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Argentina announced as country partner for ‘Davos of Education’ – Global Education & Skills Forum 2018
Argentina has today been named as the first Latin American country partner for the annual Global Education and Skills Forum (GESF).
The announcement was made at the fifth GESF – a Varkey Foundation initiative widely referred to as the ‘Davos of Education’
Argentina has today been named as the first Latin American country partner for the annual Global Education and Skills Forum (GESF).
The announcement was made at the fifth GESF – a Varkey Foundation initiative widely referred to as the ‘Davos of Education’ – being held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.
As country partner, Argentina will focus on teacher training, school principals training and teacher exchange programmes. Argentina will also be launching its own National Teacher Prize, inspired by the Varkey Foundation’s Global Teacher Prize, which was set up to recognize one exceptional teacher who has made an outstanding contribution to the profession as well as to shine a spotlight on the important role teachers play in society.
The partnership also builds on work that the Varkey Foundation is undertaking in Argentina in terms of helping to train high-quality teachers. In Argentina, the National Ministry of Education and Sports wants to transform the educational system, and the Varkey Argentina Foundation is working with the Ministry to train school principals and teachers.
After meeting with the Argentinian Government at the GESF last year, the Foundation launched its first programme in Jujuy to train 100 teachers that are now working in schools in the province.
And last month, the Foundation opened a new centre in Mendoza that along with Jujuy and more regions to follow will train 4,000 head-teachers during 2017 and benefit more than one million students.
The training covers instructional leadership aimed at school heads, enhancing the initial training given by Argentinian authorities. Serving and aspiring school leaders take an intensive six-week programme, covering modules such as leadership for school reform, managing technology integration, leading curriculum innovation and professional development.
The aim is that after the six-week programme they return to their schools with the necessary skills and tools to be the leaders that their institutions need. During the course they develop an innovation project that will be implemented in their schools after the programme. The Varkey Foundation team support the school heads after the programme to help implement their projects.
The target is for more than 10,000 innovative projects to be implemented in the next few years through the programme.
Esteban Bullrich, Argentinian Education Minister, said:
“We think education is the solution for the world’s problems. That’s why we want to push the global teacher agenda.
"We think education has the power to bring peace to the world. Every single teacher is a peace builder. We want to have global teachers who can be peace builders. Education unites us all.”
Sunny Varkey, Founder of the Varkey Foundation, said:
“Argentina has been at the forefront of pioneering innovative education reform in Latin America and we are delighted that they are to become a country partner for GESF, which is dedicated to debating new ways of how education can transform our world.”
Image courtesy – Nadia Lopez (Twitter)