¿Qué pasaría si quienes deciden las políticas educativas tuvieran a sus hijos en planteles públicos?

Rosa María Torres

Ministra de Educación y Culturas

Quito, julio 2003

Escuela privada y escuela pública - Claudius Ceccon (Brasil)

Una de las primeras críticas que recibió Bill Clinton al llegar a la Presidencia de los Estados Unidos fue su decisión de poner a su hija en un colegio privado, después de haberse declarado firme defensor de la enseñanza pública en su país. Esto, que al menos en Estados Uni­dos puede ser convertido en crítica pública y elevado a la categoría de incoherencia presidencial, es en verdad lo que hacen todos -o la inmensa mayoría- de presidentes en todo el mundo. Y lo que han hecho concretamente en nuestro país.

Entre broma y broma suele llamarse la atención sobre el hecho de que asesores y consultores en materia de políticas educativas tienen a sus hijos en planteles privados y que, por tanto, al no experimentar en carne propia las carencias y problemas de la enseñanza pública, no se sienten mayormente comprome­tidos ni vivencialmente urgidos a cambiarla.

Entre broma y broma, no obstante, es preciso tomarse el asunto en serio. Otro sería en efecto el estado y el destino de la educación pública si los altos mandos del poder, los decisores de políticas y de planes educativos, tuvieran a sus hijos e hijas en planteles públicos. Otra serían las energías financieras y sociales invertidas en profesionalismo y calidad docentes, en evitar los paros del magisterio o bien en resolverlos de inmediato, tan solo aplicando la coherencia entre el discurso y la práctica.

Presidentes de la República y colaboradores cercanos tienen a sus hijos en universidades, colegios y escuelas privados, a menudo estudiando en el extranjero. Allí mismo hijos y nietos del gabinete ministerial, del cuerpo diplomático y del congreso. Los funcionarios del Ministerio de Educación que pueden fi­nanciarlo no dudan en hacer lo propio. Igual cosa los abogados que redactan las leyes y decretos educativos. Investigadores, expertos y asesores nacionales e internacionales estudian y hacen propuestas de cambio para la educación pública, pero prefieren entretanto tener a sus hijos en planteles privados. Y nos asombra­ríamos de saber cuántos rectores y profesores de planteles públicos -incluso de los más pobres y apartados- tienen ellos mismos a sus hijos en planteles privados, haciendo los ahorros y los sacrificios económi­cos del caso.

El día que presidentes, vicepresidentes, ministros, secretarios, directores, sub­directores, asesores, jefes, dirigentes gremiales y autoridades de todo tipo tengan a sus hijos y nietos en planteles públicos, empezará a modificarse en serio el panorama de la educación pública. Entonces vendrá la urgencia, afluirá el dinero, importará en serio la calidad, se pondrá la pedagogía en el centro, se apurarán las gestiones, se ejecutarán las decisiones, se harán los cambios de verdad. ¿Sería mucho pedir que el Presidente, el Vicepresidente, el gabinete en pleno, los dirigentes gremiales del magisterio, los defensores de los derechos de la infancia, los promotores de una educación de calidad para todos, empezaran dando el ejemplo?.

* Pubicado en Diario Hoy, Quito, 17 julio 2003 

Artículos relacionados
- La doble moral de los políticos en materia educativa, Luciana Vázquez, La Nación, Argentina, 5 julio 2011
- ¿Deberían nuestros políticos llevar a sus hijos a colegios públicos? En Reino Unido lo hacen, Blog de Amparo Polo, 04/03/2013

Textos míos relacionados en OTRA∃DUCACION

Rosa María Torres, Pobre la educación de los pobres

Children's rights: A community learning experience in Senegal

Children's rights: A community learning experience in Senegal

(Visit to Thiès, Senegal, 18 November 1994)

by Rosa María Torres

Four o'clock. The expected day has arrived: by foot or by bus, chanting and singing, children and adults from a nearby rural village begin to stream into this village. Learners - children and adolescents - from another village want to share what they have learnt in school around children's rights, through a special act they have prepared with the help of their facilitator. Children and adults are present, many of them students of either the adult or the adolescents programme, parents, the facilitators, and the members of the Village Management Committees of both villages. This is part of the non-formal basic education programme in national languages initiated in 1988 and implemented in Thiès by TOSTAN, a Senegalese NGO, with UNICEF and CIDA support.

The village comprises of barely a dozen homes. The houses are small and built with mud and straw, clustered together and separated from another cluster by wooden fences made out of branches. A few scattered trees and dusty narrow streets complete the scenario.

Most adults present are women. Many of them are mothers of the students, many are students or ex-students themselves of the adult education programme. Today, Friday, many men are at the mosque.

The entertainment has been organised in the open air, at the entrance of the village, next to a big baobab tree. A huge canvas hung between the tree and a fence provides a tent to protect against the sun. Children and adults sit on the floor, on mats or on small wooden seats. According to my count, over 200 people are gathered here. Facing them is a big map, a blackboard, a flipchart and a table.

Several signs with written texts in Wolof are to be seen all over the village: on the tree, on the wooden fences, on the houses. They are part of an effort to create a "literate environment", surrounding villagers with written texts. Streets have been baptised with such names as STREET OF KNOWLEDGE and STREET OF PEACE. The Boutique (a small village shop where mainly matches, oil, salt, are sold) -which, together with the school, is the only "modern" cement house in the village - displays on its facade a sign in Wolof that reads:

BOUTIQUE / CHOOSE WHAT YOU WANT

The facilitator is the master of ceremonies. He has made the drawings to illustrate children's rights, prepared his students, and promoted and organised this encounter. Everything is conducted in Wolof, one of Senegal's six national languages.

