The Diplomat
Yesterday, the Ibero-American Ministers of Education made a commitment to promote innovation, digital training, lifelong learning and teacher training in order to guarantee continuity and quality of education in the face of the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on 40 million students in the region.
This is stated in the Declaration adopted yesterday by the education authorities of Andorra, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Spain (Minister Isabel Celaá), Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Dominican Republic and Uruguay, who met yesterday virtually at the 27th Ibero-American Conference of Ministers of Education.
The meeting, convened by Andorra – which holds the pro tempore Secretariat of the Ibero-American Conference – and organised by the Organisation of Ibero-American States (OEI) and the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB), forms part of the calendar of preparatory meetings for the 27th Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government, which will be held in the principality during the first half of 2021.
“This crisis will accelerate the trends of the Future of Work”, said the Ibero-American Secretary General, Rebeca Grynspan, during the opening of the conference. “Many companies will close down and not open up any more, and many markets will change permanently”, she continued. “This means that many jobs will become obsolete and therefore many workers will have to receive job training, as part of a system of Lifelong Learning”, she added.