Logroño, (EFE).- The diversity of Ibero-America means that there are very different situations in the educational field, but all the countries of the region are interested in innovation projects with common objectives: reduce school dropout and standardize educational models, to which affects the training of teachers and supporting food in schools.
For this, different projects are developed, for example, support for student nutrition in areas of Colombia and improvement of teacher training in Ecuador, which are two of the cases that are presented at a summit convened in Logroño by the Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture (OEI) and the International University of La Rioja (UNIR).
About thirty educational leaders from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Panama, mainly, participate in this forum for the exchange of good practices in Primary Education for “mutual enrichment” on common issues such as emotional well-being in schools and skills training digital, the executive director of UNIR, Javier Galiana, explained to EFE this Thursday.
One of these projects is the one presented by Alejandra Carolina López, Secretary of Education of the Colombian department of Bolívar, where they have tried to fight against school dropout through a school feeding strategy.
Specifically, he has detailed to EFE, they verified that, in a “raizal y palenquera” community in this region, children dropped out due to the impossibility of families to give them money to buy food during their school hours.
Thus, four years ago, families, teachers, school administrators and students were involved in this project and “we have already managed to arrange and design the first menu of this program, which has a differential ethnic approach,” he added.
This program has made it possible to reduce school dropout in this community by three points over the last two years, in which priority has been given to the youngest children, 5 and 6 years old, although “we have not achieved total coverage, we are in 60 percent.”
But, even so, it has considered that the results obtained demonstrate that “this idea can be transferred to other territories of Latin America where the same conditions of vulnerability associated with poverty and hunger exist.”
get good teachers
Another area of educational innovation that has been exposed has been that of teacher training, a project in which the Government of Ecuador has embarked, which wants to promote “a true transformation” of education in the coming years, has explained to EFE the director of Continuing Education of the Ministry of Education of this country, Sebastián Insausti.
It has stressed the importance of “improving the curriculum” of students “and also the skills and abilities of those who are training them.”
To meet that goal, “we don’t just think about foundational skills,” which are math and reading and writing comprehension; “but we want to develop teaching skills” and, for this, they have detected five basic ones: didactic, pedagogical, socio-emotional, digital and disciplinary.
“It is evident that in order for there to be a good education, it is necessary to try to have good teachers and that they have their skills up to date,” stressed Insausti, who hopes that “by 2025 a system of educational standards will already be underpinned for 165,000 Ecuadorian teachers.”
an education in peace
Lción” of students to the Colombian educational system, promoted among the communities that signed the peace agreement between the Government of that country and the FARC guerrilla in 2016, is another of the projects explained during this meeting.
Luz Mary López, a member of the Lupaz Association (Places to Dream, Places for Peace) and the National Council for the Reincorporation of Community Communities of Colombia, has detailed to EFE that this project began “with only four children, but in a short time there were one hundred.” , within a territory where 396 families lived and where the women began a process to create a community care center for their children.
“But that later became what is today an intercultural modality of its own for sons and daughters of peace”, which is already in 21 departments of the country and cares for more than 1,300 children, among “those who consolidate the culture of peace “, has underlined.