A series of songs introduce the act. The “alphabet song” seems to be one of the most popular ones: they tell me that the words remain the same, but each village puts it to its own melody, some of them with chorals. Most of the songs have been written by the students with the help of their facilitators. Thus, through music and rhythm, they welcome the visitors, praise the facilitator and acknowledge the organisations in charge of the education programme. A special song has been created on children's rights.

The facilitator announces the official start of the programme and explains it al length to the audience. Then he begins to unfold the flipchart.

Children of the world

The first picture is an introduction to the flipchart and presents children of different races and countries, wearing different costumes. The facilitator asks the students to describe what they see in the picture, and then asks them to point out differences. Children raise their hands and snap their fingers. They all want to speak. They give all sorts of answers: the hair, the shoes, the skin colour, the height, the clothes, the eyes. He then asks about their similarities and the children again answer: they are all people, they all have joys and problems, they all have to eat food. One small girl shyly states:

- "All the children have rights."

Everyone claps. Now the facilitator asks for a volunteer to come to the front, identify and choose a sheet of paper on which a text is written corresponding to the subject of the drawing, in this case, "All the children of the world have rights". A girl comes to the front: she studies the sheets displayed on the table, picks the right sheet, and then "reads" it aloud while turning around so that the phrase is visible to the entire audience. While "read" is here a verb between inverted commas - these young learners have started school only two months ago - since it is rather visually recognising words and phrases, this is actually the very first step to real reading, to reading with meaning and with fun!

Adults are expectant, laugh and applaud, seem both proud and annoyed. Perplexed and uneasy at the beginning, they begin to feel increasingly at ease as the act unfolds.

The whole presentation on children's rights will follow this pattern: introduction of the picture; questions to children on what they see illustrated; discussion of the right suggested by the picture; interpretation of the right by the children through a short, often provocative, dramatisation or poem they have created; discussion of the play or poem; and identification and reading aloud of small texts written on sheets of paper and which correspond to the drawings.

The right to good nutrition
The picture shows millet, chicken, tomatoes, fish, papaya, monkey bread (a fruit from the baobab tree), and eggs. After an introductory discussion on the right to good nutrition, a child reads a poem about a selfish father who wants all the good morsels of food saved for himself, and is not concerned about his children's nutrition. A man in the audience, who has been listening to the story with evident anxiety, raises his hand and says, genuinely annoyed:

- "But I hide when I do it. How do you know?"

Everyone laughs. The facilitator then asks the children how they would answer the selfish father. Further discussion follows among the men. Volunteers come to the front and pick up sheets with colourful drawings of food and short phrases written in Wolof:

children and chicken
children and papaya
children and millet
children and good nutrition

The right to health
The illustration shows a mother immunising her young child. Following the questions and answers on children's right to health, a skit is staged with a husband and wife discussing the immunisation issue. The wife - a young volunteer who has borrowed a baby from a real mother in the audience - asks her husband for money in order vaccinate the child. He says he does not have the money. She blames him for spending the money in playing the lottery and buying tea. Finally, he agrees and she takes the baby to the vaccination post. Laughter and applause follow from the audience as the boy (playing the husband) dances off into the crowd. A lively discussion among the parents ensues in reaction to the husband's attitude. A girl volunteers to identify, pick up and read aloud the message "Children and health".

The right to a clean environment
The picture shows a woman with a broom, cleaning up her yard, and several garbage baskets aligned by the fence of the house. After discussion, the children present a skit in which they have been working on a village clean up and are discussing further actions to assure success. Then an older man comes along and throws down paper from the food he has been eating. When the children try to explain to him that he should not dirty the environment they are working to clean up, he becomes angry and says that children do not have the right to tell adults what to do. Discussion follows this skit among the children and the adults.

The facilitator asks:
- "What will happen in the future if everyone continues to pollute the environment?"

The children respond in unison:
- "Our whole country will be a garbage pile!".

The adults are delighted with this outburst.

The right to education
The drawings illustrate four types of learning ("houses of learning"): a woman teaching her child to cook (life learning), a blacksmith teaching a young apprentice (traditional job learning), a boy with a wooden slate on his knees (religious learning), and a boy and a girl with modern clothing and books under their arms (learning brought in from the outside, the French school system). The facilitator asks questions on each type of learning: what for? what methods? what differences?. A child comes forward and reads a poem on the importance of learning in national languages.

The right not to work too much
In this drawing, a girl is busy with many domestic chores. A girl comes to the front and reads a poem that speaks of a girl who does all the work in the house and has no time to play. She ends the poem with:

"At night, when I finally lie down to sleep,
I think and think and think about life.
My heart is full and I begin to cry
Because I do not know
When all this suffering will end."

Adults - and, particularly, mothers - seem uncomfortable and distressed.

[A parenthesis on children's responsibilities]

At this point, a sheet on RESPONSIBILITIES is inserted in the flipchart, apparently to counterbalance the many rights of children and the increasing anxiety of parents. There are no pictures on this paper, only written text. The facilitator asks the children to name their responsibilities and duties. Some of the answers are:

to be polite
to be respectful
to love oneself
to love one's country
to be obedient
to help out
to promote peace

The right to play
The illustration shows several children at play: a boy and a girl playing together; a girl on a swing; another girl dancing. The facilitator asks volunteers to show the audience certain traditional Senegalese games. Five girls come to the front and show two such games, combining song and rhythm.

The right to free expression
The drawing shows children talking to each other in a circle. A boy recites a poem that ends with "all children have good ideas, so let us speak up". Adults laugh nervously.

The right not to be exploited
The illustration shows a Marabout - traditional teacher in the (religious Koranic school) - with a child chained next to him, and another child begging near a bus full of people. The issue appears to be very sensitive. A man, visibly upset, asks for an explanation. The facilitator explains that there are different types of Marabouts, and that this one belongs to the type that do not really educate children under their care, but instead exploit them and live off them, forcing children to beg and to bring them money, or else they get punished and chained. Then, he tells his own story while he lived in a with a Marabout: he begged for alms, but only in his own neighbourhood and at that time begging was considered a formative experience, learning to be humble and to see how hard it is to be poor. Everyone is really attentive to his explanation. Many mothers nod their heads in agreement.

