Harvard's Prof. Robert Putnam to address OECD Forum on Education and Social Cohesion, Dublin, 18 March 2004

04/03/2004 - Harvard University's Prof. Robert D. Putnam will be the keynote speaker at an OECD Forum on "Education and Social Cohesion" in Dublin on Thursday 18 March, ahead of a meeting the following day of OECD Ministers of Education. Prof. Putnam will speak on "Education, Diversity, Social Cohesion, and "Social Capital". The Forum, from 3.00 p.m. to 6.00 p.m GMT (4.00 p.m. to 7 p.m. Paris time), will be open to the media and will be concluded by Hugh Brady, President of University College, Dublin. Journalists and the public can also listen to the Forum speakers during a Web cast of the event. Links to the live Web cast will be provided on www.oecd.org/edumin2004 at approximately 2.30 p.m. Links to an archived version will be provided the following day. Windows Media Player must be installed on personal computers in order to watch the Web cast.

On Friday 19 March, OECD Education Ministers will meet for discussions chaired by Ireland's Minister for Education and Science, Noel Dempsey, on "Raising Performance Levels for All"; "Education for Democratic Citizenship"; and "Improving Teacher Supply and Effectiveness". In parallel, OECD Secretariat officials will brief journalists on aspects of the OECD's work on education.

• 9.30 - 10.30 a.m:  Abrar Hasan, head of the Education and Training Policy Division (ETP), Tom Schuller, head of the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI), and Richard Yelland, head of the Education Management and Infrastructure Division, will review the outlook for higher education amid changes in governance, roles and structures of universities. Abrar Hasan, and Greg Wurzburg, senior analyst in ETP, will discuss policies for lifelong learning and its financing.
• 11.00 a.m. - 12.00 noon: Phil McKenzie and Paulo Santiago, from the OECD's Education and Training Policy Division, will discuss the challenges of "Attracting, Developing and Retaining Effective Teachers".
• 3.00 - 4.00 p.m.: Tom Schuller and David Istance, senior analyst in CERI, will talk about two current projects: Understanding the Brain: implications for education and Schooling for Tomorrow:  future scenarios.
  

The ministerial meeting will not be open to the media, but Mr. Dempsey and the OECD's Director for Education, Barry McGaw, will brief journalists on the talks at 2.00 p.m. and 5.30 p.m. Further information and details of how to get media accreditation can be found on the OECD's Web site at www.oecd.org/edumin2004.