Minister of Education of Paraguay visits IIEP Buenos Aires

13 February 2011
Secondary education in focus

On 27–28 January 2011, IIEP Buenos Aires (IIEP-BA) hosted the visit of Paraguay’s Minister of Education, Luis Alberto Riart, who was accompanied by Alcira Sosa Penayo, Director General for Secondary Education, and Sara López Villalba, Coordinator of the project of redesigning secondary education in the country.

Working sessions were led by Margarita Poggi, Head of IIEP-BA, with the participation of education specialists Mariano Palamidessi and Daniel Galarza.

The Ministry of Education and Culture of Paraguay (MEC) and IIEP-BA have been developing continuous and intensive cooperation activities since 2009. In February 2010, a Cooperation agreement was signed to carry out research, training activities and study visits, as well as to provide a permanent working environment between policy-makers of the MEC and technical teams of IIEP. The idea is to offer technical assistance for decision-making purposes on educational policies. Among other activities, in 2010 Minister Luis Alberto Riart and his vice-ministers Diana Serafini and Héctor Valdez participated in several working meetings at IIEP-BA.

In line with the agreement, the January visit focused on:

  • a preliminary draft of the paper ‘Strategic Guidelines for Secondary Education in Paraguay (2011-2024)’, presented in the framework of the National Education Plan 2024, now being developed;
  • a diagnosis of the characteristics of secondary education and of changing social trends that Paraguayan society is experiencing and which have an impact on current and future scenarios of secondary education;
  • identification of the main policy challenges for secondary education in Paraguay – to develop a fee-free policy and compulsory education at the secondary level so as to guarantee the right to education and foster inclusion of adolescents and young people;
  • reaching a consensus on the strategic lines for secondary education, which will be summarized in a final version of the above-mentioned paper.