DR. SIMON Clarke, has been elected chairman of the Administrative Commission of the Internation Bureau of Education (IBE) at the recently concluded 51st session of its Governing Council held in Geneva.
Dr. Clarke, who for the past two years served the Governing Council as vice-president for the Latin American and Caribbean region and member of the Steering Committee, is a former UNESCO Director and Education Adviser for the Caribbean.
Currently he is also chairman of both the Jamaica Library Service and the Broadcasting Commission of Jamaica.
Founded in 1925, IBE is the first inter-governmental organisation in the field of education. It is an international centre for the development of the content of education.
A council comprising representatives of 28 member states elected by the General Conference of UNESCO, governs the IBE. The council meets in ordinary session at least once every year.
In the early years, a committee of patrons was formed comprising such persons as Albert Einstein who was then a member of the International Commission for Intellectual Co-operation, and Albert Thomas, director of the International Labour Office (ILO).
In 1929, Jean Piaget, professor of psychology at the University of Geneva, was appointed director, a position he held for nearly forty years. It was while he was director of the IBE that he wrote most of his works on child psychology.
The IBE became an integral part of UNESCO in 1969, but retained its intellectual autonomy.
THE ORGANISATION'S FOCUS
Over the last few years, the activities of the organisation have been concentrated on the adaptation of educational content, structures and methods to the challenges of the 21st century, focusing on strengthening capacity building in the area of the management of curriculum change.
An area of special focus is "Education for All for Learning to Live Together".
The IBE promotes dialogue on educational policy, facilitates regional and national workshops in curriculum development and also hosts the International Conference on Education every two years.
