Education is the key determinant of the success of individuals
as well as nations. Many Americans would be astonished to learn
that education is one of this nation's leading growth sectors when
it comes to international trade.
But the beauty and the benefit of discussing education on a
global stage is that it's not a zero-sum game; what I gain in the
exchange is not a loss to you; our sharing what we have learned
about education practice benefits both of us. The concerns of the
many visitors who come to visit us in Washington are often the
same as my own.
How do we close the achievement gap between advantaged and
disadvantaged students? How do we prepare teachers to teach with
new technologies?
How do we reach the millions of children and adults who do not
have even the most basic skills like reading? How do we transform
our education systems so that they are less rigid, more creative
and more able to adapt to the demands of the 21st century?
Tom Friedman, the foreign affairs correspondent for the New
York Times, may have captured what is especially new about this
new era when he wrote, "the biggest foreign policy issue is now
the biggest domestic issue: education. In this era of
globalization, we think we need to get smarter to survive in a
world without walls." I think Tom Friedman has it about right.
"Saber es poder"-knowledge is power-is a Spanish phrase that
captures this sentiment as well.
I also believe there is something else that is important to
consider. For much of the last 50 years, international education
was often defined by Cold War imperatives. Now, we are in a new
time and much of the world fortunately is at peace. Let us use
this time wisely and define a new set of principles for
international education that respond to the contemporary
challenges of our time: Principles that encourage intellectual
freedom, democracy building, human rights, the peaceful resolution
of disputes, cultural diversity and a willingness to see the
advance of education for the good of all, including the millions
of children in the developing world who have no schooling.
I hope to encourage such a dialogue by giving this address
today. So let me begin by offering a brief account from my recent
trip and then suggest a series of opportunities and actions that
we can take together.
A REPORT FROM THE FIELD
In the course of my two-week trip to Asia, which included
separate visits to China and Thailand, I had the opportunity to
talk with education ministers from many developed and developing
countries. Let me give you a report card of what I saw and heard
on specific areas of interest: technology; academics and social
development; teacher quality; decentralization, access to higher
education, and the importance every nation places on increasing
exchanges.
Technology: There is a clear recognition that technology can
and will transform education. As a result, many countries are
investing heavily in information technology. There is a widespread
recognition that technology can be a powerful addition to teacher
training and preparation. At the same time, there is growing
recognition that many teachers lack the skills they need to take
advantage of this new technology.
These leaders also recognize that more information does not
necessarily translate into an increase in knowledge, much less the
wisdom to discern what is important and to be valued. This
suggests that we must do much more to give teachers and students
many of the skills they need to analyze and understand larger
volumes of information.
There was also a great awareness about the digital divide
within countries and between developed and developing countries.
Many ministers expressed a strong desire to use technology to
create classroom-to-classroom connections via the Internet as a
way to build cultural awareness and to foster bilingual and
multilingual language study. And it goes without saying that
distance learning will reshape-and at the same time offer-us many
new opportunities to expand the scope and breadth of international
education.
Academics and Social Development: Educators from China, Japan
and Singapore are re-evaluating their educational systems and
looking for a new balance between academics and social
development. For generations these nations have put a premium on
academics and a rigorous testing system. There is now growing
recognition in these countries, however, that these current
practices limit opportunities for creativity and innovation. And
they, like us, are increasingly interested in civic and moral
development along with academics.
There is a great deal of interest in these countries in our
efforts here in the United States to create after-school programs,
to promote character education, to encourage family, community and
business involvement, and to expand arts education. The art
exhibited here today through the generosity of the International
Child Art Foundation, clearly shows us that when we allow children
to explore their creativity through the arts, they shine.
Almost all nations are eager to make sure that their students
learn additional languages, particularly English. The ministers of
several nations including Russia, China, and Thailand are
interested in examining ways that we can help them develop
high-quality English instruction.
I will be the first to
tell you that we Americans have much to learn from other nations
when it comes to learning new languages, and we are just as eager
for help. More than any other developed nation, the United States
has fallen behind when it comes to teaching our students the
importance of learning an additional language. My two
assistants-Erica and Alyson-are more the exception than the rule
and we need to change that.
Teacher Quality: Like many educators and policy makers in the
United States, my counterparts in other nations have a growing
concern about recruiting and preparing the next generation of
teachers. Like the United States, many nations face a growing
shortage of teachers in specialized fields like math and science
and helping children with disabilities.
