On Tuesday, September 13, in the Sala Argentina of the Kirchner Cultural Center (CCK), the IV Forum of Leaders for Education was held, organized by the Grupo Perfil together with Unicef and the UBA. The event was attended by Ministers of Education from all over the country, civil organizations, researchers and university presidents.
The opening words were given by Olga Isaza, Unicef representative in Argentina, Leonardo Garnier, advisor to the United Nations Secretariat, and Rodrigo Lloret, director of Educational Profile. Meanwhile, the closure corresponded to Jorge Fontevecchia, president and CEO of Grupo Perfil; Luisa Brumana, director of Unicef Argentina; Ricardo Gelpi, rector of the UBA and Jaime Perczyk, Minister of Education of the Nation.
In one part of the meeting, Soledad Acuña, Buenos Aires Minister of Education; Walter Grahovac, his counterpart from Córdoba, and José Thomas, general director of Escuelas de Mendoza, participated in a table moderated by the NOTICAS journalist Juan González. Later, important academics such as Beatriz Sarlo, Norma Morandini, Diego Golombek and Luis Moreno Ocampo took their place.
Minister Acuña highlighted: “All children in Argentina must be guaranteed the right to a quality education, regardless of their zip code. All the boys have to be guaranteed the same days of classes and quality education”. And she added that “we must put aside educational populism and return to merit as the central axis, because equal opportunities do not mean equal results.” For her Acuña, “it is not a matter of funds, but of what is done with the funds.”
More voices. Jorge Fontevecchia said about the creation of the Forum: “Symposiums, meetings and forums on economic issues have been held for years, and when this forum began we were surprised that there was none that spoke about Education”. And he concluded: “Human capital is the most important economic factor of a country and a society. We hold these symposiums with the aim of perceiving education as an economic value”.
In turn, the Minister of National Education Jaime Perczyk highlighted the importance of the space because it is a “public debate, which is not a debate about slogans, but rather covers the depth required by educational policy, which does not fit into 140 characters” .
Beatriz Sarlo considered that “reading is an emancipating instrument”. And she added: “The media were a huge incentive for literacy, because to get information through the written press, people had to learn to read.”
Luis Moreno Ocampo, former deputy prosecutor of the Juicio a las Juntas, concluded: “The 21st century is about algorithms, and whoever does not know how to program is illiterate.”
Presences. Moderated by Cora Steinberg, Unicef Education specialist, there was a table of academic researchers with the participation of Claudia Jacinto, Conicet researcher; Teresa Lugo, professor at the National University of Quilmes; Silvia Andreoli, from the Center for Innovation in Technology and Pedagogy of the UBA, and Julián Leone, from the Interdisciplinary Institute of Political Economy of Buenos Aires of the same university.
The next table was made up of students from pre-university high schools and was led by Felipe Vega Terra, director of the CBC. Then, the Varkey Foundation, through its educational director, Carolina Giménez, presented the Argentine teacher who was a finalist for the Global Teacher Prize, Ana María Stelman. In turn, Hugo Masci, president of the Club de Amigos, and Mailén Ubiedo Myskow, director of the Argentine Solidarity Art Center, participated from the “Education, sports and culture” table.
Among the rectors of different houses of studies were Enrique Mamarella, from the Universidad Nacional del Litoral and president of the National Interuniversity Council (CIN); Carlos Grecco, rector of the National University of San Martín; Martin López Armengol, his peer from the National University of La Plata; Danya Tavela, Vice Chancellor of the National University of the Northwest of Buenos Aires; and Pablo Domenichini, rector of the Guillermo Brown National University.
