Sunday, October 12, 2008 Ramos:Mission to Chile: Raising standards to educate universal citizens By Former President Fidel V. Ramos (First of 2 Parts)
LAST 30 September, I was afforded the welcome opportunity to keynote the XV Triennial Conference of the International Association of University Presidents (IAUP) in Viña del Mar, Chile. It was my first visit to Chile in 59 years of foreign travel.
The conference theme:"The Role of the University in Educating the Universal Citizen," focused on three topics: (a) Civilization Alliance: The Challenge of Educating the Universal Citizen; (b) Innovation, Creativity, Efficiency and Awareness: Qualities of the Complete Universal Citizen; and (c) The University Role in Sustainable Development and World Peace.
Active at the Chile conference were De La Salle University (Lipa) headed by Brother Manny Pajarillo and Saint Louis University led by Father Jessie Hechanova. Also representing the Philippines indirectly (but substantially) was Carmen Lamagna, Presidential "Pamana"OFW Awardee and Vice Chancellor of the American International University of Bangladesh, who was elected to the incoming IAUP Executive Committee. PWU’s Amelou Benitez-Reyes made her mark as the first chairperson of IAUP’s Commission on Women in Higher Education.
Providing total diplomatic and"kababayan" support was our Ambassador"Baby"Puyat-Reyes, herself a think-tanker as President of the "Instituto Asiatico y del Pacifico" of Chile’s Universidad de Santo Tomas (more of that later).
The IAUP as international NGO
Founded in 1964 in Oxford, England, the IAUP’s primary purpose is to strengthen the quality of education and enhance awareness/involvement in the world’s crucial issues.As the largest international platform for institutions of higher learning, IAUP undertakes various activities not only to encourage academic collaboration among members, but especially promote international security and peace, and human resource development through education.
The Association’s leadership rotates by region every three years. In 2005, IAUP presidency was assumed by Dr. Pornchai Mongkhonvanit, President of Siam University, representing the Asia-Pacific. At his term’s expiration last month, the presidency went to Latin America candidate, Dr. Barham Madain, Rector of Chile’s University of Viña del Mar, which hosted the Conference.
Given the realities of our interdependent world, the standards for education were dramatically raised at the IAUP Triennial. The goal of global education leaders – represented by 300 plus University Presidents/Rectors/ Chancellors/CEOs from 70 countries – is to educate today’s young people, regardless of socio-economic status, nationality, religion, or political persuasion, to become "Universal Citizens" – nothing less.
The rationale is not only obvious but compelling: for enduring peace and sustainable development to be achieved among nations, each individual must be provided the opportunity to be the best he/she can in order to become a caring and sharing universal citizen and, beyond that, to be daring enough to care for Mother Earth for the survivability of future generations.
The IAUP enjoys continued consultative status under the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) network.
The ‘UN academic impact’
At the UN General Assembly’s opening two weeks ago, UNSecGen Ban Ki-Moon declared: "We all recognize today’s perils: global financial crisis; global energy crisis; global food crisis; collapsed trade talks. There are new outbreaks of war and violence. Climate change ever more clearly threatens our planet...Challenges are increasingly those of cooperation, not confrontation. Nations can no longer protect their interests, or advance the well-being of their people – without the partnership of the rest. The Millennium Development Goals (MDG) are part of the solution; but, progress has been uneven. Yet, we have achieved enough to know that the goals are within reach."
The UN considers education as among its most powerful "weapons for mass upliftment (WMUs) to counter death-dealing weapons of mass destruction (WMDs): grinding poverty, ignorance/illiteracy, international terrorism, nuclear proliferation, endemic diseases, insurgencies, civil wars, and other forms of man’s inhumanity to man. To highlight education’s criticality, the Secretary-General promulgated the "UN Academic Impact," defining the commitment of nations and leaders in:
(1) Addressing issues of poverty through education
(2) Advancing peace and conflict resolution through education; and,
(3) Encouraging responsible global citizenship through education.
