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3. To reduce youth unemployment and
significantly lower the percentage of young people that neither study nor
work. We shall strengthen our efforts
in the development of specific policies for training, vocational training,
reinsertion into the educational system and promotion of access of young
people of either gender to their first job. In this respect, some countries
promote youth employment in non traditional sectors such as in the
conservation and rehabilitation of the environment and in areas
of public-private partnerships to enable
access to formal education and introductory professional courses in the
workplace. We shall promote targeting these
programs, in particular,
towards youths that are
most vulnerable, whether because of low levels of education or low
income.(Plan of Action, Mar
del Plata)
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4. To eliminate discrimination against
women at work through, among other measures, the implementation of a range of
policies that will increase women’s access to decent, dignified, and productive
work, including policies addressing training and education and protection of
the rights of women, as well as proactive policies to ensure that men and
women enjoy equality in the workplace.(Plan of Action, Mar
del Plata)
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12.
To encourage, as appropriate, with the
corresponding educational authorities, the inclusion in educational curricula
the study of the Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and the dimensions
of decent work, bearing in mind the approach
of the ILO.(Plan of Action, Mar
del Plata)
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14.
To
increase the proportion of the active population, both employed and
unemployed, that participates in
occupational training activities to acquire or update their skills, including
those required in the knowledge-based economy, making use of the good
practices developed by CINTERFOR/ILO in various
countries in the region.(Plan of Action, Mar
del Plata)
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15.
In
addition to public efforts in this area, to
promote the development of business services that support occupational
training that facilitates the entry into the formal labor market
and the upgrading of the skills of the labor force.(Plan of Action, Mar
del Plata)
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16. To promote occupational health and safety
conditions and facilitate healthy work environments for all workers, and, to
that end, ensures effective labor inspection systems. For this purpose, it is
essential to foster strategic alliances between the labor, health,
environment and education sectors.(Plan of Action, Mar
del Plata)
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55. To develop, within the framework of the
OAS, before 2008, the study of a literacy program, taking into account
successful experiences in order to advance towards
the eradication of illiteracy in our countries.(Plan of Action, Mar
del Plata)
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56. To promote, within the framework of the
OAS, the exchange of experiences for the implementation of electronic
education programs articulating means,
resources, and tools aimed at strengthening and enriching the educational
processes in schools, including the use of new information and communication
technologies.(Plan of Action, Mar
del Plata)
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43. We
support the recommendations contained in the Declaration
and Plan of Action of the Fourth Meeting of Ministers of Education, held in
Scarborough, Trinidad and Tobago, August 10-12, 2005. We will strive for quality public education
at all levels and promote literacy to ensure a democratic citizenry, foster
decent work, fight poverty, and achieve greater social inclusion. Achieving
these goals requires a substantial financial investment by our governments
and international financial institutions. We note with satisfaction the
suggestion of the Ministers of Education that our governments explore
innovative forms of increasing financing for education with international
financing institutions, such as debt swaps for investment in education"
. (Declaration of Mar del Plata)
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33. Education is a decisive factor for
human development, because of its impact on the political, social, cultural,
economic, and democratic life of our societies. The increasing rates of
illiteracy in many of the states of our Hemisphere are
a matter which demands our immediate action. We commit to continue promoting
access to quality basic education for all, based on the principles of participation,
equity, relevance, and efficiency that generate the necessary
capabilities and skills to foster the development process of our peoples
without discrimination or exclusion of any kind and thereby respond to the challenges
of the twenty-first century. (Declaration of
Nuevo Leon)
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34. We commit to increase access to and
dissemination of information concerning our educational systems with the
objective of improving their performance. In this regard,
we reiterate our commitment to continue implementation of the Regional
Education Indicators Project, endorsed during the Third Inter-American
Meeting of Ministers of Education, held in Mexico City.
In particular,
each country that has not yet done so will develop and publicly disseminate
by the next Summit a report based on the education goals of the Plan of
Action of the Second Summit of the Americas, with the objective of fostering
its use as a decision-making tool to evaluate and improve result. (Declaration
of Nuevo Leon)
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35. We agree that scientific and technological
research and development plays an important
role in creating and sustaining productive economies. We will continue to
formulate policies and guidelines that support public and private research
associations and promote their interaction with the productive sectors,
taking into account the requirements and objectives of our countries. We will
continue to enhance investments in the area
of science and technology, with the participation
of the private sector and the support of multilateral organizations.
Accordingly, we will strive to improve effective and equitable access to, and
transfer of, technology. We will also redouble our efforts to encourage our
universities and higher institutions of science and technology to multiply
and strengthen the links among them, and deepen basic and applied research.
