Teachers, researchers and public figures from different countries in our continent and in Europe gathered in Buenos Aires for three days around the XII Latin American Meeting for Education from FAEPLA, the VI World Congress on Education from COMED and the II Regional Encounter from MERCOSUR (Southern Common Market) of UPRODIPEM (Teaching and Pedagogic Professionals Union) and taking into account the difficulties faced by countries in Latin America they declare that:

1. Societies can be rebuilt only though values .

2. Only the reassignment of contents in education will allow the immediateness and shallowness of the present to be overcome and a blind culture not to be reproduced.

3. A new concept of freedom and autonomy is indispensable to help us revalue dialogue and solidarity in a quality educational programme.

4. We will be able to generate an alternate qualified education for everybody articulating effort and not giving in to adjustments or new impositions.

5. When our citizens manage to get universal access to education we will be able to guarantee a better distribution of wealth.

6. Only through real social integration and with better investments in education we can advance in a path to overcome economical and cultural dependence.

7. Once education becomes universal in every level it is indispensable to articulate the efforts of the public sector and the private one through cooperation and complement.

8. Only through a major educational autonomy and a better flow of information we can make institutions more democratic and flexible. In this order, we support the actions of the Private Schools Association of Puerto Rico in their struggle for independence of the institutions when choosing school materials and books.

9. If we can focus on students and schools rather than on administration, we will gain true institutional strength, in keeping with the communities and groups which support educational projects.

10. The reassignment of the role of the teacher as professional who can lead a democratic society will allow the school to offer a new vision through values of a world worth living in.

11. If the State and Private Institutions were to cooperate, the legislation which overtaxes schools should be avoided in countries such as Bolivia and Paraguay.

12. Only through a well educated population we can guarantee good government in Latin American countries.

13. Only through the hope of facing this growing crisis and in the understanding that change is possible will we realize our dreams of integration in the Latin America created by San Martín, Bolivar and Artigas; it is undeniable that the potential of our countries will allow the decadence of the neo-liberal project which condemned us to marginality to be transcended.

14. Only through education we will be able to build a better future, we will be worthier, more caring and where justice be a current issue and happiness stops being a utopia.

MEMBERS OF THE COMED TOGETHER WITH THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION OF THE PROVINCE OF BUENOS AIRES, DRA GRACIELA GIANNETASIO, AND THE GENERAL DIRECTOR OF PRIVATE EDUCATION OF THE PROVINCE OF BUENOS AIRES, LIC. ODRIOZOLA.

AUTHORITIES PRESENT

• Graciela Giannettasio
• Osvaldo Panza Doliani
• Sergio Palacio
• Héctor Sauret
• R.P. Hugo Sallaberry
• Henri Bouché Perís - Spain
• José Aurelio De Camargo - Brazil
• Antonieta Zurita de Vargas - Bolivia
• Ivatte Almendras - Uruguay
• Ana Cristina Sánchez - Puerto Rico
• Luciana Gafreé - Brazil

MOMENTS OF THE IV CONGRESO HELD AT THE SAN MARTÍN MUNICIPAL THEATRE IN THE CITY OF BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA.

VI WORLD CONGRESS ON EDUCATION (2002) "Educational Innovation: Hope in Times of Crisis"

VI WORLD CONGRESS ON EDUCATION (2002)
"Educational Innovation: Hope in Times of Crisis"