Jamaica has been elected to serve on three more subsidiary committees of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

They are the Legal committee, the intergovernmental Council of the International Programme for the Development of Communication, and the Intergovernmental committee on bioethics.

This brings to six the number of committees on which Jamaica will serve at UNESCO.

A representative from the country is also serving on the Executive Board — one of the constitutional bodies of the organisation.

Jamaica was elected to serve on the three new committees at UNESCO's 34th General Conference now under way in France.

These committees will serve for the period 2007-2011. Jamaica has been serving on the other committees since 2005 and will continue until 2009.

Education Minister Andrew Holness, represented the country in the first week of the conference from October 25 to 28.

The Minister of Information, Culture, Youth and Sports, Olivia 'Babsy' Grange, has been participating since then.

Discussion on education

Both ministers have taken part in discussions on education, economic development, science and technology for sustainable development.

In her discussions with senior officials of the secretariat, Grange reiterated Jamaica's commitment to UNESCO's values and ideals.

She underscored in particular, the importance of increased collaboration with parliamentarians, the private sector and other stakeholders in ensuring that education, science, culture, communication and information are effectively used as tools towards sustainable development.

Last week, the Education Minister highlighted several issues of importance in the Jamaican situation. These include early childhood education, quality education for all, combating violence in schools and results-based management and administration.

Following the UNESCO conference, Grange will travel to Geneva where she will address the conference of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) on issues relating to creativity of diverse cultures, which are also of relevance to UNESCO's mandate.