The right not to be punished
The drawing shows a father beating his son. Children comment that no one has the right to beat anyone (literally, in Wolof, "no one has the right to take the personality away from another"). Parents remain quiet.

One of the visitors intervenes and challenges the children with the question:
- "But how do you teach children if you do not punish them?."

A small, skinny girl immediately responds:
- "You take him or her to the back of the house or into a room, and there you talk to them and advise them."

There is sustained laughter. Many seem surprised at the young girl's quick, sharp and wise response.

In concluding the act we, the visitors, are introduced. The Presidents of both Village Management Committees address the audience. They congratulate and applaud the facilitator. A girl spontaneously reminds everyone to also congratulate and applaud the facilitator's trainer.

In his brief address, one of the Presidents of the Committee says to the children:
- "If I were you, and had learnt what you have learnt in two months, I would be shouting and praising your teacher more than you do".

A father in the audience thanks children because "they have brought a lot of knowledge to the adults".

A mother says: "It is the first time that three neighbouring communities have met together. And this is thanks to the education of both the children and the adults."

A young boy, full of enthusiasm, jumps into the centre of the stage and starts to dance. Someone grabs a huge plastic bowl and uses it as a drum.

And the big party begins. Girls and boys, children and adults: all are in the mood to dance. The same spot, different choreography. Brief, intense, frantic, individual dancing performances that commit the whole body, the mind, the entire person. While one dances, the others clap hands, and others - mainly women - play on improvised drums (plastic, metal, wood) that multiply very quickly. An educational act turns into a village celebration. The critical issue of children's rights has brought children and adults closer, and two villages in contact for the first time.

We have witnessed a memorable occasion in the lives of these children and adults, and of these villages. Nothing here has been conventional. Education and rights, school and life, students and parents, parents and teachers, teachers and students, reading-writing and singing-dancing, flipcharts, poems and plays: they all seemingly interact and go together naturally. Conventional categories and classifications - formal/ non-formal/ informal education, school/out-of-school, or the distinction between children/ adolescents/ adults, or between children's education/ adult education, or even the term "community participation"- do not help to capture and explain what this is all about.

There is definitely an innovative approach to literacy; not necessarily a new method but a renewed understanding and a fresh insight on the meaning and joy involved in teaching and learning to read and write. Literacy as something that involves both children and adults, as a creative undertaking on the part of both teachers and learners, as an intelligent act, as a communication challenge. Literacy not per se but to know about one's rights, to reflect upon and to discuss them. Literacy as a social and cultural capital to share with others, with other children, with other adults, with other villages. Children and adults learning together, becoming literate and aware together, in a genuine family and community learning process.

No conventional terms or prefabricated educational jargon can describe what the villagers and ourselves, the visitors, experienced in those two hours in Thiès. This is why I have preferred to describe it, and to describe it as I saw it, to share it with you.

Related posts in this blog
Rosa María Torres, Children's right to basic education
Rosa María Torres, Open Letter to School Children

Education in the Information Society

Rosa María Torres
(ver texto en español aquí)

This text is part of the book Word Matters: Multicultural Perspectives on Information Societies, a collaborative effort of CMIC (Canada), FUNREDES (Dominican Republic) and VECAM (France), coordinated by Alain Ambrosi, Valérie Peugeot and Daniel Pimienta. The book, published by C. F. Éditions in various languages, was officially launched at a special session at the World Summit on the Information Society; (Tunis, 16-18 Nov. 2005). Much has happened in the world since then and in the ICT field specifically. However, many of the facts and critical issues highlighted in this text remain valid and are challenges requiring further elaboration and action in the increasingly complex intersection between education, information, communication, learning and the Internet.

Introduction

Are we really dealing with a concept when we talk about Education in the Information Society? The term does not appear with its own drive and meaning, but rather tied to the rhetoric of the “Information Society” (IS), proclaimed to be the society of the future, of the 21st century. It does not have one single meaning; it exists side by side with many related terms without clear borders, and with poor conceptual, theoretical, and pedagogical development. Both IS and Education in the IS tend to confuse information, knowledge and learning, and to reduce them to so-called "modern Information and Communication Technologies" (ICTs). ICTs have created new identities, forms and levels of inclusion/exclusion: the connected versus the not-connected, and huge differences within the "the connected" in terms of availability, modes and quality of access.

Technologies, for what kind of education project?

In order to approach Education in the IS we must approach each of its constituent terms: “information society” and “education”.

Traditionally, the term education evokes the school system, formal education, and childhood. Emphasis has been placed on teaching rather than on learning. Little importance has been given to learning, with quantitative indicators of access and completion dominating the scenario. Learning is confused with assimilation and repetition of information. More importance is given to things - infrastructure and equipment - than to people and to teaching and learning conditions, to the supply rather than to the demand, to results over processes. The school mentality has contributed to limit the vision and the field of education, conceiving it as a sector, thus separating it from political, economic, social, and cultural dimensions. Also, education is traditionally viewed as a service rather than as a right.

In the history of education, “modern” ICTs are in fact the last wave of a continuum. Educational or instructional technology has had a high profile in the education field over several decades: in the 60s and 70s, it was radio and television; in the 80s and 90s, school textbooks, video, and the computer as an instructional aid; since the mid-1990s, the computer and the CD-Rom started to dominate the scenario and, in recent years, the Internet, increasingly displacing “conventional technologies”.

