ABSTRACT
The first UN Development Decade opened with high hopes and widespread expectations, more particularly on the part of newly independent nations, that through concerted planning and an expansion of technical assistance of many kinds some, at least, of the more serious economic and social problems facing the developing countries of the world would be solved or greatly alleviated. In the field of education, the decade was, in many areas, characterized by an unprecedented expansion of education and training. New universities, technical colleges and a wide range of other educational institutions were established. At the international level, Unesco, along with other specialist agencies of the United Nations — FAO, ILO and WHO — greatly expanded their services to general education as well as to vocational, technical and professional training in many fields. Educational planning also received an important stimulus under the aegis of the International Institute for Educational Planning (Unesco) inaugurated in 1963. Under a wide variety of programmes of international and bi-lateral technical assistance, together with the work of foundations and non-government organizations, support was given for the expansion and improvement of institutions of education and training throughout the developing world. Finance to support the capital implications of many of these programmes has been made available through the World Bank (IBRD) and its associated regional organizations as well as through other technical assistance bodies.
