Improving educational quality, the great challenge of Latin America, according to the secretary of the OEI

The secretary general of the Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI), Mariano Jabonero, said this Thursday in Tegucigalpa (Honduras) that some countries that make up the entity face problems in basic and secondary education, and that the challenge they face is quality.

“In basic and secondary education we have some problems, fundamentally I would say low quality, low inclusion and low equity. The challenge right now is the challenge of quality”said Jabonero in an interview with EFE.

The educational situation in Latin America, very variable

soap dish arrived on Tuesday Honduras to attend the ‘Ordinary Meeting of the Council of Ministers of Education and Culture of the CECC/SICA’ (Central American Educational and Cultural Coordination and Central American Integration System), which will end this Thursday with the ‘International Seminar Building Bridges Towards employment through vocational training and entrepreneurship’.

The senior official of the OEI pointed out that the situation of education is very variable in Ibero-American countries, due to historical, economic and social factors.

He added that an old aspiration in the countries that make up the OEI was the educational coverage so that “almost all boys and girls“Go to school, but that’s it”has never happened in centuries”, because there are countries in which not all minors have access to education.

However, Latin American countries have grown a lot in higher education enrollment, said Jabonero, who also highlighted the 75 years of foundation that the OEI and the high recognition for its work that it received this year, when the institution was awarded the Princess of Asturias Award for International Cooperation.

“The Princess of Asturias Award is a reason for enormous satisfaction, pride and joy because it is also the recognition of 75 years in which thousands of people who have dedicated their lives to their cooperation in Latin America have worked at the OEI.”, he stressed.

In second place, “It is a very strong recognition by the countries because the OEI exists because the Governments want it to exist.“, something that “it’s simple”according to soap dishbecause “For governments it is an organization that solves problems”.

The OEI has grown because the region has taken ownership of it

Also “there is the development of public policies and, thirdly, let’s say that it is an incentive to continue working for the region“, he emphasized about the awarding of the Princess of Asturias Award.

On OEIalso said that it has grown a lot because the region has taken ownership of it, to the point that it now has 18 headquarters in Latin America, in addition to those in Lisbon and Madrid.

“About 3,900 people work for the OEI, we are a group with an important presence in the region, working on a daily basis, but not with speeches, but with projects.”said Jabonero, who in Tegucigalpa also held multiple bilateral and group meetings with Latin American Ministers of Education and Culture, and with representatives of other sectors.

About the relationship of OEI with the member countries of the SICA (Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and the Dominican Republic), stated that it is “very narrow”, as with other regions in the south of the American continent or with the European Union.

He also pointed out that the Conference of Ministers of Education and Culture is the natural area of ​​work of the OEI.

“We have a very intense working relationship, with many activities in all SICA countries, we have headquarters in all but one, yet, and a very narrow work agenda. We have responded to the invitation – to the meeting of ministers – to share these days, it is a little of what we are doing and what we are going to do in the future”, he added.

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