In the late 1980s, UNICEF adopted the term “Third Channel” to refer to “all available instruments and information, communication, and social action channels that can be used to help transmit basic knowledge, and inform and educate the population regarding social issues”, assuming formal and non-formal education as the other two educational channels (UNICEF, 1990). The World Conference on Education for All (Jomtien, Thailand, 1990), organized by UNESCO, UNICEF, UNDP, and the World Bank, placed great hopes on this “third channel” to reach the six Education for All (EFA) goals by the the year 2000. However, in 2000 the goals were reduced and the deadlines extended to 2015. Today, the goal for countries in the South ("developing countries") is no longer “basic education” ("meeting people’s basic learning needs", as defined at Jomtien), but "primary education” (completion of 4 years of schooling is the indicator set by the Millennium Development Goals). The “Third Channel”, originally viewed as a broad channel shared by traditional and modern technologies, disappeared from EFA goals and was reduced to ICTs. Over the past few years, Education in the IS rhetoric has focused on the virtual world, leaving behind the discussion on basic learning needs, adopting as central topics such as competitiveness and the "new skills" required by the market in order to “adapt to change” -- rather than to actively promote, redirect and control change.

It is necessary to place the “technological revolution” in space and time, as well as the announcement of the IS and the “Information Age”. They all originated in the North ("developed countries"), particularly the United States, and were later transplanted to and appropriated by the South. They emerged in the 1990s, a decade that marked a turn in the history of humanity, with the globalization of the neoliberal model and its great paradoxes: technological revolution with growing social exclusion, globalization with greater localization, concentration of political and economic power in few hands together with (also global) expansion and articulation of social protest and social movements. Largely inspired by the growing life span and by the expansion of ICTs, the old “lifelong learning” utopia reemerged in the 2000s and was proposed as the guiding paradigm for education, capacity-building/training, and research systems in the North and especially in Europe. Inaugurating the new century, an embrionary vision of "the school of the future”, "the school of the 21st century", started to take ground (Delors et. al. 1996; European Communities Commission, 2000).

In this context, intertwined with powerful interests and conflicts, very different visions of the IS have emerged: an IS understood as access to ICTs, aiming at reducing the “digital divide” and ensuring a "connected" world “; and an IS “with a human face”, that transcends ICTs, committed to lifelong learning and to the building of a new social paradigm with economic justice, equality, and well-being for all. Both visions remain in conflict and have been present at the World Summits on the Information Society (WSIS: Geneva 2003; Tunis 2005).

Often the terms society and age, as well as information-communication-knowledge-learning are used interchangeably, without due differentiations. A clear example is the International Adult Literacy Survey - IALS, which in 1997 spoke of competencies for the “knowledge society” and in 2000, of competencies for the “information age” (OECD/Statistics Canada 1997, 2000). The WSIS made the term IS official, thus choosing to talk about society and information. An ongoing and much-debated decision and terminology.

An Information Society that increases inequality

“Education for the Information Society” does not have a clear or unique definition. In fact, it has not been incorporated in international Glossaries related to education. Parameters or indicators referred to its feasibility, relevance, and quality have not been established. The Education Index, a component of the Human Development Index (HDI) calculated by the UNDP, is limited to adult literacy rates and enrollment rates for the three education levels (primary, secondary, tertiary), and is clearly insufficient to capture the educational profile and status of any society.

Given the dominant trend to reduce IS to ICTs, Education in the IS also tends to be reduced to ICTs and ICT potential for educational and learning purposes, in and out of school, to assist educators and/or to replace them. “Education and ICTs”, “Use of ICTs in Education”, “digital literacy”, are some of the names adoped by this vision of Education in the IS. Many confuse it with virtual or electronic education (e-learning), often romanticizing it while undermining the credibility and relevance of the school system, thus reinforcing the trend towards privatization and/or towards the elimination of the school system altogether.

Characteristics attributed to Education in the IS usually refer to the greater flexibility allowed by ICTs, thus allowing greater diversification and individualization/personalization, all of them old dreams within the education field. However, concerns continue to be centered on supply, opportunities, and access (to the computer, to Internet, and more recently to bandwith) rather than on the relevance and the quality of content and methods, production and dissemination conditions, and in general what type of information/education and for what purpose (personal and social impact). Hardware predominates over software technology and education itself, and information over communication, knowledge and learning. There is a rather passive and reactive approach to ICTs - seen as tools capable of disseminating information - rather than a more active and proactive approach where individuals may see themselves not only as consumers but also as creators of information and knowledge.

From the first telematic networks (1980s), aimed at interconnecting schools at the national and international levels, we have moved into macro policies and projects that propose to install computers in every school and, ideally, to ensure one computer per student. Many believe that ICTs will be able to make personalized and  lifelong learning a reality, with the help of the many mobile devices and gadgets that continue to emerge.

In fact, the possibility of lifelong learning has never been so close and at the same time so far away: close for the minority that can access and take full advantage of the learning possibilities of ICTs; far for the majority of mankind, the poor, the illiterate, the millions around the world living on less than one dollar a day, those being prescribed four years of primary school for the “school age” population. This is what the Millennium Development Goals (2000-2015) propose for education today - acritically adopted by the WSIS - together with gender equality in primary and secondary education;  no goal for adult education. We are thus participating in a curious Information Age, where the right to education shrinks while the economic and social divide between the North and the South, between the poor and the rich, grows.

