Unesco Sweden

The work of the Swedish National Commission for UNESCO within the field of Education

School networks

Sweden is a member to UNESCO’s Associated Schools Project Network, ASP, and a limited number of Swedish schools participate and have exchange programs with schools in many countries and participate in UNESCO activities.

‘Young Peoples’ Participation in World Heritage Education’ was initiated in 1994. The aim of the project is to increase local knowledge about world heritage, about the World Heritage List and about the Convention on the protection of the World’s Cultural and Natural Heritage and the World Heritage sites world wide, preservation, the threats against heritage etc.

Sweden participates in this project through the project ‘World Heritage for and by Swedish students’. Schools in the vicinity of the Swedish World Heritage sites work together in local working groups with site managers, the municipalities, the local museum etc. The schools co-operate with each other in a network and exchange information.

In the naval city of Karlskrona – a World Heritage site – a World Heritage Youth Forum for English speaking countries took place in September, 2001 with participants from some 27 countries. The participants adopted the 'Karlskrona recommendations' concerning the future of the Youth Project on World Heritage.

An enlarged and revised, Swedish version of the educational resource kit for teachers working in this project produced by UNESCO is available in Swedish. The participating schools will produce a book about the Swedish World Heritage Sites to be used in schools throughout the country.

Swedish schools in the ASPnet are coordinated by the National Agency for School Improvement with financial support from the National Commission for UNESCO

During the General Conference in October 2005 the Swedish National Commission for UNESCO together with the German UNESCO Commission organised a side event on the UN Decade for Education for Sustainable Development, and published – in English - a book on the 15-year history of the educational project Baltic Sea Project; Baltic Sea Project 15 years – a Report on Best Practises for the UN Decade on Education for Sustainable Development.

Books on Human Rights

The commission has produced Space/Room - Human Rights and on how to find a space for yourself in life with a teacher's manual and a poster showing all the 'rooms'. This Swedish book has been integrated into a new Human Rights project: Discovering Diversity that the Commission has developed in cooperation with the British Council, Stockholm. The book Space and a teacher’s manual on how to integrate Human Rights education into the classroom is available free of charge.

International Conferences

Sweden participates at conferences on education arranged by UNESCO such as the biannual IBE-conference – arranged by the International Bureau of Education – and such as the World Forum on Education for All in Dakar, April 2000 etc.

Conferences of this kind serve as meeting places where delegations get together and form networks. They function also as very important fora that provide knowledge about current trends and events.

EFA - Education for All

In accordance with the decisions made at the UNESCO World Conference on Education for All in Dakar, Senegal in 2000 the Swedish National Commission for UNESCO was active in the creation of a national EFA plan and in the creation of a net-work to fulfil the goals of the Dakar Framework for Action.