EDUCATION POLICIES by Jose Tellería Honoured delegates, distinguished guests and fellow members of the world. Welcome to our Summit on Education Policies. I’m delighted to share this wonderful occasion with you today. Ladies and gentlemen: you ask what our aims are:
Number one: to understand the role education plays in our society nowadays.
Number two: to integrate new technologies and approaches in the education field.
Number three: to assume that the education of our youngsters today is the path to growth and well-being in the future.
Over the last 30 years we have gone through at least six different education laws in our country. That means that almost every four years a new law has been passed and the previous one has been abolished just because the government had changed and wanted its own law on this issue. But the fact is that none of the former laws has been useful to improve enough our students´ knowledge and skills to prepare them to lead an equal and responsible society. If we had managed to keep a better education system during the last two decades, we wouldn’t have to endure many current social problems. Now we face a choice: to continue doing nothing or to act now before it’s too late. I’m sure that together we can reach an agreement to build a new educational policy in Spain that might be set up for the next 20 or 25 years. We must decide on educational policies. We must reach an agreement to set the basis for a new education law. Not because our generation will benefit from that, but because the wellbeing of future generations is also at risk. In fact, knowledge and culture are the basis of a peaceful and responsible society. It has been noticed that the better education a society has received, the more difficult it is to manipulate.. As Nelson Mandela said once “Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world”. So let us put Knowledge over violence and focus on education, education, education! We need a better future: a) A future with more opportunities for the youth. b) A future with a more responsible and social behaviour. c) A future with more entrepreneurs who come up with new, creative ideas.