Key topics for debate and reflection

Some problems and dilemmas (conceptual, political, social, ethical, pedagogical) linked to the Information Society (IS) and to Education in the IS (EIS) within this framework may be summarized as follows:

"Education in the Information Society" (EIS) is a vague term, difficult to grasp, trapped within two problematic terms: education (in times when learning becomes a key word, together with learning to learn and lifelong learning) and information (when the objective is to transcend data, to build, advance and use knowledge).
 The weak or nonexistent differentiation between information and knowledge, between Information Society (IS) and Knowledge Society (KS), and the use of both as interchangeable, with an emphasis on information rather than on communication.
 The lack of clear differentiation between information and education, capacity-building and training, education and learning, and even teaching and learning. These confusions often attribute ICTs characteristics and roles that do not correspond. It is essential to differentiate the informative, communicational, and educational/training potential of ICTs and of each of them in particular.
 Modern ICTs associated with information and communication, ignoring the role of traditional ICTs and key information/communication institutions such as the family, the community, the school system, mass media, social networks, the street, the workplace, etc.
 ICTs (and actual notions on information and communication) reduced to the computer and the Internet. In addition, the use of “modern” to classify ICTs is relative; there are other modern technologies, others came before, and these will soon cease to be such.
 ICTs between resistance and fascination, with fascination winning the battle so far and maybe for a long time to come. “Access to a computer and to English teaching” have become expectations and false indicators of the quality of a school, whether public or private, and increasingly also in many non-formal educational programmes.
 Between domestication and empowerment: the double edge of ICTs, which may serve both for globalization of consumption, competition, and other values permeating the neoliberal model, as well as for globalizing knowledge, protest, solidarity, and the building of a different world (World Social Forum).
 “Reduce the digital divide” established as an objective in itself, without paying attention to the structural gaps that explain and support the digital divide (political, economic, and social, between the North and the South, and within each country).
 Powerful political and financial interests behind the race for ICTs remain hidden behind the IS rhetoric. The field of education has become a privileged marketplace, disputed by politics as well as by private companies and large multinational corporations.
 Tension between the local, the national, and the global, with a devouring trend of global cultural industries and powers, resulting in increased homogenization and "one-size fits all" in terms of thinking and doing.
 Great expectations placed on ICTs as artifices of the much awaited "education revolution", diverting attention and financial resources from essential conditions and structural factors that condition education supply and demand: the economic ans social well.being of the population, basic rights being served, and a highly professional and well paid teaching force for all levels of free public education. A bad school with computers continues to be a bad school.
 The IS and the emphasis on information contribute to reinforce rather than to alleviate old and well-known problems of the school system and culture such as memorization, encyclopedism,   superficial and fast reading,  reading to get information rather than to enjoy knowledge and good writing, fast writing, Internet quick searches confused with research, copy and paste, etc. “Banking education”, in sum, has left the classroom and is being expanded on a global scale.
 Reiteration of errors, ignoring lessons learned. Countries and international agencies continue to repeat the same problems and errors in the design and implementation of policies and projects linked to ICTs and education. Purchase and distribution go first, teachers - as usual - go last.
 Double discourses and dual agendas for the North and for the South. In full emergence of the IS, the North adopts lifelong learning for itself and prescribes 4 years of schooling for the South. "Think globally and act locally" seems also part of this scheme that divides thinkers and doers. The “official aid for development”, nor by its volume nor by its conditionalities, by no means resolves a historic and structural problem of asymmetry, inequality, and growing foreign debt.

Towards universal literacy

The Information Society (IS) is a new and ongoing process. The true aspiration is building Knowledge Societies, and Learning Societies. In this framework, education in and for the information society should be an education that:
 Ensures universal literacy and basic, relevant, and quality education, for the entire population, both in the North and in the South.
 Promotes and aims to articulate learning in and outside the school system, formal, nonformal, and informal learning, in the family, in the community, in the workplace, in every space where there is production, creation, recreation, social participation, etc.
 Takes advantage of all tools and technologies available - not only ICTs - towards integral communication and learning strategies for all and for all ages.
 Teaches a critical approach, selection and use of information and knowledge; to identify, produce, and disseminate relevant information and knowledge; to develop autonomous and complex thinking; to actively participate in transformative social action.
 Defends and embodies the right to education in its practices, understanding the right to education fundamentally as the right for all to learn, to learn to learn, and to learn throughout life through all available means.

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Related texts
▸ Rosa María Torres Over Two Decades of 'Education for All' ▸ Más de dos décadas de 'Educación para Todos' 

EducarEcuador: "Este portal puede ser un aliado clave de la educación ecuatoriana"

