Addressing the fields of education and science from a technological perspective strengthens the capacity to build a comprehensive citizenship, while focused on sustainable development. The current world situation demands competences for the development of STEM, the use of innovative technologies that allow us to reimagine and find solutions for a sustainable future.
These aspects are relevant to UNESCO’s mandates, especially in building peace in people’s minds through inclusive and equitable education. Therefore, it is important to consolidate alliances and strategies that will lead communities to progress where no one is left behind. Placing these issues on the spotlight, has allowed an alliance, where HUAWEI and
UNESCO can join efforts to innovate education and people’s integral formation trhough the use of technologies, in order to strengthen the seeds for the future.
A future of opportunities is created through the partnership between UNESCO and HUAWEI Guatemala. This with the objective of supporting and strengthening education in Guatemala through technological solutions. This process was carried out, within a regional alliance established in 2019 between UNESCO and Huawei Central America, whose main goal is the promotion of peace and sustainable development.
Beyond education and technology: transformed women’s
The situation resulting from COVID-19 has exacerbated the educational inequalities for historically vulnerable populations preventing them from continuing with their educational process, where the gap in access to ICT’s prevents their access to education today more than ever. The suspension of educational activities has caused children and young people to abandon their studies worldwide and in Guatemala, in yet unknown dimensions. It can be moreover, it is already posible to forseen that women will be affected in a particular way.
In this context, on November 17, 2020, the UNESCO office and HUAWEI in Guatemala signed a collaboration agreement, whose first effort will be to support 50 young women, participants in the UNESCO-Malala-MINEDUC Centers, to resume their educational process and complete their secondary education.
Within the framework of this project, UNESCO has arranged for scholarships from the Guatemalan Institute of Radio Education (IGER), so that students the High School Degree of Science and Letters with a focus on Administrative and Accounting Management on a virtual modality, through a donation of 50 electronic devices (tablets) that will allow them to carry on with their studies.
It is important to mention that the percentage of young women in rural areas who manage to reach this level of education is low, the efforts made by these 50 young women and their families to go beyond the primary and basic secondary levels are remarkable. Achieving a diversified level of education is a fundamental way to ensure their development while improving their life conditions, since the obtention of a highschool diploma will develop their skills and enhance their opportunities to acces the labor market, and hopefully continue with their university studies.
