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At a meeting last week of EI’s Latin America’s (EILA) Regional Committee, which includes representatives from 12 Latin American countries, Fred van Leeuwen, EI’s General Secretary, highlighted the progress made by the Latin American Pedagogical Movement, in particular the mass mobilisation in the region at every level, from leaders to teachers at the grass roots. This level of involvement is very welcome and a good practice to promote.

“The pedagogical movement initiated in Latin America should be globalised, it should be implemented in other parts of the world,” he said. “We have a duty to show the benefits of taking this path and the consequences of following the other.”

Promotion of social agenda

Hugo Yasky, President of EILA’s Regional Committee, stressed the importance of the strategic advances being made as part of the Latin American Pedagogical Movement.

Yasky highlighted that two conflicting political projects exist in the continent. Twenty-first Century style colonialism which aims to strengthen the most reactionary sectors and to maximise financial profit from the continent’s natural resources, at the expense of people’s living conditions.

In contrast, the resistance project seeks to promote and support ordinary people, with particular urgency in countries where neo-liberalism is still in full force, and in the most progressive countries in the region.

As part of this resistance movement and the move to strengthen public education and the popular movement, EILA’s Regional Committee will continue to promote the Latin American Pedagogical Movement.

“We aim to develop the theoretical tools of policy proposal and change, to strengthen our struggle and the demands of our unions and to take trade union action to the political level,” said Yasky.

Unite for Quality Education campaign still active

Van Leeuwen told the meeting that the events to mark the end of the Unite for Quality Education campaign did not mark the end of EI’s mobilising work. Achievements will be assessed, he said, and the campaign will be continued.

The important focus was to improve education, to redefine the concept of quality in order to link education to fundamental rights, and training to full citizenship.

It is unacceptable that education should be turned into a commodity, or only consist of training skilled workers. This vision of education “weakens the quality of education, with ill-prepared teachers, turning the profession into a narrowly focused task devoid of all sense of vocation”, warned Van Leeuwen.

The results of the EI campaign will be presented to Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations (UN) Secretary General, at an event in New York City.  “The fact that Ban Ki-moon is receiving us has a psychological effect on morale that we should not underestimate, and could ensure the campaign has even greater impact,” stated van Leeuwen.