More than 30 representatives of governments, international organizations, development banks, teachers, students and civil society took part in the meeting of the Regional Steering Committee for Education in Latin America and the Caribbean, held virtually on 12 May and coordinated by the UNESCO Regional Office in Santiago.
The meeting marked the beginning of a new phase of the Committee’s work for the 2026–2027 period, which will be co-chaired by the Ministry of Education and Culture of Uruguay, the Ministry of Education of Peru and UNESCO. This leadership will seek to strengthen regional cooperation in response to the main educational challenges facing the region.
During the meeting, Committee members agreed to prioritize a shared agenda centred on the development of more inclusive and resilient education systems, capable of improving learning, strengthening the teaching profession and responding to the changing challenges of digitalization and artificial intelligence.
The Regional Steering Committee is the main space for political coordination and educational cooperation in Latin America and the Caribbean to advance the fulfilment of the education targets set for 2030, agreed by Member States gathered at the United Nations in 2015, when they committed to ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all. The Committee advances regional priorities, promotes agreements among countries and mobilizes technical and financial cooperation to accelerate educational transformation.
The Director of the UNESCO Regional Office in Santiago, Esther Kuisch Laroche, highlighted that this space makes it possible to transform shared challenges into coordinated action among countries and strategic partners. “Regional cooperation is key to moving towards education systems that are more just, more inclusive and better prepared for the future,” she said.
The Minister of Education and Culture of Uruguay, José Carlos Mahía, called for regional dialogue to move towards tangible results. His remarks reflected one of the Committee’s main purposes: to turn exchange among countries and partners into practical learning, effective cooperation and concrete improvements for educational communities.
For his part, Peru’s Vice-Minister of Pedagogical Management, Sergio Pérez Postigo, underlined the importance of ensuring that this shared agenda is backed by sustainable resources. Through the Regional Steering Committee, he said, the aim is to “promote sustainable and efficient financing that guarantees quality education for all in the long term”. His intervention placed at the centre an indispensable condition for educational transformation not to depend only on diagnoses or goodwill, but also on real implementation capacities.
The definition of priorities for the new cycle also responds to a regional consultation carried out in March 2026, in which Committee members agreed on the need to address six priority areas: foundational learning, teachers, digital transformation and artificial intelligence, inclusion, resilience and sustainable financing.
During the session, the new regional representatives to the High-Level Steering Committee for SDG 4–Education 2030, the global education cooperation body, were also presented. They are: Ms Andrea Vignolo, Director of International Cooperation and Projects at the Ministry of Education and Culture of Uruguay; Mr Carlos Herrera, Ambassador and Permanent Delegate of Peru to UNESCO; Ms Mercedes Mateo, Head of Education at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB); and Ms Miriam Preckler, Director of Education at the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF).
Follow-up was also given to recent commitments adopted by the region and by the international community, including the Santiago Declaration, the Framework for Educational Transformation in Latin America and the Caribbean, the Regional Teacher Strategy 2025–2030, the Regional action plan to prevent and address violence in education in Latin America and the Caribbean, 2025-2030, the Fortaleza Declaration, and the Santiago Consensus. This continuity makes it possible to connect the Committee’s decisions with a broader agenda of educational recovery, transformation and acceleration.
The meeting concluded with a political and technical roadmap for the next two years, aimed at strengthening regional cooperation and accelerating progress towards the education targets for 2030.
read more: https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/committee-education-latin-america-and-caribbean-begins-new-phase-cooperation-led-uruguay-and-peru?hub=701