Quito, 16 enero 2003.  (Entrevista realizada por periodistas de EducarChile, el portal chileno, contratado en 2002 por el gobierno de Gustavo Noboa para organizar el portal ecuatoriano)
Nueva ministra de Educación analiza los desafíos de EducarEcuador Convencida de que las Nuevas Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicación (NTICs) pueden ser un aliado de su gestión, la nueva Ministra de Educación ecuatoriana, Rosa María Torres, tiene claros los desafíos de la actual educación de su país. En ese contexto analiza el aporte del recientemente creado portal EducarEcuador con una apuesta clara: potenciar a través de internet un trabajo intercultural que re-encante los aprendizajes. -¿Cómo pueden aportar las TICs a los desafíos de la educación en Ecuador? -La TICs, y en concreto el portal EducarEcuador,  pueden ser importantes; depende de cómo lo manejemos. Puede ser un cementerio que no visite nadie o un lugar vivo, nacional, abierto. Tendremos que darle un carácter propio al portal; pasar del portal estándar a uno arraigado en nuestras necesidades y realidades. -¿Cómo ve usted un portal ecuatoriano? - Un portal donde tiene que haber lenguas indígenas. Un portal intercultural es un gran desafío para muchos países de América Latina. En el Ecuador hay 14 lenguas indígenas.  Debemos hacer del multilingüismo y la interculturalidad un hecho, ya no solo una declaración. -¿Qué medidas piensa tomar en ese plano? -Hay que desarrollar una cultura de incorporación de la diversidad, al tiempo que un mayor y mejor uso de las herramientas tecnológicas. Pero además incentivar el gusto por aprender, que en este país se ha perdido. Esto empieza por los jóvenes y los niños, pero también pasa por los maestros, los profesionales, los investigadores... La gente necesita aprender cosas relevantes para su vida, no sólo manejar datos, fechas, lo típico de nuestra educación. -¿El portal puede ser un aliado en ese sentido? -El portal puede ayudar a desarrollar algunas de esas cosas fundamentales como son aprender a aprender y recuperar el gusto por aprender. Pero no debemos darnos por satisfechos diciendo "ahí está el portal, úsenlo". Esto exige políticas activas. Hay que movilizar a la sociedad, ojalá con ayuda de los medios de comunicación, para que el portal sirva a todos los ecuatorianos. -¿Será ésta una prioridad de su gestión? -Mi prioridad es trabajar tanto desde el lado de la oferta como de la demanda. Mi objetivo no es promover las TICs; es lograr objetivos educacionales, con ayuda de las TICs. Les habla alguien que es fan de la tecnología... -Con un sitio web y todo... Sí, tengo un sitio web personal, Fronesis. Modero varias comunidades y grupos virtuales a nivel nacional e internacional. Como dijo el ministro Cordero en la presentación del portal: "Esta es una ministra que hace uso cotidiano de estas tecnologías". De manera que a mí nadie me tiene que convencer de su importancia. Por el contrario, soy una persona que ya tiene una reflexión crítica respecto de los falsos espejismos que puede generar la tecnología. En los ambientes más tradicionales y reacios a la incorporación de nuevas tecnologías me toca promover las TICs, pero a los fanáticos de la tecnología me toca pararles y decirles: la gente sigue siendo lo más importante. -¿Los profesores sienten que las TIC son una amenaza? -Hace cinco años los profesores les tenían terror a las TICs, eran una amenaza que los podía desplazar. En los últimos años se ha dado un cambio. La Unión Nacional de Educadores (el equivalente al Colegio de Profesores chileno) propone que en cuatro años todas las escuelas del Ecuador tengan aula informática. El sindicato viene desarrollando una iniciativa llamada Navegar.com. El magisterio está abierto y sabe que no entrar a las TICs es quedarse atrás. Acá las batallas son de otra naturaleza. -¿De qué van esas batallas? -La educación en el Ecuador tiene una situación de las más complicadas de América Latina. Enfrentamos diversidades regionales, culturales, étnicas, lingüísticas, y tenemos los problemas clásicos de deserción, repetición, baja calidad, pobres rendimientos escolares. -¿Cómo ve hoy la calidad de la educación en el Ecuador? -Tenemos un sistema muy atrasado tanto a nivel administrativo como curricular y pedagógico. La cultura escolar, la cultura educativa, es poco analizada y debatida en el país. Parte de mi tarea autoasignada durante muchos años en este país ha sido crear conciencia, generar información y debate públicos sobre la educación, que no es tema de reflexión y análisis permanente, ni siquiera entre los especialistas. -¿Cómo piensa abordar esos desafíos? - Hay que dar un vuelco, trabajar con la gente. Ha habido una concentración de las políticas en la oferta: capacitación docente, textos escolares, infraestructura. Todo eso es importante. Sin embargo, hay que trabajar desde el otro lado: generar información pública, participación ciudadana, conciencia, reflexión, debate ... La ciudadanía tiene que comprender la educación, no sólo los problemas de la educación sino la educación como problema. -¿Las TICs pueden ser un gran aliado en esta tarea? - Hay que tener claridad sobre la complejidad de estas decisiones. Por ejemplo: lo típico es comprar computadores sin tener en cuenta los pasos siguientes. Computadora va con currículo, pedagogía, capacitación, adecuación, mantenimiento, seguridad. Las experiencias fallidas son incontables en América Latina. Hay que pensar en el conjunto, desde el Estado hasta el maestro y en cada escuela. No son decisiones simples, ni sólo económicas. -¿Está optimista respecto al momento que vive Ecuador? -Me siento esperanzada. Tenemos que hacer una introducción inteligente de la tecnología. Debemos garantizar no sólo los recursos financieros, por supuesto esenciales, sino la comprensión de lo que estamos haciendo. El portal puede ser una herramienta para desarrollar un sistema de gestión transparente, de información pública y de empezar a entender la comunicación como lo que es, en su doble sentido: no sólo hacer boletines de prensa, sino recoger la información, los pedidos, las opiniones de la gente... EducarEcuador abre una ventana hacia el mundo.  Estoy encantada de recibir una herramienta ya armada durante la gestión del ministro Juan Cordero, en la que participé como asesora suya. Ahora toca desarrollarla y usarla. Estoy segura que el Ecuador va a poder aportar a otros procesos. -¿En temas interculturales por ejemplo? - Es un aporte que podríamos hacer a nivel latinoamericano. Tenemos que asumir nuestra diversidad y ver formas concretas de trabajar con nuestras diferencias culturales y lingüisticas.  -A nivel indígena ¿asustan las nuevas tecnologías? - No se las acaba de comprender, no sólo en el medio indígena sino en la sociedad ecuatoriana en general.  -¿Se ha pensado en la construcción de infocentros comunitarios para las comunidades indígenas por ejemplo? - Soy una convencida del aprendizaje comunitario. Hace tiempo vengo planteando y trabajando con la noción de "comunidad de aprendizaje". Es la comunidad entera la que tiene que aprender, no sólo los niños, los adultos, sino toda la comunidad. Soy una convencida del aprendizaje grupal, del aprendizaje intergeneracional. Para todo esto las TICs son una herramienta poderosa. Lo potente es construir espacios integrados donde confluyan estas cuatro cosas que nuestro ministerio dice que es: educación, cultura, deportes y recreación. Las TICs pueden ser un factor que las hilvana. Artículos relacionados en este blog Ecuador: 4 años de "revolución educativa" Cultura ciudadana: ¿qué clase de educación necesita Quito? Sólo OTRA educación cambia al Ecuador Nuevo Bachillerato Ecuatoriano: un tiro al aire No hay revolución educativa sin revolución docente y sin diálogo social Por qué voté en blanco por el Plan Decenal de Educación en la Consulta Popular de 2006 convocada por el gobierno de Alfredo Palacio La educación en el gobierno de Rafael Correa (compilación)

No hay revolución educativa sin revolución docente y sin diálogo social

Rosa María Torres

Publicado en Revista Vanguardia, Quito, 27 octubre 2009

“El gobierno y la UNE hacen las paces” titulaba un diario capitalino (8 octubre 2009) al día siguiente de la reunión en el Palacio de Gobierno entre dirigentes del magisterio y el Vicepresidente Lenin Moreno como culminación de la “toma de Quito” organizada por la Unión Nacional de Educadores (UNE).