In all of these undertakings, we commit to the protection of intellectual
property in accordance with both national laws and international agreements.
(Declaration of Nuevo Leon)
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177.
Develop new
mechanisms to increase the effectiveness of projects and other technical
assistance designed to build the capacity of smaller economies and their
institutions to effectively implement labor laws and standards
and to foster equality of opportunity with respect to gender, among others,
in strategies to promote employment, training, life long learning
and human resource development programs with the objective of promoting
access to more and better employment in the new economy;(Plan of Action Québec)
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179. Continue to work towards
the elimination of child labor, and as a priority, promote the hemispheric
ratification and implementation of the ILO Worst Forms of Child Labor
Convention, 1999 (No. 182), work to bring
national laws, regulations and policies into conformity with this Convention,
and take immediate action to eliminate the worst forms of child labor;(Plan
of Action Québec)
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203. Entrust the OAS
to organize, within the framework of the Inter-American Council for Integral
Development (CIDI), a meeting of Ministers of Education in Uruguay, to be
held before the end of 2001, with a mandate to:
- identify and set up appropriate hemispheric mechanisms to ensure the
implementation of the education initiatives in this Plan of Action and to continue to promote actions on priorities
identified in previous Summits based on a careful
evaluation of our collective achievements in this area;
- establish time lines and benchmarks for
follow-up on the implementation of our commitments in education;
-establish, in light of the fundamental importance of mobilizing resources to
support sustained investment in education at all levels, a cooperative
mechanism to promote the development of productive partnerships
among governments and with regional and international organizations and the
MDBs;
- promote the participation of and dialogue
with relevant civil society organizations to strengthen partnerships
between the public sector and other sectors of our societies in implementing
this Plan of Action;(Plan of Action Québec)
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204. Formulate and
implement policies, within the framework of a strategy for resolving social
inequalities, to promote access to quality basic education for all, including
early childhood and adult education, particularly
to promote literacy, while providing for alternative methods that meet the
needs of disadvantaged segments of the population or of those excluded from
formal education systems, in particular
girls, minorities, indigenous, and children with special education needs; share
information and successful experiences in encouraging educational participation
and addressing student retention within certain groups, especially boys -in particular
in the Caribbean countries - whose drop-out
rate at the secondary level is high in
certain regions;(Plan of Action Québec)
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205. Support and promote lifelong learning by:
- offering varied curricula based on the development of skills,
knowledge, civic and democratic values;
- providing flexible service delivery mechanisms, including the use of
information and communications technologies, to foster employability,
personal growth and social commitment; and
- certifying skills acquired on the job;
(Plan of Action Québec)
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206.
Strengthen education systems by:
- encouraging the participation of all sectors of society in order to obtain a
consensus on policies that are viable and that guarantee
the appropriate and continuous distribution of resources;
- decentralizing their decision-making and promoting the participation
of civil society, especially parents; and
- promoting transparent school management in the interest of securing an
adequate and stable allocation of resources so that educational institutions
can play a leading role as agents for change;(Plan of Action Québec)
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207.
Enhance the performance of teachers by:
- improving their conditions of service; and
-raising the profile of the profession by providing, in addition to solid
initial preparation,
opportunities for ongoing professional development, and by designing
accessible, flexible, dynamic and relevant training strategies using, among
other means, new information and communications technologies;(Plan of Action
Québec)
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208. Support ongoing
regional projects for comparable indicators
and educational assessment resulting from the Santiago Summit, including
cooperation initiatives based on performance assessment programs regarding
educational processes and achievement, taking into consideration studies in
pedagogy and assessment practices previously developed by countries; develop
comparable indicators to assess the services
provided by each country to people with special education needs and promote
the exchange of information on policies, strategies and best practices in the
Americas;(Plan of Action Québec)
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209. Strive to ensure that secondary
education is more responsive to evolving labor market
requirements by promoting the diversification of programs and experimentation
with new, more flexible teaching methods with emphasis on science and
technology, including the use of new information and communications
technologies, and by supporting the establishment of mechanisms for the
recognition and certification of acquired skills; and to this end, promote
the exchange of information and best practices and support cooperation
projects; Promote more effective
dialogue between society and institutions of higher education, and facilitate
access for all to these institutions by balancing growing demand with higher
quality standards and public funding with
greater commitment from the private sector; support hemispheric cooperation
for research in science and technology aimed
at the solution of specific problems in the region and the transfer of
knowledge;(Plan of Action Québec)
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210. Promote more effective dialogue
between society and institutions of higher education, and facilitate access
for all to these institutions by balancing growing demand with higher quality
standards and public funding with greater
commitment from the private sector; support hemispheric cooperation for research
in science and technology aimed at the solution of specific problems in the
region and the transfer of knowledge;(Plan of Action Québec)
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211. Support the
mobility, between countries of the Hemisphere, of students, teachers and
administrators at institutions of higher education and of teachers and
administrators at the elementary and secondary
