Regional Workshop on Equivalency Programme for Achieving EFA Goals and Promoting Lifelong Learning, 13-17th July 2009, Semarang, Indonesia

Learning is undertaken in a variety of settings as informal, non-formal and formal. It is particularly important to recognize learning outcomes and establish equivalencies between what is learned through formal and non-formal education.

Equivalency Programmes (EP) are alternative education programmes equivalent to the formal system not only in terms of curriculum and certification, but also with regards to policy support mechanism, mode of delivery, staff training, and support activities such as monitoring, evaluation and assessment of learning.

Though the importance of developing a comprehensive learning system has been discussed over the years for achieving the EFA goals and promoting lifelong learning, still many countries lack a systematic programme to coordinate these two delivery mechanisms of basic and continuing education.

In line with the above request and deficiency of the EP good practices, in 2003 the UNESCO Regional Bureau for Education, Bangkok, initiated a project on EP within the framework of the Asia Pacific Programme of Education for All (APPEAL).  UNESCO supported India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, the countries which have considerable experiences designing and implementing EPs to undertake research studies for identifying different EPs. In April, 2009 these models were shared with six other new participating countries Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Mongolia during a regional workshop held in Manila, Philippines.

The outputs of the EP project indicate that many countries need to improve the current EPs to be more flexible and contextualized and to enhance the quality of learning programmes. Furthermore, in accordance with the request of several countries in the region and outside the region, the regional guide on EP is being developed for the purpose of assisting the countries on developing and advancing the EPs in a systematic way along with good cases. 

The regional workshop on Equivalency Programme for Achieving EFA Goals and Promoting Lifelong Learning will be organized in Semarang, Indonesia from 13 to 17 July 2009 in order to share the experiences from countries in the region, identify ways in which the EPs can be further improved and learn good practices and cases from the participating countries. 

The workshop will be attended by about 30 people representing 12 countries namely Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Mongolia, Nepal, Philippines, Papua New Guinea (PNG), Thailand and Vietnam as well as representatives from Arab region and UNICEF Dhaka are invited to join the workshop.