Fundación Santillana’s Education Week to analyze education as key to growth in Ibero-America

• For the first time, this, the 27th annual Fundación Santillana Education Week, is being held under the auspices of the Ibero-American Summit,which starts tomorrow in Cadiz. 
  
  
• Titled: EDUCATION: key to Ibero-American growth, the conference is a forum for the exchange of knowledge and practices in the education sector as a key factor in growth and economic recovery.
  
  
• Among those attending are leading figures from the worlds of politics and education, including the Spanish Minister for Education, Culture and Sport, José Ignacio Wert, the Secretary of State for International Cooperation, Jesús Gracia, the Ibero-American Secretary General, Enrique Iglesias and the Colombian Minister of Information Technologies and Communications, Diego Molano Vega.
  
  
• The writer and philosopher Fernando Savater, will give the closing speech, entitled: What is the contribution of education?

On Tuesday, November 20, the Fundación Santillana is to host the main conference event of the 27th annual Education Week, which this year has as its theme "Education: key to Ibero-American growth”. For the first time, the week of activities is being held under the auspices of the Ibero-American Summit which runs over the weekend in Cadiz. 

The aim of the week is to promote discussion and the exchange of ideas and experiences regarding the relationship between education, growth and development.The main conference event takes place at the Circulo de Bellas Artes in Madrid and will be opened by the Minister of Education and Culture, José Ignacio Wert, the Secretary of State for International Cooperation, Jesús Gracia, the Iberoamerican Secretary General, Enrique Iglesias, and Ignacio Polanco, president of the Fundación Santillana.

The opening discussion will be followed by two talks which will address the relationship between investment in education and economic development, and the impact of ICT on education systems and growth in Latin America. The first, Investing in quality education to promote learning: a challenge for development in Latin America, will be given by Emiliana Vegas Vicentini, head of the Education Division of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The second will be given by Diego Molano Vega, Colombia’s Minister of Information and Communications Technology, who will speak on Development and ICT innovation in education.

The conference will resume in the afternoon, with a roundtable debate session with the theme Social responsibility and education: education, a challenge for everybody, chaired by the former Education Minister Mercedes Cabrera, and with the participation of Javier Nadal, Executive Vice President of the Fundación Telefónica; Jesús Herrero, board member of Fe y Alegría; and Antoni Ballabriga, global head of Social Responsibility at Grupo BBVA.

This will be followed by the roundtable session, Education, the media and opinion forming in society, to discuss the role that the media and the internet play in educational sector news. The aim is to analyze the media’s take on the subject, which often focuses more on political and legislative aspects rather than covering innovative and creative practices in schools. The debate will be chaired by Marta Novo González, director of the Cadena SER radio program Hoy por hoy Madrid, and participants include the psychologist the former Children’s Ombudsman of the Madrid region, Javier Urra, the chief reporter of El País, Ricardo de Querol, the Editor-in-Chief of the magazine Educación 3.0, Francisco Javier Palazón; and the director of  the TVE program La aventura del saber, Salvador Valdés.

The writer and philosopher Fernando Savater, will give the closing speech, entitled: What is the contribution of education?