Tuesday, April 12, 2022 — OECS Director General Dr. Didacus Jules presented at the plenary session of the 214th Session of the UNESCO Executive Board in Paris, France on April 5th 2022.
Dr. Jules’ attendance was in his capacity as the representative for Saint Lucia on the UNESCO Executive Board, having been recently elected to the post. In his remarks to the Executive Board, Dr. Jules highlighted Saint Lucia’s support for the UNESCO Director General, in her efforts to further strengthen UNESCO’s leadership in the coordination and monitoring of SDG 4 – Education 2030. According to Dr. Jules,
‘’We hope that the “Global Education Cooperation” mechanism will succeed in fostering greater alignment and more efficiency. This requires a continuous inclusive consultative process allowing ownership of outcomes by all member states.’’
Dr. Jules further articulated support for the Transforming Education Summit convened and led by the UN Secretary-General, describing it as a political summit that should create a new momentum after the devastating global generational catastrophe on Education unleashed by the pandemic.
He continued,
‘’UNESCO’s standard setting function in Education can hardly have the expected impact if it is not followed by implementation on the ground. The “Futures of Education” report and more particularly the ISEE report are tools that UNESCO must translate into concrete actions to reform and inform the education systems in the light of the AI revolution and the exponential change it ignites.
Science is at the core of the Sustainable Development Goals and the resolution of the world’s complex and interconnected challenges. We need sustainable scientific solutions to address the multiple challenges related to water, energy, oceans, sustainability, land and climate and education, health and other disciplines.
The pandemic showed us the Importance of open science and we are looking forward to the implementation of the Recommendation on Open Science. Sharing scientific data is crucial in the fight against our many existential challenges.’’
