BUENOS AIRES, FEB. 15, 2002 (Zenit.org).- To rebuild Argentina, education must be reconstructed, leaders in the field say.
This was the conclusion of the 39th Rectors Course, organized by the Higher Council of Catholic Education. The course concluded last week in the School of Law of the University of Buenos Aires.
The meeting, attended by Archbishop Giuseppe Pittau, secretary of the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education, adopted a declaration with the significant title: «Our Commitment: To Reconstruct the Nation Beginning with Education.»
«As teachers of public schools of state or non-state management, from all over the country, we feel challenged by the crucial moment of our homeland,» the declaration states. «We know there is no future if we do not improve our education.»
The meeting was attended by 2,500 teachers. Graciela Giannetasio, Minister of Education, was present at the opening.
The teachers committed themselves to work to «give unity of purpose to our educational system, to give maximum priority to education as a state policy, to return to the school its cultural relevance in order to consolidate our identity and offer equitable education to all, especially the weak and excluded.»
They also manifested their intent to further «the exercise of freedom of education to free the Argentine educational potential; to give the state-managed school self-management in pedagogy and administration; to implement a national system of evaluation of quality that is trustworthy and independent.»
The teachers said that they will work to make the educational budget more open and efficient, allocating less money to the administrative bureaucracy while giving priority to the schools.