There also seems to be a growing degree of dismay about current
practices in teacher education, the preparation of new teachers
entering the profession, and the lack of real professional
development. This concern about the state of the teaching
profession extends even to Asian countries that traditionally have
revered teaching as a profession.
Decentralization: One of the more interesting htmects of my
conversations is the search for what I call a new and balanced
model of education that is appropriate for the 21st century.
Nations with strong traditions of national education systems are
seeking to achieve greater levels of decentralization.
At the same time, here in the United States I see a new trend
emerging-state governments are assuming more power over low
performing schools that need to improve. All this suggests to me
that all of us are searching for a new and more flexible model of
education, with a new balance of responsibility, that fits our
times.
My Department has worked very successfully in creating a new
model of education built around the concept of
partnerships-linking high schools and universities, reaching out
to parents, community groups and business leaders, and engaging
the private sector and foundations to encourage educational
reform.
Over 27,000 American college students, for example, are working
as reading tutors in our elementary schools across America. And we
have a very exciting partnership initiative called GEAR UP that is
now linking hundreds of our middle schools to colleges and
universities to create new pathways to college.
Higher Education: Many nations are facing an increased demand
for higher education and are taking a new look at the diversity of
America's system of higher education, including our unique
community college system. As one expert wrote, the United States
has a "highly forgiving" system that allows more than one
opportunity to gain a college degree.
Nations that traditionally have relied on one single exam to
gain admission to college are starting to see some advantage in
the American willingness to give students more than one
opportunity to gain a higher education. And every nation is aware
that the Internet will reshape higher education, and that there is
much work to be done now to create a new framework for distance
learning.
Increasing International Exchanges: Every nation is keen on
fostering greater faculty and student exchanges. The G-8, for
example, has adopted a goal of doubling exchanges in the next 10
years. The European Union is working very aggressively to grapple
with those core specifics-from credit transfers, to joint
programs, to financial aid, to housing arrangements-that can lead
to the doubling of exchange programs.
Asian countries also have a strong desire to increase such
exchange opportunities. Sometimes, other countries find it
difficult to make the necessary connections to carry out these
exchanges given the independent nature of our system of higher
education system.
The United States has been very fortunate to have a large
number of foreign exchange students on our college campuses.
Almost 500,000 foreign students are currently studying at American
colleges and universities.
About half of these students are in graduate education where
they make a valuable contribution to this nation's research
effort. These students bring at least $9 billion per year to our
economy, and they enrich our campuses and communities in
non-economic ways, too. They develop lifelong friendships, which
benefit both nations in countless ways.
It is clear to me from my conversations with other ministers
that other nations see new opportunity in such exchanges and are
working very hard to make their exchanges opportunities more
attractive, more accessible and less costly. This is something we
should welcome, but at the same time it should encourage the
United States to re-examine what we are doing as well. We should
not be resting on our laurels.
I am pleased that the number of American students studying
abroad has more than doubled in the last decade. Last year, about
114,000 American students were studying abroad, a 14.6 percent
increase over the year before. This is a very positive trend. But
much more needs to be done to create new exchange opportunities
for American students.
At the very least, the United States should meet the newly
established G-8 goal of at least doubling its exchange
opportunities in higher education in the next 10 years, and that
means finding new ways of sending and recruiting twice as many
students.
This concludes my brief report card. As you can see, many, many
issues are on the international education agenda. Let me now set
the stage for a series of proposals that I would like to put
forward by talking about the growing importance of international
education.
THE IMPORTANCE OF INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION
I begin by stating the obvious-in this new global environment
when you can e-mail a colleague in Japan or download a chapter of
a book from Paris-we have many more opportunities to learn from
each other. This new education era is defined by the freedom of
information, a freedom that will surely enhance the power of
individuals to make choices about their lives.
This opportunity to learn from each other allows all of us to
improve the education of all of our children. The United States,
for example, looks to other countries to benchmark the performance
of our students and our system of public education. Assessments
like the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS)
allow us to evaluate both our academic strengths and
weaknesses.
Sometimes the results of these assessments lead to a rude
awakening and lend themselves to a certain amount of humility. And
that's healthy. When other nations are doing well in teaching
certain fields, we need to know what they are doing so we can
improve our own education system.
When I visited Singapore for the APEC conference I made a point
of visiting a high school to see first-hand why Singapore leads
the world in math instruction. The very important Glenn
Commission, under the leadership of former astronaut and Senator
John Glenn, is currently reviewing math and science instruction in
the United States. So this was a timely visit.
