SEDI - DEC - Department of Education and Culture of the OAS
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Organization of American States
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Executive Secretariat for Integral Development
SEDI - DEC - Department of Education and Culture of the OAS
UDSE
Untitled Document


Plan of Action of the Third Summit of the Americas

Untitled Document

Recognizing that education is the key to strengthening democratic institutions, promoting the development of human potential, equality and understanding among our peoples, as well as sustaining economic growth and reducing poverty; further recognizing that to achieve these ends, it is essential that quality education is available to all, including girls and women, rural inhabitants, persons with disabilities, indigenous, and persons belonging to minorities; reaffirming the commitments made at previous Summits to promote the principles of equity, quality, relevance and efficiency at all levels of the education system and ensure, by 2010, universal access to and completion of quality primary education for all children and to quality secondary education for at least 75 percent of young people, with increasing graduation rates and lifelong learning opportunities for the general population; and also reaffirming the commitment to eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005:

Entrust the OAS to organize, within the framework of the Inter-American Council for Integral Development (CIDI), a meeting of Ministers of Education in Uruguay, to be held before the end of 2001, with a mandate to:

  • identify and set up appropriate hemispheric mechanisms to ensure the implementation of the education initiatives in this Plan of Action and to continue to promote actions on priorities identified in previous Summits based on a careful evaluation of our collective achievements in this area;
  • establish time lines and benchmarks for follow-up on the implementation of our commitments in education;
  • establish, in light of the fundamental importance of mobilizing resources to support sustained investment in education at all levels, a cooperative mechanism to promote the development of productive partnerships among governments and with regional and international organizations and the MDBs;
  • promote the participation of and dialogue with relevant civil society organizations to strengthen partnerships between the public sector and other sectors of our societies in implementing this Plan of Action;

    Formulate and implement policies, within the framework of a strategy for resolving social inequalities, to promote access to quality basic education for all, including early childhood and adult education, particularly to promote literacy, while providing for alternative methods that meet the needs of disadvantaged segments of the population or of those excluded from formal education systems, in particular girls, minorities, indigenous, and children with special education needs; share information and successful experiences in encouraging educational participation and addressing student retention within certain groups, especially boys -in particular in the Caribbean countries - whose drop-out rate at the secondary level is high in certain regions;

    Support and promote lifelong learning by:
  • offering varied curricula based on the development of skills, knowledge, civic and democratic values;
  • providing flexible service delivery mechanisms, including the use of information and communications technologies, to foster employability, personal growth and social commitment; and
  • certifying skills acquired on the job;

    Strengthen education systems by:
  • encouraging the participation of all sectors of society in order to obtain a consensus on policies that are viable and that guarantee the appropriate and continuous distribution of resources;
  • decentralizing their decision-making and promoting the participation of civil society, especially parents; and
  • promoting transparent school management in the interest of securing an adequate and stable allocation of resources so that educational institutions can play a leading role as agents for change;

    Enhance the performance of teachers by:
  • improving their conditions of service; and
  • raising the profile of the profession by providing, in addition to solid initial preparation, opportunities for ongoing professional development, and by designing accessible, flexible, dynamic and relevant training strategies using, among other means, new information and communications technologies;

    Support ongoing regional projects for comparable indicators and educational assessment resulting from the Santiago Summit, including cooperation initiatives based on performance assessment programs regarding educational processes and achievement, taking into consideration studies in pedagogy and assessment practices previously developed by countries; develop comparable indicators to assess the services provided by each country to people with special education needs and promote the exchange of information on policies, strategies and best practices in the Americas;

    Strive to ensure that secondary education is more responsive to evolving labor market requirements by promoting the diversification of programs and experimentation with new, more flexible teaching methods with emphasis on science and technology, including the use of new information and communications technologies, and by supporting the establishment of mechanisms for the recognition and certification of acquired skills; and to this end, promote the exchange of information and best practices and support cooperation projects; Promote more effective dialogue between society and institutions of higher education, and facilitate access for all to these institutions by balancing growing demand with higher quality standards and public funding with greater commitment from the private sector; support hemispheric cooperation for research in science and technology aimed at the solution of specific problems in the region and the transfer of knowledge;

    Support the mobility, between countries of the Hemisphere, of students, teachers and administrators at institutions of higher education and of teachers and administrators at the elementary and secondary levels, in order to provide them with new opportunities to take part in the new knowledge-based society, to increase their knowledge of other cultures and languages, and to enable them to access information on post-secondary studies and learning opportunities offered across the Hemisphere, through new or existing hemispheric networks, such as the educational Web site set up after the Santiago Summit; continue to support initiatives in this field such as those carried out by the IDB and the OAS;

    Promote access by teachers, students and administrators to new information and communications technologies applied to education, through training geared toward new teaching approaches, support for development of networks and sustained strengthening of information clearinghouses, in order to reduce the knowledge gap and the digital divide within and between societies in the Hemisphere;

    Science and Technology

    Promote the popularization of science and technology necessary to advance the establishment and consolidation of a scientific culture in the region; and stimulate the development of science and technology for regional connectivity through information and communications technologies essential for building knowledge-based societies;

    Support the development of high-level human capital for the development of science and technology research and innovation that would encourage the strengthening of the agricultural, industrial, commercial and business sectors as well as the sustainability of the environment;

    Promote, with the support of existing cooperation mechanisms, the development of the regional program of science and technology indicators;

    Endeavor to implement and follow up on the scientific and technological activities mentioned above, counting on the support of hemispheric cooperation and coordination mechanisms related to this field.





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©2006 Organización de los Estados Americanos. Derechos Reservados. Descargo
Preparada y mantenida por DDSE
Diseño: Claudia Saidon. Para sugerencias, comentarios y correciones: [email protected]



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