The Diplomat
The secretary general of the Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture (OEI), Mariano Jabonero, has warned that the educational digital transformation needed in Ibero-America must be accompanied by a “true and profound pedagogical transformation.”
“The digitalization of education is necessary, but not enough,” declared Jabonero during his speech at the programmatic forum #LaEducaciónNosUne, held on January 30 in Panama City and which brought together the candidates for the Panamanian presidency, who presented its main lines of work in education. The forum was promoted by the OEI, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the World Bank and the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF) and also included renowned education experts from the Ibero-American field.
During his speech, Jabonero emphasized the need to have sufficient infrastructure and technological resources to face the educational digital transformation that the region requires. However, he warned, digitalization must be accompanied by educational systems that are committed to the development of more experiential methodologies, a review of curricula, innovative educational resources and new models of digital governance.
The region, in his opinion, must aim towards “an education model that prioritizes meaningful learning” and that, beyond the digitalization of the system, goes hand in hand with a “true and profound pedagogical transformation” for a digital society that “cannot be postponed,” he said. “We believe that the region must move towards more flexible, inclusive and resilient educational systems through the construction of hybrid education models that help achieve true transformation, innovation, improvement of educational quality and equity in the region,” said Jabonero.
For the secretary general of the OEI, Panama is an example of how to undertake the digitalization of education in a transversal way, in part, thanks to the “decision to unify the digital profile of students, teachers and administrators by standardizing institutional email as access key to the entire educational digital ecosystem of the Ministry of Education.”
Under the motto We make cooperation happen, the OEI is, since 1949, the first intergovernmental organization for South-South cooperation in the Ibero-American space. Currently, 23 member states are part of the organization and it has 19 national offices, in addition to its General Secretariat in Madrid.
With more than 300 ongoing projects and 600 active cooperation agreements, together with public entities, multilateral banks, universities, civil society organizations, companies and other international organizations, the OEI represents one of the largest cooperation networks in Latin America. Among its results, the organization has contributed to the drastic reduction of illiteracy in Latin America, with more than 21 million people benefiting from its cooperative action.
