Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organisation (ALESCO)

The Arab League Education, Culture and Science Organization (ALECSO) is a specialized institution headquartered in Tunis, functions in the framework of the Arab League of States, and is concerned with enhancing the fields of education, culture and science at regional and national levels, and coordinating between Arab states thereon. It was created by virtue of Article 3 of the Arab Cultural Unity Charter, and was officially declared in Cairo on 25 July 1970.

The aim through creating the organization as stipulated in Article One of its constitution, is allowing for intellectual unity between the different parts of the Arab region via education, culture and sciences; and raising its cultural standards so that it be up to the duty of keeping up-to-date with the universal civilization and positively contributing in its make. In the framework of this general goal, ALECSO performs a number of tasks which mainly consist in seeking to enhance human resources in Arab countries; the conditions of developing education, culture, science, the environment, and communication in them; the Arabic language and Arab-islamic culture within the region and overseas; and laying bridges of dialogue and cooperation between this culture and other worldwide cultures.

ALECSO proceeds in light of mid-term strategies determining its orientations, programs, and priority activities. ALECSO's Strategic Plan for the Future (2011-2016) includes the organization's priorities for the early 21st century the most important of which are eradicating illiteracy in the Arab countries, bridging the technical and digital divide between Arab states and advanced states, enhancing education systems by the use of modern didactic and learning techniques, coping with the negative effects of globalization, fostering dialogue between Arab culture and other cultures, developing the scientific research system, preserving, valorizing and using archaeological and historical heritage, disseminating Arab culture and publicizing it worldwide.

Starting from these priorities, pivotal themes in the strategy were recommended in each of ALECSO's sectors (Education, Culture, Science and research, Communication and information). ALECSO set up implementing projects within these themes in the way of achieving the strategy's goals. ALECSO's top priorities in the education field, besides facing the illiteracy issue in the Arab world and disseminating education at all stages and types, consist in assisting member-States in enhancing their educational systems' quality by entering the new concepts and subjects into their curricula, and by making use of information and communication techniques as well as of developed assessment grids. In this respect, ALECSO proposes methodologies and reference books and methodological guides at the levels of curricula, methods and means.

In the framework of implementation of the Education Enhancement Strategy for the Arab world and the projects included for the advancement of Arab educational performance, decided by the Damascus Summit (March 2008), ALECSO organized in Doha (September 2010) a high-level conference to tackle the education quality issue and its challenges which came out with the "Doha Declaration for a Quality Education for All.

As a measure for the implementation of the conference Declaration, ALECSO elaborated with the World Bank the "Arab Program for Education Quality Enhancement" and determined the strategic goal of setting up the attributes and pillars of quality in all its educational and practical components by relying on methods and projects focusing on education's output quality in the light of society's requirements and the job market's needs. The program is made up of five cohesive pillars each related to one of the educational process fields working in complementarity and interaction in view of achieving the program's set objectives. These components pivot over the following levels.

In the field of Culture, ALECSO strives to crystallize a new cultural discourse where the requirements of identity's rooting with those of keeping up with modernity's trends co-exist. In this framework, ALECSO is concerned with the preservation of Arab-Islamic heritage and putting it to good use through the efforts of the Arab Manuscripts Institute in Cairo, the conferences' proceedings ministers in charge of culture in the Arab world, the regular archaeological conference, international treaties and partnership and cooperation thereon. ALECSO is at the same time concerned with encouraging modern Arab creations and innovation in the different fields of thinking, literature and arts through showcasing them and organizing exhibitions and competitions. That is why ALECSO integrated the Heritage Conservation and Preservation Project into its core work with the aim of highlighting its interest in this cultural and civilizational heritage which Arab countries enjoy, in implementation of what was stipulated in its future work's strategy 2011-2016.

ALECSO has chosen concentrating its activities on Arab countries' top priorities as to the science and scientific research sector, such as water, combating desertification and new and renewable energies; enhancing scientific research's role in Arab economies; communicating with and making good use of Arab emigrating brains; producing software applications for automatic processing of the Arabic language; and enriching college educational content in Arabic. Numerous plans, studies, strategies and training sessions, compact disks, books, reference guides, and atlases have been produced in this respect.