An educational project in support of sustainable development , Senegal

The Cours Ste Marie de Hann has recently set up the Marist Institute of Higher Education (IMES) which develops an educational approach based on sustainable development of great interest.
We have been able to attest to it in UNESCO, in the framework of the ?Education to sustainable development? Joint Programme Committee (JPC), which was seeking to gather some good practices from African countries.

IMES falls under the authority of the Catholic University of Western Africa and is formally accredited by the Senegalese Ministry of Higher Education. It sets itself the goal of helping students to make their own decisions when choosing their options in education and training, that is their training path, so as to become full actors of sustainable development in Africa.

It is intended to:
* diversify the higher education offer in Senegal as well as in Western Africa,
* answer the educational needs of house-holds with post-graduated children, so that they can continue their studies on the spot and at affordable prices,
* keep human expertise in Africa by holding back the ?brain drain?,
* offer an African culture-based education while meeting today?s local and international needs.

The educational project aims to:
* Train and educate students through a globalized approach emphasizing a common-core syllabus both firmly rooted in African culture and open to the great diversity of training paths,
* Train and educate students to become both company founders and managers through the priority building of confidence in mankind and in their original communities,
* Train and educate students moving with the times and open to other cultures (new technologies, bilingualism).

The project relies on the three pillars of sustainable development:
* the human, social and solidarity-based forces which are specific to Africa,
* the strength of the unswerving link bet-ween African people and their environ-ment,
* the cultural forces of African micro societies and their active networks which make up the foundation of their economy.

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Marie-Hélène Cuenot, a long-time active, and still associated member, of the OIEC?s PR to UNESCO is the Headmaster of Cours Ste Marie de Hann. This institute welcomes around 4.500 pupils from about sixty different nationalities and forms an educational community articulated around the project entitled: ?Education to peace and living together?. The Course is placed under the authority of the Catholic University of Western Africa and is formally accredited by the Senegalese Ministry of Higher Education. Its status is similar to that of French high schools located outside the French territory. The Course is also a member of the UNESCO-supported schools network and makes up the first and only school which was awarded the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education, in 1991.