Press Interpreter

06/19/05 -- The regional office of the United Nations organization for education, science, and culture (UNESCO) came to agreements in the Egyptian capital with the companies Microsoft, Intel, and Hewlett Packard for the planning and undertaking of training programs for Arab teachers in information technology, so that these programs would be successful according to the standards which UNESCO has established.

In an interview with aljazeera.net, UNESCO’s Regional Communication and Information Advisor, Dr. Tarek Shawki, said that this project will provide the groundwork, owing to the decrease of the budgets before UNESCO for training teachers in information technology, pointing out that regarding the one which was formerly followed, the expenses of these budgets were limited to roughly 30 teachers, predominantly from Arab states.

The agreements concluded that UNESCO should establish a practical training curriculum for teachers, and that it will be content with the restrictions of the standards which the different companies produced. The companies Microsoft, Intel, and Hewlett Packard have already began in earnest to design and prepare these programs.

A Pressing Need

Dr. Shawki indicated that these companies - whatever their specializations may be - have perceived a pressing need for teacher training programs, and thereupon set out to anticipate employment for this broad category.

Dr. Shawki - who worked as a professor of applied and pure mathematics at two Illinois universities (in the United States) and the Suez Canal (in Egypt) - added that the source of UNESCO’s strength is its neutral stance, as regards politics and economics, and therefore international companies are desirous to conform to the standards fixed by UNESCO, because the international organization enjoys favor for its high credibility among the nations of the world.

UNESCO’s regional advisor affirmed that the philosophy behind the international organization was concerned with taking advantage of the desire of the companies to improve their image and their credibility - like Microsoft, for example, which is facing several allegations of monopolization - and approached the international organization with a useful program for its member states.

He mentioned that UNESCO will take part in a convention in Morocco on the following 12th of July / Tammuz concerning the issue of the training of teachers in information technology. One entire day will be dedicated to the training in the “Mathematica� program, which the American company Wolfram Research developed.

The regional office of UNESCO made an agreement in January / Kanun al-Thani of 2004 with the prolific company for the “Mathematica� program to instruct math, according to which they will allow each Arab state to acquire it in accordance with the individual national income.

[Full Article]

--by Walid al-Shubaki, Aljazeera

--Translated by C.G. Häberl

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http://www.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/41D6F705-D7BC-4760-8DDA-BE47960354D4.htm