Marcha y reunión marcaron el fin del paro nacional que duró 23 días, precedido de varios meses de guerra abierta entre el gobierno de Rafael Correa y sus ex-aliados UNE y Movimiento Popular Democrático (MPD).

Las palabras diálogos y acuerdos copaban los diarios desde el 5 de octubre, día de la reunión entre la dirigencia indígena y Rafael Correa a raíz de la movilización nacional de la Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas del Ecuador Indígenas (CONAIE) y los enfrentamientos que dejaron varios heridos y un muerto. No obstante, el alivio nacional creado por diálogos y acuerdos duró poco. Correa continuó fustigando a indígenas y a maestros.

Ambos acuerdos, con indígenas y con maestros, incluyeron seis puntos para continuar el diálogo. En el caso del magisterio los temas fueron escalafón, carrera, jubilación y evaluación, así como la nueva Ley de Educación. Como concluía el Vicepresidente Moreno, la lectura del acuerdo dejó claro que: “Nos hubiéramos ahorrado estos incidentes si hubiésemos tenido un diálogo fluido (...) Espero que nunca más se someta al magisterio al escarnio”. Dura y frontal crítica a Correa.

El acuerdo gobierno-UNE fue muy pobre, ratificando el carácter gremial y reivindicativo de las protestas y propuestas de la UNE. Después de dar guerra a la evaluación docente, denunciándola como ilegal e inconstitucional, la UNE terminó aceptándola, contentándose con alguna benevolencia frente a los castigos anunciados y con la posibilidad de opinar en torno a leyes cuyas reformas comprometen cuestiones gremiales.

El gobierno, por su lado, logró imponer no solo como innegociables sino como indiscutibles asuntos como la (discutible) evaluación docente y su (también discutible) vinculación con la mejoría de la calidad de la educación. “La evaluación va, porque va” repitió Correa una y otra vez, posiblemente ignorando que la “evaluación del desempeño docente” y el “pago por mérito” son viejas banderas del Banco Mundial, parte de su receta para la reforma educativa en los “países en desarrollo”.

La ausencia de debate y la chatura de los acuerdos obliga a ubicarse en una perspectiva superadora. Así como el agua y los recursos naturales son asunto no solo de los indígenas sino de todos, la educación también es asunto de todos y también asunto de vida o muerte. Es necesario afianzar y al mismo tiempo abrir el debate sobre la educación más allá del magisterio y del gobierno, involucrando a toda la sociedad. 

Sería miope, una vez más, ver el fin del paro solo como el retorno a la normalidad en las aulas. Es preciso aprovechar el momento y las lecciones que deja este largo conflicto para rectificar y aceptar de una buena vez que el cambio educativo no puede hacerse desde arriba, en base a leyes y decretos, sin participación social y a espaldas a los docentes. La reforma educativa convencional – vertical, autoritaria, tecnocrática, "experta" - ha fracasado en todo el mundo.

No es posible “revolución ciudadana" sin “revolución educativa” y ésta sin “revolución docente”. No hay infraestructura ni computadoras ni pizarras digitales que compitan con un buen docente. Esto va mucho más allá de mejoras salariales, de esporádicos cursos de capacitación, o de las trilladas fórmulas de "evaluación de desempeño" y "pago por mérito". Implica repensar la profesión y el rol docentes; invertir fuertemente en aprendizaje docente antes y durante el ejercicio de la profesión, y a través de múltiples vías; selección, motivación y preparación rigurosas de los aspirantes al magisterio; y, como sustento de todo esto, construir condiciones para volver a hacer de la docencia una opción atractiva y estimulante, antes que la profesión devaluada, crecientemente compleja, ingrata y acosada que es en la actualidad.

* Para un seguimiento detallado del proceso y el conflicto en torno a la evaluación del desempeño docente ver mi blog Ecuador: La batalla por la evaluación docente.

Otros textos míos en este blog

- Ecuador: 4 años de "revolución educativa"

- La reforma educativa convencional

- El modelo de preparación docente que no ha funcionado

- Monólogo 

- El currículo propone y el profesor dispone
- Sobre educadores, buenos educadores y profesionalización
- Por qué voté en blanco por el Plan Decenal de Educación en la Consulta Popular de 2006 convocada por el gobierno de Alfredo Palacio

I Encuentro Internacional Monseñor Leonidas Proaño

Rosa María Torres

"De la educación liberadora a la Teología de la Liberación"

Riobamba-Ecuador (20-24 octubre 2010)

Blog oficial del Encuentro

"Mi universidad ha sido el pueblo y mis mejores maestros los pobres en general y particularmente los indígenas del Ecuador".
Monseñor Leonidas Proaño

"La Pedagogía del Oprimido deja de ser del oprimido y pasa a ser la pedagogía de los hombres en proceso de permanente liberación".