Many experts believe America's math curriculum is an inch deep
and a mile wide and that we do not challenge our students enough.
My visit to Singapore confirms this opinion. The textbooks that
students in Singapore use, for example, are much thinner and much
more focused. Students in the ninth and tenth grades in Singapore
are doing work that American students do in the 11th and 12th
grades.
The United States also has much to learn from our colleagues in
the European Union. France and Italy are well known for their
wonderful systems of early childhood education. In the United
States, many states are now actively working to create a more
formal system of universal pre-kindergarten. So it makes a great
deal of sense to me for American educators to be reaching out to
our French and Italian colleagues, who have a wealth of
experience.
At the same time, the United States has much to contribute as
well. The United States has a wonderful system of higher education
that attracts hundreds of thousands of foreign students each year.
We also have much to contribute when it comes to educational
research, the use of technology, and improving the education of
children with disabilities.
The United States, for example, has a very strong record in
working with the international disability community on issues
dealing with education, technology, and employment. My Department
supports the work of several international centers including the
World Institute on Disability, located in Berkeley,
California.
This May, I will be traveling to Ireland to attend a conference
of educators, from both the Republic and Northern Ireland, that
will have strong focus on educating children with disabilities. On
the same trip, I will be visiting London to meet with my British
counterparts to discuss a joint conference on how to turn around
failing schools.
Some educational issues can only be addressed together. A good
example is distance education. The implications both for our
learners and our education institutions are enormous and this is
particularly true in higher education.
There are a host of questions that must be addressed. How do we
determine the quality of the offerings? How to confer and
recognize credentials? How do we work together to close the
digital divide? These are questions that will require
international cooperation.
Let me suggest another important area of cooperation-what I
call the power of educational diplomacy. Many of the conflicts
that we are seeing today-Kosovo, Rwanda, the troubles of Northern
Ireland, the Middle East, East Timor-spring, at least in part,
from ethnic intolerance.
Building tolerance and respect for others and strengthening the
capacity of citizens to participate in civil society need to take
place in the home and in schools. Promoting democracy through
education is something that my Department is pleased to support
through the 50 nation "Civitas" movement. Each year, we spend $7
million dollars to encourage such civic and economic
exchanges.
I strongly believe that the growth of democracy, economic
prosperity and economic stability throughout the world is linked
to the advance of education. This is one of the strongest reasons
why the United States should have an active and strong
international education agenda. Education and democracy go hand in
hand.
As a great democracy, the United States has a vested interest
in promoting democracy and economic stability throughout the
world. When we help democracy and economic prosperity in the rest
of the world, we are also helping ourselves beyond the fact that
it is right thing to do.
All throughout the world there are thousands of leaders in
other nations-political, economic and social leaders-who got a
taste of democracy in all of its complexity when they came to
study here in the United States. They saw America, in all our
goodness and in some of our excesses, too.
But more than anything, they were able to get in touch with the
American people and understand why the American people care so
deeply about freedom and democracy. People matter, democracy
matters and advancing education throughout the world makes a
powerful difference.
THE UNITED STATES CONTRIBUTION TO INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION
Let me now suggest how the United States can contribute to the
advancement of international education. Obviously we can begin by
an increased focus on international education by our own
government. This is why my Department and the Department of State
have asked President Clinton to issue a new executive memorandum
that would renew and strengthen the federal government's
commitment to international education. And he will sign it
today.
This memorandum calls for the federal government, in
partnership with others, to promote study abroad by a broader and
more diverse group of U.S. students. Today, only about 9 percent
of our undergraduate students study abroad, and less than a third
of those spend a semester or more; and very few of them represent
minorities that make up our growing student population.
The directive also calls for other new efforts: new attention
to encouraging more young people to come to America as exchange
students; strengthen support for foreign language learning at all
levels; and new efforts to make sure that international education
is an integral component of U.S. undergraduate education.
My friends, we must build on the great foundation of the
Fulbright Scholarship program, and not just rest on its reputation
in these new times.
One hundred American institutions of higher learning, for
example, educate half of all foreign exchange students. Surely, we
can find new ways to encourage many other colleges and
universities to become more active in the international arena.
I also believe that many more American college students need to
see the world with a new set of eyes. And the best way to do that
is to study overseas.
A small college in Minnesota-Saint Olaf College-does something
quite remarkable: over 90 percent of its students study abroad.
