Excellency:
It is our pleasure to present the
Inter-American Program on Education for Democratic Values and
Practices of the Organization of American States.
On August 2005, at the IV Ministers
of Education Meeting in Trinidad and Tobago, the Ministers of
Education of the hemisphere committed themselves to adopting this
hemisphere-wide program to strengthen democracy through education.
The Program has three mutually reinforcing components: (1) Research;
(2) Professional development and educational resources; and (3)
Information exchange.
Over the past two years, the Program
has carried out the activities of the initial work plan approved by
the Inter-American Committee on Education (CIE) and has
substantially expanded its activities and resources (see Program
progress report, attached).
We are very excited about some of the
future opportunities the Program will offer. The following may be of
particular interest to you:
(a) Policy Brief on
Democratic Citizenship Education in Early Childhood (1st
issue of policy brief series). To be distributed by email
in the upcoming weeks and also to be posted on our web
portal at
index_eng
(b) Inter-American Seminar on
Evaluation of Citizenship Education Policies and Programs,
in mid 2008. Invitations will be sent to the coordinator
of citizenship education policies and/or program evaluation
of each Ministry (organizers cover all costs).
(c) The open call for
papers for the new Inter-American Journal on Education
for Democracy
www.ried-ijed.org (attached).
(d) The open call for
candidates for the new Young Scholar Program (attached).
This folder presents some of
the key Program documents and products. For further information on
the Program, see
www.educadem.oas.org/index_eng.html
You may also write to
education@oas.org
or contact the Program’s coordinator, Jorge Baxter, at
jbaxter@oas.org
I take this opportunity to thank your
Excellency for your Ministry’s continued support of this
Inter-American Program, and to applaud your sustained commitment to
promoting education for democratic citizenship in the region.
Please accept the assurance of my
highest regard,
Lenore Yaffee García
Director, Department of Education and
Culture
