Coyhaique (Chile) seat for the debate on Municipality and Education

The involvement of Chilean municipalities in education is a historical activity, as it dates back to the 1980s when all schools were transferred from the Ministry of Education to the municipalities as part of a decentralization process. This model, currently already sedimented, currently seeks administrative and academic efficiency based on the involvement of all centers, an aspect that is also achieved with the training and professional development of its management teams, teaching technicians and collaboration with the families and the environment.

For more than a decade, the Organizational Development Team (EDO) of the Autonomous University of Barcelona, directed by Professor Joaquín Gairín, has collaborated with training and advisory activities to centers educational institutions and municipalities of Chile with the objective of achieving academic excellence and improving the functioning of their organizations. As a result of these collaborative activities, in 2007 the EDO received support from the Spanish Agency for Cooperation and Development for the development of the project “Educational support and strengthening in management management and professional teaching competencies in the Municipality of Coyhaique”, directed by the prof. Carme Armengol Asparó, with a 4-year development, with the collaboration of the University of Talca, the Federation of Private Schools (FIDE) and CEIS Maristas.

The choice of Coyhaique for the development of the project was not something coincidental, since this is one of the regions with the lowest academic results in the country, in addition to being a territory in which important problems linked to social destructuring and the marginality of a significant number of the population are identified. As a result of the project, training activities have been developed for managers and teachers of the municipality, in addition to advising more than 15 educational institutions in the territory for the development of innovation projects that allow better attention to their needs (click here to access the publication that includes the work carried out).
< BR>The International Municipality and Education Congress is the culmination of the Cooperation project developed and aims to be a space to analyze and debate the reality and perspectives of education at the municipal level, promoting reflection on the meaning and projection that municipalities must develop in educational activities and provide spaces for the exchange of educational experiences promoted by municipalities as a way of responding to the requirements of local communities.

The Congress has been organized jointly by the Organizational Development Team of the UAB, the University of Talca, the University of Los Lagos, the Technological University of Chile, the Federation of Private Institutions (FIDE), the Chilean Association of Municipalities, the Ministry of Education of Chile, the Spanish Agency for Cooperation and Development, RedAGE and the Municipality of Coyhaique.

For more information about the Congress, consult the website: http://www.fidecap.cl/coyhaique2011 /