The Santillana Foundation kicks off its activities in Peru with Education Week

The Santillana Foundation has commenced its activities in Lima with Education Week, organized from April 14 to 16, in collaboration with Unesco, the Telefonica Foundation and El País. Researchers, experts and national and foreign educational leaders shared their views and experiences regarding the future of education, focusing on three main themes: technology, teacher training and leadership in management.

Inaugurating the event was Nobel Laureate Mario Vargas Llosa, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation, which is made up of leading figures from the worlds of education and culture in Peru. Vargas Llosa was joined by Jaime Saavedra, Minister of Education of Peru, who recognized the "huge debt" the country owes to education and spoke of the priority of investing in education policy.

Emiliano Martinez, vice president of the Santillana Foundation, stressed that this was an opportune time for the Foundation to undertake activities to Peru: "Education has never before been recognized as so important. The wealth of nations is human capital and this is achieved through quality training and, at the same time, there is a huge reservoir of information available from bodies that carry out research such as the OECD."

The White Paper "Technology for the improvement of education", by Claudia Limón, IDB Consultant, was also presented during the conference. On the second day, Hugo Díaz, president of the National Education Council (CNE), stressed the importance of teacher training to meet the needs of the 21st century and noted that about one fifth of teachers of Basic Education exercised as such in 2014 without having a teaching degree.

The panel, headed by Hugo Díaz, was chaired by the director of education of the Santillana Foundation, Mariano Jabonero, and included presentations by the representative of UNESCO in Peru, Magaly Robalino Campos; the Director General of Educational Development, Jorge Arrunátegui Gadea; the former dean of the Faculty of Education at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Manuel Bello; and the Director General of the Instituto APOYO and National Counselor for Education, Paul Neira.

Finally, on the third day, attention turned to "Executive leadership for the transformation and improvement of education." The focus was on the need to formulate educational policies around managing directors and their job performance.

Peru is the fourth Latin American headquarters of the Foundation, after Brazil, Argentina and Colombia. From its new office, the Foundation will be working with school principals, teachers, educators and other specialists in the educational community to strengthen the learning process.