News
CELAC Meeting: Roadmap for Education
The First Meeting of Ministers of Education of the CELAC, held in Cuba with representatives of 26 Latin American and Caribbean countries, showed the spirit of regional integration and the pursuit of a better education, according to experts and politicians´ opinion.
Source
Prensa Latina
Date
The First Meeting of Ministers of Education of the CELAC, held in Cuba with representatives of 26 Latin American and Caribbean countries, showed the spirit of regional integration and the pursuit of a better education, according to experts and politicians´ opinion.
A symptom of that first reality is that the meeting, based in the Havana´s Conventions Palace, took place a few days after concluding in Chile the First Summit of Heads of State and Government, block born in 2011.
At that event, concluded on January 28, in which Cuba became president pro tempore of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), Cuban President Raul Castro urged eliminating the scourge of illiteracy in the area.
During the opening of the ministerial meeting in Havana on February 7, the position was reiterated by Vice President of the island, Miguel Diaz-Canel, who alluded to the need to develop best cooperation practices to advance in education and eradicate this evil.
Efforts to expand access to education and improving its quality seemed foothold over the past decades in countries such as Venezuela, where the government of President Hugo Chavez launched, in 1999, a process of social transformation.
The Minister of Education in the South American nation, Maryann Hanson, who attended the conclave, highlighted projects implemented in her country, as Educative Canaima, whereby authorities handed over two million laptops to primary school children.
Besides she alluded to the Infocentros â"created for the community" and the Bolivarian Centers of Informatics and Telematics, for the democratization of these technologies, and the comprehensive education of kids.
The Venezuelan government, she added, distributes free educational texts from kindergarten to the middle level.
Meanwhile, the Peruvian Minister, Enma Patricia Salas, said that her country is working hard on educational programs for young children, that is to say, children from zero to six years, as well as in the care of infants living in rural areas.
At the same time, El Salvador, with an unprecedented leftist government strives to lay the foundations so that the change processes fostered do not retreat and education becomes a state policy, said the holder Franzi Hato Hasbun.
However, while the literacy rate increased and is at 92 percent, there are 35.8 million illiterates in the region, 55 percent of them women, warned the Cuban Minister of Education, Ena Elsa Velázquez, at the opening of the meeting.
Other figures released during the meeting make clear the challenge of the area in this field: in 2010, for example, 2.65 million of children did not attend primary school, 50 percent of them were female.
In the case of secondary education, although "there has been progress, the enrollment rate was 91 percent," Velazquez said, warning that a significant number of youth do not achieve basic skills to earn a living with dignity.
Further, about 14 million children between 5 and 17 years old work in Latin America and the Caribbean in conditions that endanger their safety and their lives, according to the International Labour Organization.
In order to transform the adverse realities that persist in Latin America and the Caribbean, Education holders, directors and specialists carried out an exchange of experiences and drew lines of action to improve the quality of teaching.
ROADMAP
The first step taken by the ministers and representatives of the CELAC was the adoption of a roadmap with concrete proposals to contribute to the elimination of illiteracy and emphasize the quality of teaching.
The need to consider these issues as top priorities for the block that brings together the 33 countries of the subcontinent stands out among the summons of the document.
To this end, the regional mechanism will work in those states with more than 90 percent of its population literate to achieve full literacy by 2015, said the Cuban Minister of Education, concluding the event.
Speaking to the press, the official also said that the body will work to make those nations with less than 90 percent of its population literate obtain that goal in 2020.
Participants also proposed to develop, together with the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), a catalog of best practices and another one of public policies on education in the region, in addition to decide the best ways to promote cooperation.
Likewise, they called for strengthening the role of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as the lead agency in this area, and agreed on establishing a permanent working group to help CELAC achieve these decisions.
According to Velázquez, the participants in the meeting acknowledged the support of Cuba in literacy of Venezuelan and Bolivian citizens, among other countries, and expressed a positive position in favor of labor and unity.
Attendees, who approved a final declaration, came to the first call of the island as CELAC president in a response that, in the opinion of the Vice President Díaz-Canel, expresses the political will of integration in Latin America and the Caribbean.
A symptom of that first reality is that the meeting, based in the Havana´s Conventions Palace, took place a few days after concluding in Chile the First Summit of Heads of State and Government, block born in 2011.
At that event, concluded on January 28, in which Cuba became president pro tempore of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), Cuban President Raul Castro urged eliminating the scourge of illiteracy in the area.
During the opening of the ministerial meeting in Havana on February 7, the position was reiterated by Vice President of the island, Miguel Diaz-Canel, who alluded to the need to develop best cooperation practices to advance in education and eradicate this evil.
Efforts to expand access to education and improving its quality seemed foothold over the past decades in countries such as Venezuela, where the government of President Hugo Chavez launched, in 1999, a process of social transformation.
The Minister of Education in the South American nation, Maryann Hanson, who attended the conclave, highlighted projects implemented in her country, as Educative Canaima, whereby authorities handed over two million laptops to primary school children.
Besides she alluded to the Infocentros â"created for the community" and the Bolivarian Centers of Informatics and Telematics, for the democratization of these technologies, and the comprehensive education of kids.
The Venezuelan government, she added, distributes free educational texts from kindergarten to the middle level.
Meanwhile, the Peruvian Minister, Enma Patricia Salas, said that her country is working hard on educational programs for young children, that is to say, children from zero to six years, as well as in the care of infants living in rural areas.
At the same time, El Salvador, with an unprecedented leftist government strives to lay the foundations so that the change processes fostered do not retreat and education becomes a state policy, said the holder Franzi Hato Hasbun.
However, while the literacy rate increased and is at 92 percent, there are 35.8 million illiterates in the region, 55 percent of them women, warned the Cuban Minister of Education, Ena Elsa Velázquez, at the opening of the meeting.
Other figures released during the meeting make clear the challenge of the area in this field: in 2010, for example, 2.65 million of children did not attend primary school, 50 percent of them were female.
In the case of secondary education, although "there has been progress, the enrollment rate was 91 percent," Velazquez said, warning that a significant number of youth do not achieve basic skills to earn a living with dignity.
Further, about 14 million children between 5 and 17 years old work in Latin America and the Caribbean in conditions that endanger their safety and their lives, according to the International Labour Organization.
In order to transform the adverse realities that persist in Latin America and the Caribbean, Education holders, directors and specialists carried out an exchange of experiences and drew lines of action to improve the quality of teaching.
ROADMAP
The first step taken by the ministers and representatives of the CELAC was the adoption of a roadmap with concrete proposals to contribute to the elimination of illiteracy and emphasize the quality of teaching.
The need to consider these issues as top priorities for the block that brings together the 33 countries of the subcontinent stands out among the summons of the document.
To this end, the regional mechanism will work in those states with more than 90 percent of its population literate to achieve full literacy by 2015, said the Cuban Minister of Education, concluding the event.
Speaking to the press, the official also said that the body will work to make those nations with less than 90 percent of its population literate obtain that goal in 2020.
Participants also proposed to develop, together with the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), a catalog of best practices and another one of public policies on education in the region, in addition to decide the best ways to promote cooperation.
Likewise, they called for strengthening the role of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as the lead agency in this area, and agreed on establishing a permanent working group to help CELAC achieve these decisions.
According to Velázquez, the participants in the meeting acknowledged the support of Cuba in literacy of Venezuelan and Bolivian citizens, among other countries, and expressed a positive position in favor of labor and unity.
Attendees, who approved a final declaration, came to the first call of the island as CELAC president in a response that, in the opinion of the Vice President Díaz-Canel, expresses the political will of integration in Latin America and the Caribbean.