STATEMENT: The SM Foundation and the University of Oviedo present the report Reimagining education together in Asturias

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The report Reimagine our futures together: a new social contract for education will be presented at the University of Oviedo on Wednesday, February 7, 2024 at 11:00 a.m.

The report advocates the promotion of education to promote more just and sustainable futures.

When: Wednesday, February 7, 2024

Where: Assembly hall of the Faculty of Teacher Training and Education of the University of Oviedo

Time: 11:00 a.m., but the media will be able to interview the speakers and participants from 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday and take images from 10:30 a.m.

Interviews prior to the event can also be arranged from Tuesday, February 6.

Oviedo, February 2, 2024.- The Department of Educational Sciences of the University of Oviedo will host the presentation of the UNESCO report Reimagining our futures together: a new social contract for education. The event is convened within the Reimagine Together Education Movement, an initiative promoted by the SM Foundation, and aimed at teachers, which aims to put the proposals of the UNESCO report into practice in the classroom.

The UNESCO report, which has been published in Spanish by the SM Foundation, brings together the opinions of more than one million people from 45 countries through a global consultation process. This analysis, which is published every 20 years, serves as a guideline to set the global educational trend throughout the world.

The report has five fundamental points as its backbone:

Pedagogy: The principles of cooperation, collaboration and solidarity are what must organize pedagogy.

Curriculum: We need to orient study plans towards ecological, intercultural and interdisciplinary learning.

Teaching team: Teaching is a collaborative professional task, and the role of teaching teams must be known and recognized.

School: Schools must become protected educational places, which promote inclusion, equity and individual and collective well-being.

Continuous learning: Learning should be a right that is developed throughout life. That is why educational opportunities must be provided in different natural, cultural and social, physical and virtual spaces.

Focusing on relevant topics

The event will feature the participation of Mr. Celestino Rodríguez Pérez, dean of the Faculty of Teacher Training and Education of the University of Oviedo; Mr. Alejandro Rodríguez Martín, director of the Department of Educational Sciences of the Faculty of Teacher Training and Education of the University of Oviedo; Doctors Ms. Susana Torío López and Mr. Omar García Pérez, from the University of Oviedo, and Mr. José Mª González Ochoa, Director of Programs at the SM Foundation. The presentation will take place on February 7 at 11:00 in the morning in the assembly hall of the Faculty of Teacher Training and Education of the University of Oviedo.

The report focuses on some points relevant to the new social contract, such as the need to facilitate equity and access to education. For example, we see a clear case of inequality in the gender literacy gap. In 2023, the percentage of illiterate women or those with incomplete primary education in Asturias has doubled that of men, since while 0.5% of Asturian women under 16 years of age are illiterate, the percentage of men is 0.1 %. The percentage of men under 16 years of age with incomplete primary education is 1.1% compared to 2.2% of women. 2% of those under 16 years of age in Asturias are illiterate or have incomplete primary education. In 2023, more than 2,000 Asturians were illiterate or had incomplete primary education, being, however, the lowest Community in Spain in terms of illiteracy rate among minors*.

Pedagogy and values

In all of Spain, more than 100,000 children do not access Primary Education, 2.7%, while 3.2% of young people do not access Secondary Education. These data raise the need to propose urgent strategies that make the application of the report possible in the school environment**.

Another important factor is the need to promote a pedagogy focused on values ​​of cooperation. Among other principles promoted from the UNESCO report, the one of inclusion stands out, since although 12% of the students have migrant origins, in Spain only 14% of the students have demonstrated a clear ability to understand the point of view of the most disadvantaged, and 18% stand out for their interest in learning about other cultures***.

It also emphasizes determining aspects such as educational policies, which should promote the learning progress of each student and cooperation, instead of an evaluation that compares students with each other.

Furthermore, the report advocates for urgent efforts to reorganize education funding with the aim of reorienting curricula, pedagogies, research and learning assessment to focus on cognitive-emotional learning. Looking ahead, the report calls on policymakers to invest in multidisciplinary, large-scale, open and inclusive education research programs.

* INE Population aged 16 and over by level of training achieved, sex and autonomous community. Percentages of the total for each community (2023Q4) ** World Development Indicators 2022 *** Program for International Student Assessment (OECD)

Communication SM Spain

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