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and unified authority over all educational activities. A resolution was passed urging the Director-General to combine the whole education programme under a single administrative head. Most progress has been achieved in the " Fundamental Education " project, although we feel that even here there has been a lack of real direction. In the first place, there is still some uncertainty as to the scope of the project. It was early realized that a bare attack on illiteracy was not of itself sufficient to contribute to peace and security, but, as soon as a wider interpretation of the term " fundamental education " was admitted, it threatened to develop a connotation as wide as " education " itself. A truer and more intelligible title for the project, in our opinion, would be " Education of Backward Peoples." There seems some uncertainty, also, as to the part UNESCO should play in the " pilot projects." Unless UNESCO can ensure that, in each pilot project, methods are tried out that have universal significance and that would not be possible without the Organization's assistance, the whole scheme would seem to have limited value. We are, however, convinced that there is a job of first-rate importance to be done here. Early in the year UNESCO, with the help of a committee of experts, published the book, " Fundamental Education : Common Ground for all Peoples," which, in spite of some obvious defects, is a very significant contribution, which has aroused wide interest throughout the world. Two regional study conferences on fundamental education were held during 1947, one at Nanking in September, where New Zealand was represented by Mr William Parsonage, Officer for Islands Education, and one in Mexico in conjunction with the General Conference. C. E. Beeby attended part of this second one. Both regional conferences were marked by considerable enthusiasm, but, owing to lack of adequate leadership and preparation, they were not outstandingly successful on the technical side. As a first step in its programme on education for international understanding, UNESCO conducted for six weeks at Sevres, near Paris, a seminar on this topic. Seventy-nine teachers from thirty-one different countries attended the seminar. Mr G. A. Ball, a New Zealand teacher, who was with the Boy Scout Contingent in Europe, took part. Other activities of the Education Section include the setting-up of an Expert Committee on Educational Statistics, the publication of a study, " The Care of War-handicapped Children," and, in conjunction with the International Bureau of Education, the sponsoring of the Tenth International Conference of Public Instruction, which met in Geneva in July with representation from forty-two countries.