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“In Latin America and the Caribbean 28 million young people and adults are illiterate and 60% of students in 6th grade do not reach the minimum level of fundamental competencies in reading and mathematics.” With these statistics, Zelmira May, UNESCO's Program Specialist for Education in Uruguay, kicked off  Teach For All’s alumni gathering in Latin America, Latido Latino 2024, in Montevideo, Uruguay. Zelmira invited attendees to reflect and act collaboratively to address the educational challenges we face in the region, and to provide more and better opportunities for our students regardless of their origin.

This year, Enseña Uruguay, which is also celebrating its 10th anniversary, hosted the 8th edition of Latido Latino, along with more than 300 alumni, participants, and strategic allies from 12 other network partners in the region: Enseñá por Argentina, Enseña por Bolivia, Ensina Brasil, Enseña Chile, Enseña por Colombia, Enseña Ecuador, Enseña por Guatemala, Enseña por México, Enseña por Panamá, Enseña por Paraguay, Enseña Perú, and Teach For America.

For three days, we met to connect and learn about local challenges and contexts in order to explore concrete actions that contribute to educational improvement, focused on empowering collective and conscious leadership for quality education in Latin America. 

In order to address the challenges we face as a region, it is essential to have a holistic vision of education. We have learned that it is not enough to simply improve the literacy of our students; it is necessary to work collaboratively towards a common purpose. 

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How does a municipality in Brazil go from being ranked No. 1366 in the Brazilian Basic Education Development Index to No. 1 in 10 years? What is needed to generate the ideal conditions to develop collective leadership and achieve transformational changes? What are the main educational challenges and opportunities in our region? These and other questions inspired us in more than 24 learning spaces where we discussed a diversity of topics, including the development of socio-emotional skills, comprehensive sexual education, social innovation, public policies, critical thinking, climate change, and many others. We experienced  insightful presentations, such as that of Herbert Lima, Director of Education of the municipality of Sobral in Brazil; a panel on the Teach For All report “The Missing Piece”; and learning capsules that reflected the impact of initiatives that have been successfully led by alumni in the region.

These engaging spaces allowed us to deeply understand what is involved in collective leadership by understanding the scope and impact of a community that shares a purpose. The Sobral Case and “The Missing Piece” report demonstrated that the most substantial changes are achieved when the axis of educational policy focuses on human resources in collaboration with the community, on changing mentalities and aligning actions towards shared objectives. 

Natalia González, an Enseña por Colombia alumna, shared that Latido Latino 2024 allowed her to “genuinely connect with the most human forms of leadership that characterize us as Latinos,” and similar sentiments were shared by attendees during the Latidotón hackathon, a space for reflection and construction of proposals to reduce the challenges we face at the local and regional levels. 

Latido Latino is the manifestation of collective leadership, a group of educational leaders collaboratively building a path that allows them to coordinate actions and work together towards educational equity, so that all children and youth in the region reach their full potential. 

To learn more, explore the Latido Latino 2024 impact report.