How many member countries serve on the Executive Board of UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization?

Introduction / Context:
UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, is governed by several bodies, including the General Conference and the Executive Board. The Executive Board plays a key role in guiding UNESCO's work between General Conference sessions. This question tests your knowledge of the exact number of member states that sit on UNESCO's Executive Board, a fact that is sometimes asked in examinations focused on world organizations and their governance structures.

Given Data / Assumptions:
• The question asks for the number of member countries on UNESCO's Executive Board.
• The options are 68, 58, 28 and 88 member countries.
• It is assumed that you understand this refers to the size of the board at a given standard configuration, not occasional temporary variations.

Concept / Approach:
The key concept is that UNESCO's Executive Board is composed of fifty-eight member states. These states are elected by the General Conference for a fixed term. The number 58 is characteristic of UNESCO and helps distinguish it from other UN bodies that have different membership sizes. Thus, a memorization-based approach is usually used here: you recall or recognize that “UNESCO Executive Board = 58 member countries.”

Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Recall from your studies of international organizations that UNESCO has a General Conference and an Executive Board.Step 2: Remember that the Executive Board is responsible for preparing the work of the General Conference and overseeing the implementation of its decisions.Step 3: Note that standard exam references state that the Executive Board consists of 58 member states.Step 4: Compare this with the answer options: 58 is present as one of the choices, along with other numbers that are higher or much smaller.Step 5: Select 58 as the correct number.

Verification / Alternative Check:
As a quick verification, you can recall that many general knowledge notes provide a list of UN specialized agencies and their governing bodies. In that list, UNESCO is typically shown with “58 member Executive Board.” This figure is widely repeated and easy to cross-check in multiple standard sources, reinforcing your confidence in the answer.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:
• 68: This number is larger than the actual Executive Board size and may be used as a distractor to confuse those who know it is somewhere in the fifties or sixties.
• 28: Far too small to represent UNESCO's geographically diverse membership on its Executive Board.
• 88: Much larger than the true figure and not associated with any standard UNESCO governing body size.

Common Pitfalls:
Because this is a pure factual recall question, the main pitfall is mixing up numbers related to different UN bodies, such as confusing the number of member states on certain councils or boards. Another error is to assume that the number must be rounded like 60 or 70 and thus guess incorrectly. To avoid such mistakes, try to remember UNESCO's Executive Board specifically as “58 member states” rather than just “about sixty.”

Final Answer:
The Executive Board of UNESCO is composed of 58 member countries.