opinion

Following are the remarks by Panamanian President Martín Torrijos at the January 18 installation of the National Education Council:

I want to begin my greeting to the National Education Council with an unequivocal statement: for the national government education is a very high priority.

It would be an enormous piece of nonsense if it were not so, since national progress, the successful insertion of our country into the globalized world and the incorporation of all our talents into productive activities in an efficient and competitive way all depend on it.

A modern education is our only entrance to the 21st century.

We have recognized that to democratize education and to profoundly transform it are urgent tasks if we want to make it a decisive factor in the human development and change that our society demands. And we are going about that task.

Education is not the exclusive task of teachers and students, nor much less only the duty of parents. Nor is it the exclusive responsibility of the state. Nobody, alone, can get it out of the backwardness in which it is situated.

It serves no purpose to deny that Panamanian education is undergoing a profound crisis. This crisis poses a grave threat to the future of our country. Today we are laying the scientific bases to face the problem and to produce a definitive solution.

You represent diverse sectors of national life and will be responsible for proposing, monitoring and evaluating the policies and strategic projects of Panamanian education.

This task is key to the construction of the country we want, and you have been chosen to carry it forth. In this choice civic accomplishments, profession competence and proven commitment to the modernization of education have been taken into account.

You are the guarantee that the efforts and resources invested in the transformation of education are sustainable and will endure over time, beyond the term of the present government, the guarantee that education will truly be a state issue.

Enormous are the tasks that are demanded of us --- to make education a tool in service to sustainable human development, with equitable and just opportunities.

The effort demands not only our best human talents, it also demands an enormous investment of financial resources and a leadership firmly committed to these transformations.

This leadership must be intellectual, must be highly professional, scientific and endowed with the right theoretical and technological tools. But above all, it must be a moral leadership that moves with words and compels with examples. The National Education Council, together with the ministry of that branch, the abnegated educators, the responsible students and the educational community are those called to exercise this leadership.

The national government is committed to the job of ordering and cleaning the public finances so that the financial resources that will be invested in the infrastructure, training of personnel, equipment and programs are available for these non-postponable tasks.

The financial resources that the modernization of our educational system demand will come from responsible fiscal policies and taxation under equitable criteria by which those who make more contribute more.

We are not going to give up on giving an equitable, just and civilized way out of the problems of misery and unemployment.

We are going to conquer our future and the right to a dignified life, with work and opportunities and without extreme poverty, using as our arms education and the placement of our national talent in the service of productivity, efficiency and progress.

I ask you, and everybody, that we transform education and put the country on the road to progress. For all of this I formally declare the National Education Council installed. I know that you will honor the designation that is made today, bringing your talent to the service of the nation's education.



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