Vijonet Déméro, Haiti’s Minister of National Education, presided over the second and final day of the 12th Inter-American Meeting of Ministers of Education of the Organization of American States (OAS), held in Quito, Ecuador.

The meeting, centered on the theme "Towards Resilient Education Systems in Contexts of Change" brought together 41 sectoral officials and policymakers, including the Ministers of Education from Barbados, Colombia, Ecuador, Suriname, and Haiti to agree on collective responses to shared challenges.

During the plenary sessions, the region’s top education authorities addressed several key topics: educational pathways for retention and reintegration; the role of digital technologies in transforming pedagogy and education; democratic participation within the educational framework; the creation of healthy learning environments; and lifelong learning in a changing world.

Albert R. Ramdin, Secretary General of the OAS, emphasized that "True development does not happen in isolation: it is built through continuous dialogue, cooperation, and the joint design of shared roadmaps."

The meeting concluded with a joint hemispheric declaration and an action plan focused on ensuring educational continuity, driving digital transformation, fostering democratic participation, creating healthy school environments, and preparing individuals for the world of work.

The solutions to be implemented as part of the 2026–2028 Action Plan include the following:

• Promoting digital skills and critical thinking, notably through the Hemispheric Protocol on Education in Digital Environments and by fostering cross-sectoral partnerships;

• Implementing policies on nutrition and physical activity in schools, with the support of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO);

• Deploying evidence-based policies focused on flexible learning pathways to ensure educational continuity and facilitate the reintegration of students who have been excluded from the system;

• Developing technical and vocational education, as well as lifelong learning, to align education systems with the needs of the labor market;

• Promoting concrete democratic values ​​within schools across the Americas to strengthen youth participation and leadership.

Gilda Natalia Alcívar García, Ecuador’s Minister of Education, Sport, and Culture, stated that the consensus reached in Quito "commits us to continue working together, within the framework of the Inter-American Committee on Education, to make our education systems more resilient and better prepared to support every student in contexts of change."

Notably, on the sidelines of the meeting, the OAS Educational Portal of the Americas and the organization Ayuda en Acción co-hosted a special session dedicated to analyzing the impact of artificial intelligence on education. The session focused on the urgent need to prevent the emergence of new socio-economic gaps and to align the technical training of young people with actual employment opportunities.

HL/ S/ HaitiLibre