Another agreement that smells of déjà vu
The SEP and Unicef have just signed a collaboration agreement. Sounds good, right? Guarantee the right to education, improve learning, strengthen schools. The small print is always the interesting thing.
Fernando Carrera, from Unicef, dropped the first pearl: “the country has made important progress in access to primary education”. But immediately afterwards: “key challenges persist to ensure their permanence and effective learning”. Translation: they come in, but we don’t know if they learn or stay.
What they promise (and what they keep silent about)
The agreement talks about strengthening initial education, promoting healthy environments with the ‘Live Healthy, Live Happy’ strategy and including minors in vulnerable situations, especially in mobility. It also touches on a gender approach and digital skills.
Mario Delgado, head of the SEP, said that this formalizes an already existing collaboration. He highlighted that thanks to ‘Live Healthy’, 9.3 million students were evaluated and that “82 percent of schools have stopped selling junk food.” A specific piece of information, something rare in these advertisements.
They also mentioned inclusion for the migrant population and transformation of the high school. It sounds ambitious. Too much.
It includes preventing school violence and promoting ‘positive parenting’. The SEP will promote Unicef’s participation in strategic initiatives, and Unicef will provide technical assistance. There will be materials, studies and “international good practices”.
They agreed on monitoring and evaluation mechanisms. That’s key. Because without that, this becomes another document forgotten in a drawer.
The question no one asks: how many similar agreements have been signed before? And where are the results? Institutional memory is more fragile than a press agreement.
