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On Monday August 22, 2016 the Inter-American Dialogue launched the report Construyendo una educación de calidad: un pacto con el futuro de América Latina.
The launch, held in conjunction with the Ministry of Education and Sports of Argentina, took place at the presidential palace (Casa Rosada) and was attended by Chief of Staff Marcos Peña, Minister Esteban Bullrich, and former President of Chile Ricardo Lagos.
The report resulted from the work of the Commission for Quality Education for All, chaired by former presidents Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico and Ricardo Lagos of Chile, and composed of twelve Latin American leaders.
Construyendo una educación de calidad shows that children and young Latin Americans are not learning at acceptable levels and that Latin America continues to lag behind the rest of the developed and emerging world.
Based on a detailed analysis of the state of education systems in the region, the Commission recommends taking action in six priority areas as a way to improve educational quality: (1) early childhood development, (2) teaching excellence, (3) learning assessments, (4) new technologies, (5) relevance of education, and (6) sustainable financing.
The Commission proposes the creation of social pacts that determine the objectives of the reforms, set goals and commit resources, and establish mechanisms of mutual accountability to improve education quality. The idea is to promote long-term strategies that transcend different governments, creating mechanisms that ensure that the agreements are translated into concrete actions and provide enough time to obtain the required results.
Experts and educational leaders also gathered in the auditorium of the Organización de Estados Iberoamericanos para la Educación, la Ciencia y la Cultura (OEI) to discuss the findings and recommendations of the Commission, whose report was published by Fundación Santillana. To view recordings of the presentations, click here.
To see photos from the events in occasion of the launch of the report, click here.
Download the report below (only available in Spanish)
Photos by: Alex Fiszbein