The Diplomat
The Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture (OEI) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to promote quality education in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The agreement, signed last Wednesday, aims to “expand learning models, incorporate technological and digitalization solutions to educational programs, promote cultural and creative industries, as well as improve adequate digital infrastructure and the quality of education through teacher training,” according to the OEI.
This agreement will serve as a framework for cooperation between the two international organizations to ratify their commitment to education and strengthen other projects of this nature in which they have been collaborating in countries of the region, such as Panama, Paraguay, Chile and Colombia. The program will be designed and executed jointly by both institutions and will be carried out in collaboration with governments and the private sector.
“Latin America and the Caribbean was the region most affected by the pandemic, which is not only a health and sanitary crisis, but became a crisis of the education system,” said Mauricio Claver-Carone, president of the IDB. “It is estimated that students have lost, on average, more school days (158) than any other region in the world,” he added.
For his part, the secretary general of the OEI, Mariano Jabonero, stated that “this agreement responds to the need to recover more than 17 million students who have prematurely dropped out of education systems in the region at all levels.” This figure is related to the “enormous digital divide” evidenced by the pandemic, which has particularly affected students without connectivity. Therefore, “we must change the educational model of the future” in order “not to return to the inertia of the past, betting on a hybrid or combined innovative and transformative model,” he added.
As part of the joint work, the IEO and the IDB will advance and expand their efforts within the framework of the IDB’s 21st Century Skills Initiative, launched in 2019. The program is expected to be implemented through technical cooperation that will contribute to the development of hybrid education models so that countries can ensure educational continuity, remedy the learning gaps generated as a result of the pandemic, and optimize the educational transformation processes of the region’s systems. The agreement was signed virtually by Mariano Jabonero and Mauricio Claver-Carone.
