Education in the OAS

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Report of the Technical Secretariat to the
Interamerican Committee on Education
Lenore Yaffee Garcia, Head Education and Culture
Division Office of Education, Science and
Technology V Meeting of the Authorities and
Executive Committee of the Inter-American
Committee on Education Washington, D.C., November
9-10, 2005
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Presentation Outline

• Overview of Meeting and Documents
• Background Summits, Ministerials, CIE
• Technical Secretariat (OEST)
• Accomplishments and Challenges
• Resources (2005 Education Subfund Budget)

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Summits of the Americas

• Set hemispheric priorities for 34 member states

• Supports political dialogue and partnership for
  development activities

Organization of American States

• Inform political dialogue with technical knowledge

Ministerial Meetings

• Help to translate the informed dialogue into
  concrete cooperation strategies

Inter-American Committees

• Tools to engage in cooperation across governments
  and with intl. organizations, civil society

Horizontal Cooperation Mechanisms
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Summit Goals

• "... We (governments)reiterate the commitment to
  assure, by 2010, universal access to and
  completion of a quality primary education for
  100 of children, and access for at least 75 of
  young people to quality secondary education
  with ever greater percentages of young people
  finishing secondary school --, and we assume
  responsibility for offering lifelong learning
  opportunities to the general population.
  --Santiago Summit Plan of Action

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Interamerican Committee on Education created at
2003 Mexico City Ministerial

• Who A representative of each Education Ministry,
  designated by the Minister
• Purpose
• Advance inter-American dialogue on education
• Follow up on Summit mandates and ensure that
  commitments of Education Ministers Meetings
  materialize into concrete actions
• Serve as breeding ground for ideas and proposals
• Prepare future Ministerial meetings
• Define funding priorities
• Serve as a voice for the education sector in
  policy development and execution within OAS

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Office of Education, Science and Technology (OEST)

• Promote continuous communication among Ministries
  through CIE representatives (translation to
  maximize exchange)
• Promote horizontal cooperation
• In Person (Knowledge Sharing Seminars)
• Virtually (Websites, Virtual Forums, On-line
  Surveys)
• Institutional memory and continuity
• Link between CIE and political authorities
  international and civil society organizations
• Technical assistance to projects
• In sum YOUR technical secretariat

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CONARED Sharing Knowledge in a horizontal manner
The creation of this unique space within the OAS
was developed as an alternative to the
traditional vision that there is one best
practice that works equally well for all
circumstances. Instead, the OAS method reviews
and jointly constructs experiences and models.
Hence, all parties offer and receive experiences
with the understanding that all countries have
something to share and something to learn from
the other member States.
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Communicating via the Web

• OEST
• http//www.oest.oas.org/
• CIE http//www.oas.org/udse/espanol/cpo_cie.html

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PRIE Website
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www.prie.oas.org
PRIE Website

• Regional Education Indicators Project

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Knowledge Sharing in Citizenship Competencies
Workshop and Online Forum, Bogotá, Colombia
(April 2005)
www.oest.oas.org/colombia
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Ready to LearnKnowledge Sharing in Early
Childhood Development
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Virtual Forums

• A space to get information and give feedback on a
  topic of common interest.
• http//www.oas.org/udse/espanol/cpo_educ_foros.htm
  l

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Opportunities

• Major attention to education in IV Summit
• Significant momentum from IV Ministerial
• Energy around
• Social Charter
• Possible new priorities (e.g., education for
  democracy)
• Knowledge sharing tools
• Resources from subfund and partners

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Challenges

• Proliferation of mandates, priorities
• (How to choose?)
• How to obtain active country participation
• Limited human and organizational resources
• Risk of duplicating efforts
• How to demonstrate what works?
• Financial resources

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Thank You! Office of Education, Science and
Technology (OEST) Executive Secretariat of
Integral Development (SEDI) http//www.oest.oas.o
rg