Sixth graders from Public School No.163 visited the U.S. Embassy Montevideo during International Education Week celebration, November 20, 2006.
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On November 20, the U.S. Embassy Montevideo celebrated International Education Week by hosting a presentation of some of the important programs that the embassy in close collaboration with its Uruguayan partners supports to benefit Uruguayan students and teachers. The embassy believes that expanding educational opportunities and exchanges is vital to promoting mutual understanding and shared economic prosperity. In his opening remarks, U.S. Chargé D'Affaires James Nealon stated that "we believe that educational exchange forms a basis for mutual understanding". The embassy hopes to expand several of the successful educational initiatives undertaken this year. "We are already working hard on many projects for next year," stated Deputy Chief of Mission Linda Gonzalez. "We also want to express our desire that we can continue working together in this wonderful task of building better relations and understanding between our people," she added.

At the event, Uruguayan artist Enrique Badaro spoke of his participation as a Fulbright program scholar in-residence in faraway Alaska and how this afforded him with many unexpected opportunities to understand different ways of life. Students from the embassy-sponsored Desem Junior Achievement program at the San Jacinto public high school spoke of the experience of forming a student enterprise and marketing their services. U.S. Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Lisa Price described the rewarding experiences of working besides dedicated Uruguayan teachers to seek innovative ways of promoting English language learning in elementary schools. Public Schools Second Languages Coordinator Claudia Brovetto described how with embassy support the Uruguayan government has undertaken an ambitious program to promote the learning of second languages in primary schools. The embassy also announced the provision of scholarships for firefighters to study English at the Alianza binational centers, part of the embassy’s contribution to expanding emergency services and emergency response capacity in Uruguay.

The event celebrated the commitment of educators and members of both governments to make a brighter future for the children of our countries as summed up by the charming performances by the students of Public School No.163 of Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World”.

Following is a translation of the opening remarks by Chargé James Nealon and Deputy Chief of Mission Linda Gonzalez, originally delivered in Spanish:

JAMES NEALON: Good afternoon and welcome to the embassy. It is a pleasure to welcome all of you, our partners in the educational exchange programs this year. We are going to take advantage of your presence to mark, and to celebrate, this seventh week of international education.

In the United States we believe that educational exchange forms a basis for mutual understanding. Today, to give one example, there are more that 500,000 foreigners studying in our universities. At the same time, there are more than 200,000 Americans studying abroad.

As you can see by the number of people present, we have been very active in the field of education here in Uruguay as well. There are many interesting and innovative programs that you have carried out, and we are very proud to have been able to participate and collaborate with you.

There still are people who are surprised when they learn that the embassy dedicates many resources, financial but also personnel and time, to education. The truth is, for a long time we have recognized the importance of supporting education as a basis of our foreign policy. There is a large and important office in the State Department in Washington that for more than 60 years has administered our educational programs abroad, and in one way or another all of us present here today are taking advantage of this policy of cooperation.

In a world in which there is much that we disagree on, it is very gratifying that we are cooperating in many important projects that has as their ultimate aim the improvement of education for our children. And I believe that we all can agree to work toward this end.

I am going to give the floor over to Linda Gonzales and the other speakers who will explain the details of all that they have done. Once again, welcome and thank you very much for all you have done during this very busy year.

Thank you for coming today, and thank you for all that you have done for our children.

LINDA GONZALEZ: It is a great honor for me as well to speak to you today as we mark this celebration. I am going to take advantage of this opportunity to briefly review the activities of this embassy in the educational field this past year.

To begin with, I am going to describe to you what was our most important effort in the educational field. I am referring to the agreement that we signed a few months ago with the Council for Primary Education, which set into motion the program for English language instruction in Uruguayan public schools. Signing this agreement was very gratifying for our embassy, since it added our support to the initiative of the Uruguayan authorities to organize this ambitious program for English language instruction in the public school system. The support of the embassy provides funding for more instructors so that English language instruction is accessible more children throughout the country.

This year we will inaugurate instruction at the pre-school, primary and secondary levels, but the idea is to extend instruction to all levels. This is undoubtedly a big door that is opening for the children of Uruguay and, in many cases, for children from socially and economically underprivileged sectors. It is reassuring to know that today, already more than 14,000 children are learning English is their schools, and in March we will have even more. I don't want to take up too much time on this topic, although it is one I am very passionate about, it is a topic that Dr. Claudia Brovetto will refer to in greater detail. But as I was just saying, it is something that fills us with satisfaction and makes us think we are on the right path.

I should also say that this agreement does not mark the beginning of cooperation between my country and the Uruguayan educational authorities. Even if this is the first time that our joint efforts are marked by a formal agreement, this joint effort has been going on for quite some time. Among the activities we have organized at this time, I'd like to indicate the following:

-- 300 secondary school teachers participated in skills workshops taught by American specialists in 4 provinces of Uruguay.

-- seven secondary school English teachers traveled to the United States to attend an intensive program for instructors in Texas.

-- practically all the English teachers in the primary education immersion program participated in a week-long workshop taught in Montevideo by another American specialist.

-- there are now more that 100 instructors in the primary education system who have traveled to the United States via the Fulbright Program. The next group, who will depart next February, will include school inspectors.

I would like to mention as well the programs carried out with organizations such as DESEM-Young Entrepreneurs, INICIATIVA LATINOAMERICANA and PRIDE URUGUAY, thanks to whom we were able establish links with Uruguayan youth around the themes of entrepreurnurship and the fight against tobacco and drug use.

In addition, we established links with the universities in areas such as literature, politicial science, international relations, history, music and the arts.

But this list is long, so as a way of summing up, I will tell you that since we are celebrating International Education Week, in the past year, that is, since November of 2005, our embassy has carried out a total of 250 exchanges between Uruguayans and Americans. If to this list we add almost 100 programs that the Fullbright Commission has put together, we have an average of almost one program per day for an entire year.

But while we are satisfied with what we have accomplished, we know that much remains to be done. We know as well that without the support from all of you, our work would not have been possible. It was exactly with this intention that we thank you especially for the assistance received. We also want to express our desire that we can continue working together in this wonderful task of building better relations and understanding between our people.

For our part, I would like say that we are already working hard on many projects for next year. And, to conclude my comments, I would like to say something very special that we are doing, starting in March. For this announcement I am going to ask the Director of the National Firefighters, Inspector General Hugo Romero, and the Director General of the Alianza Binational Center, Ms. Maria Blanco Pate to join me here at the podium.

It gives me great pleasure to announce that starting next year, the embassy will grant scholarships to officials of the Fire Department to study at the Alianza Binational Center.

Thank you all, very much.

 
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