levels, in order to provide them with new opportunities to take part
in the new knowledge based society, to increase their knowledge of other
cultures and languages, and to enable them to access information on
post-secondary studies and learning
opportunities offered across the Hemisphere, through new or existing hemispheric networks, such
as the educational Web site set up after the Santiago Summit; continue to
support initiatives in this field such as those carried
out by the IDB and the OAS;(Plan of Action Québec)
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212. Promote access
by teachers, students and administrators to new information and
communications technologies applied to education, through training geared
toward new teaching approaches, support for
development of networks and sustained strengthening of information clearinghouses,
in order to reduce the knowledge gap and the digital divide within and
between societies in the Hemisphere;(Plan of Action Québec)
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239. Promote and accommodate, as
appropriate, the particular
cultural, linguistic and developmental needs of indigenous peoples, in urban
and rural contexts, into the development and implementation of educational
initiatives and strategies, with special attention to building institutional
capacity, connectivity and linkages, including through national focal points,
with other indigenous peoples of the Hemisphere;(Plan of Action Québec)
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240. Promote and enhance, in all sectors
of society, and especially in the area of
education, the understanding of the contribution made by indigenous peoples
in shaping the national identity of the countries in which they live; (Plan
of Action Québec)
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4. Implement targeted
and inter-sectoral educational policies, as necessary,
and develop programs that focus specifically on groups at a disadvantage in
the areas of education, functional
illiteracy and socio-economic conditions, with attention to women, minorities
and vulnerable populations. Inter-sectoral programs in education, health and
nutrition, as well as early childhood
educational strategies, will be priorities, in as much as they contribute
more directly to plans to combat poverty.(Plan of Action, Santiago de Chile)
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5. Establish or strengthen national or
subnational and, where applicable, subregional
systems to evaluate the quality of education, which permit assessment of the
performance of various educational actors,
innovations and factors associated with achievements in learning.
To that end, information and national or subnational or, where applicable, subregional
indicators will be made available that can be used to design, carry
out and evaluate quality-improvement programs based on equity. Standards
for reading and writing, mathematics and science shall receive special
attention. Also, where appropriate, criteria and methodologies for collecting
data that permit comparison of some
educational indicators across countries in the Hemisphere shall be
established.(Plan of Action, Santiago
de Chile)
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6.
Develop comprehensive programs to improve
and increase the level of professionalism among teachers and school
administrators that combine pre-service and in-service training, exploring
incentive mechanisms tied to updating their skills and to meeting such standards
as may have been agreed upon. Higher education must collaborate in this
endeavor through research and pedagogy, both
of which should be strengthened in order to meet this goal.(Plan of Action, Santiago
de Chile)
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7. Strengthen education management and
institutional capacity at the national, regional, local and school levels,
furthering, where appropriate, decentralization and the promotion of better
forms of community and family involvement. Encourage the mass media to
contribute to bolstering efforts being made by educational systems.(Plan of
Action, Santiago de Chile)
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8. Strengthen preparation,
education and training for the world of work so that an increasing number of
workers can improve their standard of living
and, together with employers, have the opportunity to benefit from
hemispheric integration. In this regard,
consideration will be given to the adoption of new technology based on
different options and alternatives, ranging from specific occupational
training to strengthening general employability competencies. Special
attention will also be paid to the establishment or strengthening of
mechanisms that permit workers to obtain certification of job-related
competencies acquired through formal education and work experience. In order
to confront changes in the labor market and
to enhance employability prospects, actions that take into account the
development of entrepreneurial skills will be included and will involve the
different sectors and offer various options
and alternatives.(Plan of Action, Santiago de Chile)
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9. Establish or improve, according to their
internal legal framework, educational strategies relevant to multicultural
societies, so as to be able to shape, with the participation
of indigenous populations and migrants, models for bilingual and
intercultural basic education. Similarly,
the content of basic education will have to be enhanced, together with
respect and appreciation for the cultural diversity of peoples, as well as to
expand the knowledge of the different languages spoken in the countries of
the Hemisphere, where resources and possibilities permit.(Plan of Action,
Santiago de Chile)
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10. Develop, within and outside schools, with
the assistance of families and other actors and social organizations,
educational strategies that foster the development of values, with special
attention to the inclusion of democratic principles, human rights,
gender-related issues, peace, tolerance and respect for the environment and
natural resources.(Plan of Action, Santiago de Chile)
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11. Promote access to
and use of the most effective information and communication technologies in
education systems, with special emphasis on the use of computers, in
combination with revised pedagogical methods and proper training for teachers
in the use of these technologies. Special attention shall be paid to the
ethical imperative of including the most vulnerable sectors. To that end,
distance education programs shall be strengthened and information networks
established.(Plan of Action, Santiago
de Chile)
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12. Make efforts to increase the
availability of teaching materials in collaboration with official
institutions and, depending on the specific conditions in each country, with
the private sector.(Plan of Action, Santiago
de Chile)
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13.
