[Opinión] Jessyca Sampe: The regions also count to improve education

The memories of my childhood living in one of the cities of our jungle is one of the most beautiful I have. I always thought that I would stay and live there forever. However, my parents, both being teachers, decided to migrate to a city on the north coast and then to Lima, so that I could have better opportunities and a better education. Today, almost 40 years later, we still have not been able to provide quality education in most of the jungle cities.

The regions of Loreto and Ucayali are the ones with the lowest educational results in all of Peru: only 11.4% and 17.9%, respectively, of 2nd grade students manage to satisfactorily read what is expected for their grade, according to the latest Census Evaluation of Students applied by the Ministry of Education.

We may be inclined to think that the responsibility lies with policies developed within the framework of a centralized educational system, but today we know that the issue is more complex.

Within the structure of regional governments, there are Regional Education Offices, responsible for formulating educational policies for their region. That is why, before voting in the next elections, it is our responsibility to review the education plans of the parties. that access regional governments, since the budgets they manage and the strategies they propose must be aimed at teacher training, improving educational infrastructure, having strategies to improve learning gaps and achieving universal enrollment.

It is in our hands, and in our votes, to make the best choice of plans and today the information is increasingly accessible. A clear example is the JNE Informed Vote ChatBot. This technological tool brings us closer to the government plans and resumes of the candidates in each region, province or district, and it is very fast and easy to use. Now yes, we have no excuse to be able to answer: What do the candidates of your region propose to you in the educational issue? Do you consider that these proposals will improve the situation of education in your region?

Finally, an important point is citizen vigilance, following up on our elected leaders so that the budgets are executed and the plans that they proposed to us are fulfilled.