A Study of Ways to Improve Participation in the Basic Education Sector in International Development Cooperation

Abstract

In 2015, a new direction will be set for the targets and agenda of Post-2015 Education of UNESCO at the World Education Forum in Incheon. At this point, as a signatory country of OECD/DAC from 2009, Korea needs to review its cooperative development of basic education and explore new strategies to improve its participation in this area. The purpose of this study is to review related statistics, documents and research published from national and international development cooperation organizations such as KOICA and UNESCO, and to suggest Korea’s future participation strategies for the post-2015 era of cooperative education development The suggested strategies are as follows: First, for the sake of philosophy or perspective for cooperative development of basic education, we should take into account the protection of human rights as well as human resource development. Second, the concept and scope of basic education should be extended to middle school education and informal education reflecting the goals of UNESCO"s Post-2015 Education agenda. Third, the needs of partnering countries should be assessed systematically by experts from both fields of basic education and development cooperation. Fourth, our main target of this area should move to quality improvement from improving access to education through cooperation in the field of teacher education, curriculum development and ICT using instruction. Finally, for the sake of effectiveness, systems for stable funding and participation of experts in education should be implemented through private-public cooperation including universities.