Peru's Education Minister Jaime Saavedra today highlighted the role of innovation to improve collaboration between society actors during the 6th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum's Education Ministerial Meeting (AEMM) taking place in Lima.
“Innovation enhances cooperation among governments, industries and the academic sector. Progress in this field has been highly heterogeneous in different world economies,” the government official said during the 6th AEMM.
In this respect, APEC economies need to guarantee innovation at the classroom level, while acknowledging that providing children with laptops or computers is “not a magic formula” to solve education issues.
“We have to make proper use of information technologies in classrooms; educators should have the right skills to use them effectively,” he pointed out.
Universities
The Education portfolio head noted there is much work to do in a number of APEC nations to ensure universities provide a space to respond to questions on development and public policy challenges.
“In many cases, there is still a sort of divorce between the country and government's needs to define the right public policies and what is going on in universities,” he said.
In this sense, the transition to work poses a major challenge given the fast-changing nature of the job market. Thus, students should develop the technical abilities the world will demand in the future.
The Minister reasserted most APEC members need to carry on with education systems modernization due to the multiple organization and pedagogical management difficulties.
“We face several challenges to transform our schools into learning centers, not only for students, but for educators as well,” he expressed.
Saavedra also referred to education investment, and warned about economies — including Peru — which are yet to reach proper education expenditure levels.
Likewise, the government official addressed gender inequality in education and the need to provide vulnerable populations with the same opportunities.
(END) CNA/JJN/DHT/RMB
Published: 10/5/2016