Seek to use technology to link schools
and communities as a way of establishing ties in the Hemisphere while
encouraging the participation of higher
education institutions that have advantages in this field.(Plan of Action, Santiago
de Chile)
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14.
Further scholarship
and exchange programs for students, teachers, researchers
and educational administrators using different strategies, including
institution-to-institution ties, communications technology and internships
which permit exposure to pedagogical and management innovations in the other
countries of the Hemisphere. This will contribute to strengthening the
institutional capacity of Ministries or Departments
of Education, decentralized administrative entities and centers of higher learning.(Plan
of Action, Santiago de Chile)
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15 We, the Heads of State and Government,
recognizing the cardinal importance of
education as a foundation for development, agree, in accordance with our
respective legislative processes, to promote allocation of the resources
necessary for educational expenditure with a
view to attaining greater levels of equity, quality, relevance and efficiency
in the educational processes, emphasizing the optimal use of resources and a
greater participation of other social
actors.(Plan of Action, Santiago de Chile)
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17. Instruct the OAS
and request the IDB, the World Bank, and United Nations Economic Commission
on Latin-American and the Caribbean (ECLAC),
among other institutions, to use the mechanisms within their scope to develop
and strengthen regional cooperation in areas
such as distance education, using, among other means, satellite technology;
internships and exchange programs; the development and use of information
technology for education; the updating of education statistics; and quality
assessment, while striving to ensure that this cooperation is in keeping with
the specific needs of each country. We recognize the role and interest in
these efforts of specialized international organizations, such as United
Nations Education, Science and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Likewise, we
recognize the contributions of the private sector, philanthropic foundations,
and pertinent non-governmental organizations.(Plan of Action, Santiago
de Chile)
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34. Include in educational programs, within the
legal framework of each country, objectives and contents that develop
democratic culture at all levels, in order to teach individuals ethical
values, a spirit of cooperation and integrity. To that end, the participation
of teachers, families, students and outreach workers will be stepped up in
their work related to conceptualizing and implementing the plans for shaping
citizens imbued with democratic value. (Plan of Action, Santiago
de Chile)
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168. To promote greater participation
of indigenous populations in society through adequate access to education,
health care, and occupational training, with
the aim of improving their standard of
living. (Plan of Action, Santiago
de Chile)
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169. Support activities in the field of
education aimed at improving the participation
of indigenous populations and communities in society. Such activities would
seek to strengthen the identity of indigenous populations and promote
respectful coexistence among different social groups in communities and
States.(Plan of Action, Santiago
de Chile)
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170. Promote the widening of basic and secondary
education services with training orientation, mainly in Regions with high
percentages of indigenous populations, through greater support from
Governments and international cooperation, at the request of interested
Governments, so that indigenous and non-indigenous populations have the
opportunity to receive technical training and contribute to the development
of their countries. To the extent possible, the training areas
which are implemented parallel
to educational processes should respond to the needs of the Region and to
productive strategie. (Plan of Action, Santiago
de Chile)
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172. Facilitate the organization of
round-tables at the national and hemispheric level, in partnership
with indigenous populations, with a view to promoting greater understanding
of and cooperation in the areas of education
and health, with a particular
emphasis on women and children. Governments will also promote research
initiatives on the relationship between indigenous population, poverty and
development.(Plan of Action, Santiago
de Chile)
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Initiative
16. The Miami Summit
approved initiative 16, on "Universal Access to Education", the
main points of which relate to: access to quality education; vocational
training and adult education; technical, vocational and teacher training;
greater access to higher education, of better quality; universal access to
education for women; strategies to overcome nutritional deficiencies; and
decentralization and community participation.
(Plan of Action, Miami)
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