Paulo Freire

"La función de la educación es reproducir el sistema.
La Educación Liberadora es una lucha, una lucha permanente".
François Houtart

François Houtart
- El Ecuador de hoy a la luz del pensamiento de Monseñor Proaño, Obispo de los Indios

(Ponencia presentada en el I Encuentro Internacional en Homenaje al Pensamiento y Acción de Monseñor Proaño, Riobamba, 21 de octubre 2010)
- Los indígenas y los nuevos paradigmas del desarrollo humano

Monseñor Leonidas Proaño
(tomado de Fundación Pueblo Indio del Ecuador)

Profeta de los Pobres Obispo de los Indios Padre de la Iglesia Latinoamericana MONS. LEONIDAS  PROAÑO VILLALBA Nació en San Antonio de lbarra el 29 de enero de 1910 y luego de toda una vida coherente de entrega sin reservas a la liberación de los excluidos y oprimidos, retornó al Padre Dios el 31 de agosto de 1988. Por voluntad propia sus restos reposan en el Centro de Formación de Misioneras Indígenas en Pucahuaico. " Para entrar en el proceso de educación liberadora es menester despojarse de todo concepto de superioridad. Se trata, en efecto, de ir juntos, de ir caminando juntos. Se trata de irnos liberando juntos. Se trata de ir creciendo juntos". Monseñor Proaño Campaña Nacional de Alfabetización "Monseñor Leonidas Proaño" (Ecuador, 1988-1990)

Anecdotario: Acerca del machismo, la dirigencia y el poder

Rosa María Torres

Quito, Mayo 2003.- Paro de la Unión Nacional de Educadores (UNE) y pleno proceso de negociación con el Presidente de la República, Lucio Gutiérrez, y dentro de la Comisión de Negociación (Ministros/as de Gobierno, Economía, Trabajo, Educación, y dirigencia de la UNE). El Ministro de las Platas, Mauricio Pozo, insistía en que no había dinero para incrementar ni el presupuesto de la educación ni los salarios de los maestros. Las protestas y manifestaciones de la UNE hasta ese momento habían ido dirigidas a quienes correspondía: el Ministerio de Economía y el Palacio de Gobierno. Yo, como ministra, y todos nosotros, como Pachakutik, respaldábamos el reclamo salarial de los maestros.

No obstante, a la mañana de ese día, un contingente de maestros/as movilizado por la UNE Provincial de Pichincha llegó al Ministerio de Educación y Culturas (MEC). El Presidente de la UNE de Pichincha, Alex Castro, lideraba la marcha y el coro de consignas. El estribillo preferido, que resonó esa noche a través de los canales nacionales de televisión, fue:

“Ministra, cochina,
ándate a la cocina”.

En la puerta del ministerio, los manifestantes entregaron a los guardias de seguridad una canasta con verduras en mal estado, dentro de la cual venía un papel con dedicatoria y el estribillo en cuestión.

A la noche, nueva reunión de la Comisión en el Palacio de Gobierno. Antes de comenzar la reunión, pedí la palabra. Les dije a los dirigentes de la UNE presentes - Ernesto Castillo, Alex Castro y Jorge Escala - que no estaba dispuesta a aceptar el doble juego de insultos televisados por la mañana y diálogos de negociación por la noche, que exigía de la UNE el mismo respeto que yo tengo por los maestros, además de un llamado de atención y una disculpa por el comportamiento del dirigente de la UNE Provincial. El Presidente Nacional de la UNE calló. El dirigente de la UNE Provincial enrojeció hasta las orejas. El Presidente de la República, cándidamente, preguntó:

- “¿Qué es lo que le dijo, Ministra”?

Le recité varias consignas que se habían gritado frente al Ministerio esa mañana, incluida la de “Ministra, cochina, ándate a la cocina”.

- “Es que usted ha de cocinar muy bien pues, ministra”, acertó a comentar, jocosamente, Gutiérrez.

Siguieron sonoras carcajadas de los presentes, todos hombres, todos ecuatorianos, todos en posiciones de liderazgo. No viene a colación relatar lo que dije y sucedió a continuación. En todo caso, la anécdota relatada es más que eso: es una estampa del machismo profundo - bravucón, desvergonzado, impune, cotidiano - que pervive en el Ecuador, desde el palacio de gobierno hasta el hogar más humilde, desde la dirigencia magisterial hasta el aula escolar, y del cual puede llegar a hacer gala el propio Presidente de la República. ¿Qué clase de país y qué clase de educación podemos construir con esta clase de líderes, anti-ejemplo de los valores y actitudes que deben cimentar una educación y una sociedad democráticas?

No basta con contar cuántas mujeres hay entre los expositores del panel, en puestos de dirección, en cargos de gobierno. El índice de equidad de género va mucho más allá de los conteos y el llenado de 'cuotas' femeninas; compromete a la calidad de las relaciones entre ambos géneros, a los modos como se vive y ejerce el poder y la autoridad por parte de unos y otras, y entre ellos.

Es preciso seguir hablando, denunciando y penalizando socialmente el machismo - el burdo y explícito, el de todos los días, el que no tiene vergüenza, se disfraza de sentido común o de chiste de mal gusto - y también el solapado, el que anida entre líneas, en imágenes, giros, interrupciones aparentemente inocuas, asimetrías de todo tipo.

Es preciso seguir luchando para construir un genuino sentido de igualdad entre los géneros, una sociedad donde las mujeres seamos valoradas, bien tratadas y respetadas no por ser mujeres sino por lo que somos, sabemos y somos capaces de hacer, por ser personas, seres humanos, ciudadanas, madres o profesionales con méritos propios.

No es ésta tarea solo para mujeres. Es fundamental la complicidad activa y militante de los hombres. Necesitamos hombres y mujeres que se indignen - no que se rían - frente a las estampas cotidianas del machismo naturalizado como 'cultura', que violenta no solo la dignidad humana sino el sentido común.

En este caso, no era yo - la ministra - la denigrada, sino las millones de mujeres (y de hombres) que, desde tiempos inmemoriales, han hecho de la cocina un oficio y un arte, una estrategia de supervivencia y un regalo de amor a los suyos. Yo, que no sé cocinar, escribo esto no en defensa propia sino en defensa de todas las mujeres y hombres humildes cuyo oficio y cuyo arte no tolera degradaciones.

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