Paris - Turkey is aware of the financial difficulties faced by UNESCO and will continue to help the organisation overcome these difficulties, says Turkish Education Minister Nabi Avci.
Avci met with Director General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Irina Bokova, in French capital Paris on Friday, where he visited to attend the 37th session of the UNESCO General Conference.
Congratulating Bokova for her election to the head office for the second time, Avci stated that he believed the cooperation between the organisation and Turkey would continue in the future.
In the meeting, Turkish minister emphasised that Turkey was among the top 25 countries to give UNESCO the greatest contribution.
Avci said Turkey’s financial contribution to UNESCO’s budget has doubled this year. “We are aware of the financial difficulties faced by UNESCO and will continue to help the organisation overcome these difficulties.”
Avci also expressed his hopes to see more Turkish citizens assume significant roles in UNESCO.
“Turkey is represented less than it should be in terms of the number of personnel to work in UNESCO,” said the Turkish minister, calling the organisation to give the few existing Turkish personnel the opportunity to assume higher roles.
Meanwhile, earlier this week, South Africa’s Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande hosted the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) meeting in Paris, on the margins of the conference.
The meeting was convened by South Africa as the current chair of the BRICS grouping, with Nzimande being supported at the meeting by Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga and senior officials from both departments.
“Issues such as strengthening collaboration between BRICS universities, partnerships and knowledge exchanges on technical vocational education and training, portability and transferability of qualifications between BRICS countries were highlighted as important for the cooperation,” said the department.
The first meeting of the BRICS Ministers of Education sought to underscore the strategic importance of cooperation in education between the BRICS countries, and the need to highlight this at the next BRICS Summit.
“The Ministers underscored the importance of collaboration with UNESCO in order to accelerate progress towards the achievements of the Education for All (EFA) goals, and also shape discussions on the post 2015 agenda.
“It was further agreed that Technical Vocational Education and Training should feature strongly on the post 2015 EFA goals,” the department said. - SAnews.gov.za-Anadolu Agency
