2 November 9, (Tue.) / Room IV, VI, VII, VIII & IX |
On the Second day, in addition to the four workshops on "Family",
"Environment", "Peace" and "Education", the
workshop on "Youth" was held as a commemoration of the 10th Forum.
The participants had a serious discussion about each theme throughout the
day from 10:00 a.m.
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| << Day 1 << Day 2 |
| DAY 3 November 10, (Fri.) / Room IV |
On the third day, Sir Peter Newsam, the former Director of the Institute
of Education at the University of London, chaired the plenary and started
the session with five reporters from every workshop at 10:00 a.m.
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 Then, from 11:00, International Symposium as a special program for the 10th commemoration was started.
This session was coordinated by Prof. Akihiro Chiba, Advisor of the Institute
for Educational Research and Service, International Christian University,
and the panelists were Mr. Ian Whitman from the Directorate for Education,
OECD, His Excellency Mr. Hisham Mohamed Mostafa Badr, Chair of Technology
Transfer Committee, The World Trade Organization and Ambassador and Permanent
Representative, Permanent Mission of the Arab Republic of Egypt to the
United Nations in Geneva, Dr. Adama Ouane, Director of the UNESCO Institute
for Lifelong Learning and Mrs. Hideyo Kimura, Director of the Nomura Center.
After listening to the presentations by four panelists, symposium was continued until 3:00 p.m. vigorously exchanging opinions between the panel and the floor.
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Then, it was time for the summary and Sir Peter Newsam invited Mrs. Kaneko on the podium.
She responded respectfully to each and every question raised by the participants.
In her concluding remarks, she shared her wishes for the future and the floor replied her with thunderous applause. The 10th Commemorative International Forum on Lifelong Integrated Education closed with a great success.
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| Forum sketch |
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