WASHINGTON, D.C. October 3, 2018 — The Hon. Jeffrey Lloyd, Bahamas Minister of Education, currently is in Washington, D.C., participating in a regular meeting of Inter-American Council for Integral Development (CIDI) of the Organization of American States (OAS).
Addressing the meeting on Tuesday, October 2, 2018 , in his capacity as chair of the Inter-American Committee on Education, Minister Lloyd said he was grateful for the opportunity to continue the “inter-sectoral policy dialogue between the member states of the OAS.”
“This discussion was initiated in 2015 between Labour and Education at the 8th meeting of Inter-American Ministers of Education held in Panama in February of that year,” Minister Lloyd said. “At that meeting the Ministers of Education agreed on building an Inter-American education agenda to develop horizontal cooperation actions that strengthened the efforts of OAS member states to advance in the development of educational policies in three prioritized themes.”
He identified these themes as: Quality inclusive and equitable education, strengthening of the teaching profession, and comprehensive early childhood care.
“The Inter-American education agenda was adopted at the most recent meeting of Ministers of Education held in The Bahamas in February of 2017, and working groups formed by Ministries of Education around each of the aforementioned areas are continuing their efforts to implement actions that will allow them to comply with some of the outcome targets of Goal Number 4 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,” Minister Lloyd emphasized.
Minister Lloyd said the Inter-American education agenda “came to be conceived by OAS member states as a tool that provides countries with an opportunity to reflect over and address the most pressing international educational priorities from a regional perspective, so that shaping the international agenda commitments and proposals to the needs of the hemisphere as well as to showcase good practices and participate in high level policy discussions.”
He noted that a number of “pressing issues and challenges” surfaced in recent decades and the world has seen “technological changes and advancements at a pace never before witnessed in human history.”
“The computer of the 1980s, the internet of the 1990s, mobile computing and smartphones of the 2000s, including artificial intelligence, the internet of things, blockchain, big data, cloud computing now today are an integral part of daily life,” Minister Lloyd said. “These technologies and innovations have changed the economic landscape. They have impacted the nature of jobs and the profile of skills required in the labour force. This has resulted, as we have heard earlier, in the simultaneous creation of new jobs, and the elimination of various professions that have now become obsolete.”
He suggested that the focus on “preparing the youth of the region with skills for the future must include building technical capacity in the areas of science, technology, engineering, math, reading and the arts.”
“However, as the evolving labour market demands the skills preparation to join the workforce, this preparation must also include what has come to be known as soft skills, socio-emotional skills, and non-cognitive skills,” Minister Lloyd said.
His Excellency Sidney Collie, Bahamas Ambassador to the United States, and Ms. Sharon Poitier, Deputy Director of Education of The Bahamas, also participated in the meeting.
According to the OAS website, “The purpose of CIDI is to promote cooperation among its member States for the furtherance of their integral development and, in particular, to help eliminate extreme poverty. The CIDI is composed of all the member States who meet in regular, special, specialized or sectoral meetings. The member states may appoint an alternate representative and advisers, as it sees fit.”
The website notes that in compliance “with article 96 of the OAS Charter, CIDI shall hold at least one regular meeting each year at the ministerial or equivalent level, to consider matters of a general nature in the area of integral development and partnership for development.”
