On October 30th and 31st, Mercedes Mayol Lassalle, Regional Vice President for Latin America, and Selma Simonstein, President of OMEP-Chile, went to Lima to participate in the regional ministerial meeting titled “Education for All in Latin America and the Caribbean: Results and Challenges Post-2015”, organized by UNESCO.
OMEP was very concerned about the narrow view that early childhood education was merely considered as a preparation for future learning in basic education. Besides voicing out the importance of early childhood education in the meeting, Ms. Mayol Lassalle and Ms. Simonstein also wrote to Ministers of Education, Assistant Vice-General Director of UNESCO Mr. Qian Tang and to Regional Director of the Bureau of Education for Latin America and the Caribbean Mr. Jorge Sequeira to reinforce our position.
Their efforts are well-reflected in the final “Lima Statement”, which clearly states that early childhood education and care “plays a crucial role in building strong foundations for learning and development, the continued expansion of quality ECCE services should be prioritized with emphasis on the holistic development of children.”
Ms. Mayol Lassalle and Ms. Simonstein would like to thank Dr. María Graciela Dupont, President of OMEP-Peru, for her hospitality and warmful welcome.
You may download the Lima Statement here.
For more information, please visit the EFA/LAC Lima Meeting website:
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/santiago/efalac-lima-meeting/the-meeting/
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