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Meeting of Ministers of Education from Latin America and the Caribbean: A historic moment for youth engagement
The Extraordinary meeting of Ministers of education from Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), held 25th and 26th January 2024 in Santiago, Chile was a historic moment for youth engagement for three reasons.
First, this was the IV Regional Meeting yet the first meeting where youth were invited to participate.
Second, not only were young people invited but their engagement was authentic and profound. Sofia Bermudez, a member of the SDG4 Youth & Student Network coordinated a Youth Advisory Board, a group of youth organizations from the region who came together with the support of UNESCO and UNICEF. Bermudez ensured that the group included organizational representation from different parts of the region and oversaw their consultations with youth and students in the region. On the panel of Youth and Education Ministers, Bermudez proudly introduced an open letter from young people to the Ministries of Education.
The open letter is structured around seven priorities for youth & students in transforming education systems in the region, including the points that young people should be active participants in their education and that pedagogical changes must be implemented so that learning is adapted to needs and contexts, and supported by well-trained and funded educators and systems.
Bermudez underscores the need for change in educational methodology stating that most students who were consulted 鈥榝ind education spaces boring, unmotivating and too structured. They see them as spaces that reinforce memorization, static learning with little focus of relevance, such as climate change.鈥 She continues 鈥渢hat is why it is important to teach life skills, change spaces into comprehensive learning environments and update curricula.鈥
Young people are one of the most often overlooked stakeholders in education decision-making processes, even though we have the expertise. In addition to ensuring meaningful youth engagement, we will need to facilitate big changes in order to transform education, from securing a sound financial flow toward education to modifying regulatory frameworks to allow agile and adaptive curricula from primary to tertiary education.
Felipe Gallo-Gomez, SDG4 Youth & Student Network鈥檚 LAC Regional Representative and Executive Committee member, spoke at the high-level opening and during the panel with education Ministers, echoes Bermudez鈥檚 comments. The consultations he led with the LAC regional youth leaders of the SDG4 Youth & Student Network in Colombia fed into the Open letter. He adds that, 鈥淵oung people are one of the most often overlooked stakeholders in education decision-making processes, even though we have the expertise,鈥 and suggests that 鈥淚n order to transform education, we will need to facilitate big changes, from securing a sound financial flow toward education to modifying regulatory frameworks to allow agile and adaptive curricula from primary to tertiary education.鈥
Third, in a momentous development, youth engagement was enshrined in the Declaration of Santiago [para 18], the resulting outcome document of the IV Regional Meeting 鈥楾owards a Regional Framework for Education Reactivation, Recovery and Transformation鈥 which states:
[We highlight] Young people be part of the educational discussions in our region, as reflected in the priorities and proposals presented in the 鈥極pen Letter from Youth to Ministers of Education in Latin America and the Caribbean.鈥 Likewise, we affirm the importance of having a permanent representative in the RSC [Regional Steering Committee] and in future meetings of ministers, they continue to be part of the discussion on education and the future of youth in our region.
The declaration also 鈥榗elebrated the election of the Federative Republic of Brazil and the Republic of Chile, as well as the re-election of the OEI, to represent the Latin American and Caribbean region in the High-Level Steering Committee of SDG 4-Education 2030 for the biennium 2024-2025,鈥 [and highlighted] that the President of the Republic of Chile, H.E. Gabriel Boric Font, has assumed the co-chairmanship of the Committee.
Youth and students in the LAC region are motivated and eager to ensure education recovery, transformation, and youth engagement in the LAC region. As stated by G贸mez-Gallo, 鈥淢y biggest hope for Education in LAC is to have one where we as students are not seen just as mere recipients of a service but instead as key decision-makers in our education journeys. Not just in terms of what we learn but how, when, and why we learn. Also, education cannot continue to be the privilege of the few, of the ones who can afford it, to transform education we will need to provide young people with a system where they can access and finish their education addressing challenges that could affect their permanence.鈥
