COMPARTIR
Central American and Caribbean education sector gathers at the second annual meeting of KIX LAC
January 31, 2022
The second annual meeting of KIX LAC was held with representatives of the countries that make up the Latin American and Caribbean Hub: Dominica, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
The purpose of the meeting was to present the achieved goals and activities the hub carried out during 2021, as well as to agree on a work agenda for 2022, aimed at effectively solving the challenges identified in the countries.
In his welcoming remarks, the director of SUMMA, Dr. Javier González, emphasized that “it is unusual to bring together such diverse actors in the field of education and that is precisely one of the greatest strengths of KIX LAC, having allowed the creation of a platform for dialogue and work, of a collective mechanism for effective action to generate changes in Latin American education systems during 18 months of work”. He also thanked the initiative’s partners, the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) and Canada’s IDRC.
Raúl Chacón, Director of KIX LAC, presented the achievements and progress made over the past year and emphasized that “we have been able to identify and recognize the enormous educational challenges in the region, and we have all worked together to contribute to the exchange of knowledge and collaborate based on the strengths of the countries, the experiences, learning and trajectories that each representative has and brings to KIX LAC.
Carlene Radix, head of the Human and Social Division of OECS, thanked SUMMA for working together to carry out the KIX LAC project and commented that “we are currently in an unprecedented situation, a pandemic never seen before that has completely transformed the education system, has accelerated changes in online learning and the development of methodologies, but on the other hand has deepened inequalities and removed the safety net provided by schools for many children; but it is also an opportunity for something new to be built. The role of the KIX today more than ever is extremely important and this second meeting will allow us to ensure that we are sharing our challenges, our challenges and our visions of what we want for our future”.
Florencio Ceballos, senior program specialist at IDRC, made the presentation of KIX GLOBAL, emphasizing the use of research and data as active parts of change, “without using knowledge, without linking it with actors and public policies, it is useless. We are interested in the effective use of research, we believe in the exchange of knowledge and that research results are accessible to all, from and for the countries of Latin America with a focus on scaling and influencing policy, being able to leverage opportunities and always prioritizing the safety and ethics of research.
He also thanked SUMMA and OECS for their leadership in carrying out the KIX project and especially for creating an ecosystem of thousands of people and institutions that care about education and want to do something about it.
In the second part of the meeting, Dr. Joel Warrican made the presentation “High impact projects focused on professional development for teachers: The Case of the Curricular Reform of the UWI Department of Education” together with Dr. Ivana Zacarias, where it was highlighted that SUMMA is accompanying the institution through research, knowledge mobilization, curriculum development and training in the reform of its initial teacher education programs.
Subsequently, the KIX LAC team formed by researcher Dr. Maciel Morales Aceitón and the coordinator of Knowledge Transfer and Community Management, Mar Botero, presented the initiatives for 2022, the Indicators Platform, the KIX LAC Communities of Practice and held the workshop “Co-constructing with country representatives to enhance the impact of KIX LAC”.
At the end of the meeting, Javier Luque, Country Lead of GPE, congratulated the representatives and the members of the LAC HUB who allowed aligning the work with the 10 countries and for the progress made during these 18 months, stating that “the great challenge is to see how this agenda and all this knowledge is used for the creation of public policies, our commitment is to continue being very active to provide all the evidence and knowledge possible”.
The third annual meeting of KIX LAC will be held in January 2023.
The Knowledge and Innovation Exchange Hub for Latin America and the Caribbean (KIX LAC) is a joint initiative of the Global Partnership for Education – GPE – and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), which brings together the most diverse actors in education. The regional network is led by SUMMA (Educational Research and Innovation Laboratory for Latin America and the Caribbean) and the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, whose objective is to contribute to strengthening the education systems of the partner countries: Dominica, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.