The Ministry of Education, together with the Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture (OEI), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Vice Presidency of Ecuador, and the Secretariat of Intercultural Bilingual Education and Ethnoeducation (SEIBE), held an event titled “Educational Leadership from an Intercultural Perspective in Ecuador” on March 26 at the Emilio Uzcátegui Auditorium.
The meeting aimed to share key findings from the Global Education Monitoring Report 2024/2025 (GEM Report) and the Regional Report for Latin America. These documents analyze how school leadership can help transform education systems and strengthen democracy.
Among those attending were José Luis Torres, Vice Minister of Education; Carla Arellano, Secretary General of the Vice Presidency; Juan Manuel Mashinkiash, Technical Undersecretary for Intercultural Bilingual Education and Ethnoeducation; Sara Jaramillo, National Office Director at OEI; and Tatiana Villegas, UNESCO representative in Ecuador. In his remarks, Torres thanked participants as well as representatives from international organizations. Mashinkiash said it is important to reflect on educational leadership within Ecuador’s intercultural education system.
Nicolás Reyes from UNESCO and Yadhira Espinoza from OEI presented results from both reports. They highlighted that the Regional Report was developed through a strategic partnership between OEI and UNESCO using rigorous analysis including case studies across several countries in Latin America. The report also includes data collected by OEI through a regional survey involving 18 ministries of education about regulatory frameworks, selection processes for leaders, and efforts to promote distributed leadership as a key factor in educational change. According to presenters, distributed leadership is essential for strengthening democracy and transforming education systems both regionally and nationally.
The event emphasized understanding educational leadership within intercultural contexts while recognizing Ecuador’s cultural and linguistic diversity as central to building more relevant, inclusive, quality education. According to GEM findings shared during the session, school leadership is identified as having significant impact on student learning outcomes.
School directors and teachers attended to exchange experiences about challenges facing educational leadership in Ecuador.