That's very unusual. Only nine colleges and universities in the
entire United States, including Georgetown University and American
University here in the District, send over 20 percent of their
students overseas.
I would be happy if every college in the United States set the
goal of making sure that 20 percent of their students participated
in some type of exchange program over the next 10 years. I look
forward to working with America's higher education community to
create these new types of opportunities.
A second part of a new American agenda has to be recognition
that the United States must become much more of an engaged member
of the international community by once again becoming an active
member of UNESCO. Time and time again on my recent trip, other
education ministers asked me why the United States did not rejoin
the new and reformed UNESCO.
UNESCO offers the broadest world forum for action on making
education for all a reality. The United States should have a seat
in that forum. I urge members of Congress to authorize the funds
necessary to make it possible. As I said earlier, the United
States, like other wealthy nations, has both a responsibility and
a vested interest in strengthening education in developing
countries.
According to UNESCO-the United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization-more than 113 million children worldwide
still have no access to primary education, and 60 percent of those
are girls.
When young girls are educated, not only do they increase their
future earning power, they also raise healthier children with a
brighter future.
This is one good reason why President Clinton is asking the
Congress for a 50 percent increase in our international assistance
for basic education. This is the right priority and I strongly
support this proposal.
We must also press forward in coming to grips with how distance
learning will reshape higher education around the world. This
September, my Department will host our National Conference on
Technology, which each year has a growing number of international
participants.
In addition, I invite members of the international community to
co-host and participate in an "experts" meeting the following day
on distance learning and higher education. I know that this issue
is of very high importance to leaders of higher education around
the world. I believe that a meeting of international experts and
leaders in American higher education can set the stage for a
larger international summit on this very important matter.
I also believe that the Internet can foster
classroom-to-classroom exchanges that allow young people to learn
about each other from each other. Many American teachers are
already establishing these types of connections on their own. I
can tell you that it makes a difference.
Several years ago, I visited a school in Knollwood, Maryland,
with Vice President Gore. The two students were connected through
the Internet with two students in Ethiopia. I asked them what had
they learned through this exchange. One of the students looked up
at said, " We have learned to be friends."
It would be my hope that every elementary and secondary school
in the United States, public and private, would establish a
relationship with a school from another country to build these
types of classroom-to-classroom connections. This would give all
children a broader worldview, and I hope that it would encourage
many more American children to learn a foreign language.
This is something I care about. What I call English + One, or
bi-literacy. I can tell you that when Michelin came to South
Carolina to build a new plant when I was governor there, the
people in my state who spoke French were put at the front of the
line when it came to good jobs.
In countries from Spain to Singapore, all children are studying
a second and often a third language. And because English is
increasingly the language of commerce and the Internet, there is
very strong demand for English language learning almost
everywhere. Others want to learn English, and we can learn their
languages.
I am a strong supporter of high-quality dual-immersion schools
that help children to learn English and another language. We
currently have 260 of these types of schools in the United States.
I believe we should raise that number to at least 1,000.
Currently, we are requesting $310 million in bilingual education
programs that could support these types of schools. This is a $54
million increase over last year.
This also leads me to make this last suggestion. Many nations
would like additional help in teaching their children English. The
Peace Corps for generations has done a wonderful job in this
regard but the Peace Corps cannot do it alone.
I believe retired American teachers and, indeed, the many baby
boomers nearing retirement and thinking about a second career
would find great satisfaction in participating in such an
endeavor. With proper training, I believe these Americans could
make a contribution. I look forward to a discussion with
interested groups around such a proposal.
CONCLUSION
Throughout my address I have spoken about the growing
importance of international education and the need for America to
engage the world.
Yes, we are fortunate to be a great super power. But with that
power comes a responsibility to work with other nations, to
respect their points of view, and to work with educators
throughout the world to help every child and adult to reach her or
his full potential.
This is in America's larger interests and it is also the right
thing to do. We can learn from each other, and with each other,
and we can learn in so many different ways in this new information
era. For it is my sincere belief that by advancing education at
all levels-from teaching a child to read in Africa or sending a
young American off to Paris on a Fulbright scholarship-we enrich
our world.
The freedom to learn is, to my way of thinking, a basic human
right. And by expanding this freedom to learn we strengthen
democracy, encourage prosperity and inspire new intellectual
thought and inquiry.
This is why international education is so important and why I
have spoken about it at some length today. Thank you.