Producing universal citizens
The "Academic Impact" is, in effect, UN’s outreach program to bring about engagement and cooperation between governments and institutions of high learning worldwide.
In our evolving knowledge society, individual countries could attain a position of respect in the human community, if – and only if – they are able to produce great numbers of "knowledge workers" equal in ability to their competitors in the global market.
In short, our countries must become capable of producing world-class young people who are able to compete, flourish, and add value in any region of the world.
The challenge for all countries, therefore, is to reform their education systems so that these stimulate the pursuit of excellence – of creating the engine that drives young people to excel in competitive environments.
In Chile – as in the Philippines, the Americas, Asia-Pacific, Europe and everywhere else – this involves the reorientation of the concept of "nationalism," which must not be restrictive or self-centered, but enriched by a huge dose of "internationalism." "To Prosper Thy Neighbor" is, in fact, among the important goals of ASEAN – for it to become a caring and sharing community in the next decade.
Education, population, and poverty
For Filipinos, particularly the young, it is quality basic education and a continuing life-long learning process – or lack thereof – that determines the quality of life for themselves and their families. Our highest officials – PGMA and her Cabinet and their predecessors in the Executive branch, our lawmakers, academe, private business – and just plain concerned citizens have been wrestling with this problem for the past two generations. Since the time our country’s population began to expand beyond government’s capacity to provide for people’s basic needs and because of today’s unacceptable high school dropout rates due to poverty, our youth have been left behind by their counterparts in Southeast Asia and Latin America in terms of being competitive citizens. Proportion-wise and quality-wise, we are falling in the rankings.
We often speak of growth and objectives in material terms. But, we must realize that material growth cannot be achieved without significant improvement in our people’s intellectual capacities and moral attributes.
Such is the nature of quality education, which – more than just a means to national productivity – is the right of every citizen to receive, and government’s obligation to enhance and support towards full people empowerment.
Chile and the Philippines
Common heirs to a deep Judeo-Christian tradition and Hispanic heritage, the Philippines and Chile are inextricably bonded across the vast expanse of the Pacific. Historically, our two nations are linked by Ferdinand Magellan’s search for a new route to the Far East from Spain, passing through a narrow channel at Chile’s southern tip, now called "The Strait of Magellan." Therefrom, he made his epic Pacific crossing and landed on Homonhon Island on March 21, 1521, thus "discovering" the Philippines." Although a Portuguese, Magellan undertook his voyage of discovery under the auspices of King Carlos I of Spain.
Because of common interests, and in the light of the shift of the center of gravity of the world’s economy from the Atlantic to the Pacific, the Philippines co-sponsored Chile’s membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum. In 1995 and 1996, then President Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle visited the Philippines, first on a State Visit on FVR’s invitation, and later for the APEC Leaders Summit in Manila-Subic.
The contemporary political experience of both the Philippines and Chile is marked by relentless struggles against oppression and dictatorship, and the rise of Christian Democratic Presidents in the two nations: Patricio Aylwin and Frei in Chile, and PGMA and FVR in the Philippines. Last April, in Boao, Hainan, China, Ramos, as Chairman of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA), played host to Chile President Michelle Bachelet, one of the Plenary Session Speakers.
Investing in young people power
To Chile’s credit, its government has embarked on a crash program for the higher education abroad of 2,500 bright young Chileans as "pensionados." At the close of the IAUP Conference, Chilean Education Minister Monica Jimenez announced she was off to the US to sign an MoA with the University of Chicago and then to other top-ranked US educational institutions. My dialogue with Minister Jimenez on Chile’s education strategy reminded me of what an Austrian official told me in Vienna in 1995: "There are now 3,000 South Koreans in Austria. Two hundred of them are businesspeople, and the rest are government scholars or family-supported students in higher education, music and the arts." Today, these "investment packages" are among South Korea’s young leaders pushing their nation to "developed" status.
Can all these be matched by the Philippines? Yes, kaya natin ito!
Next Sunday – Abangan! Part II – Empowering People, Developing Excellence, Achieving Global Competitiveness.
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