October 2018 Humphrey Secretariat Post
Hello, everybody. My name is Ivana Zacarias and I am from Argentina. I have spent the last ten years working on education, and before I worked at different public policy and advocacy institutions in my country.
For many years, I worked for reducing drops-out and increasing success in access to higher education at a public university in the outskirts of Buenos Aires, our capital city. Even though enrollment is unrestricted and free for everyone having graduated from secondary education, actually between 60 and 70% of the students, mainly from the most disadvantaged backgrounds, fail to continue. In the last years, I changed a little bit my focus and started to work on national learning assessment at the Ministry of Education, mainly in charge of the teacher training assessments initiatives.
My main concern are poverty and inequality. I think that the biggest challenge for educators is to contribute to building more just societies, where we are able to live together and fulfill our lives. For that, the main responsibility is, I believe, on educating empathic, aware, altruistic, critical, mature and responsible human beings. That can not be achieved in isolation or segregating groups.
Unfortunately, Argentina has been failing in this regard. Roughly one third of its population is poor; specifically, 3 out of 5 children live in poor conditions. Segregation in schools is in rise. Even though we have achieved some important things in the last decades (notably, democracy consolidation, justice for military officers who disappeared and killed people under dictatorship, universal aid for poorest families, equal marriage, and debate for abortion), we still have a long path to pave.
The West is known for the vineyards, being the Malbec our international brand. In the South, the Patagonia, with glaciers to the west and with the seashore and penguins, whales and seals to the east. Ushuaia, in Tierra del Fuego, is the most austral city in the world.
From North to South, the Andean Mountains separate our country from Chile. Its highest peak, the Aconcagua, is the second highest peak in the world, after the Everest. The Central region is used mainly for ranching and agriculture. To the east, Buenos Aires, the capital, is, in my opinion, one of the most interesting and attractive cities in the world.