In August 2012, the National University of Education of Ecuador and VVOB welcomed a delegation from KU Leuven, the University of Leuven. This visit of vice dean Jan Elen and Maarten Simons of the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences was part of a future cooperation between KU Leuven and the National University of Education of Ecuador.
VVOB has played a key role in this inter-relationship. It all started with a visit of an Ecuadorian delegation to the University of Leuven that VVOB organised in November 2010. The actual Memorandum of Understanding is also the result of various interventions of VVOB Ecuador. This led to an interesting specific and institutionalised proposal of the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences: the start of a work group for Ecuador with members of the different education fields. Besides that, there is also a link with a work group within the ‘School of Education’ (the network of the 21 teacher training institutes of Ecuador) that is starting to work on mathematics and teacher training.
Signing of a Memorandum of Understanding
The visit of the two professors of the University of Leuven culminated on Thursday August 16th with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding by the Minister of Education, Gloria Vidal. It is an agreement on an interinstitutional cooperation between the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Ecuador, the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of KU Leuven and the Flemish Association for Development Cooperation and Technical Assistance (VVOB) to strengthen the training of teachers and education professionals from Ecuador at the National University of Education.
Specific objectives
The specific objectives of the Memorandum of Understanding are as follows:
- Collaboration through technical advice and professional exchange, and development of educational projects with members of the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of KU Leuven, in view of academic strengthening of the National University of Education.
- Contribution to the training of the education professionals, by managing scholarships or internships, if they are available, at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences or other institutions, to train specialists in urgent issues that the Ecuadorian Ministry of Education or the National University of Education are facing.
- Collaboration, with input from visiting professors from the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of KU Leuven, to offer specialised courses in the academic programmes of the National University of Education in Ecuador.
- Support to the National University of Education in the development of national and international research projects.
- Encouragement of the development of common products (publications) with members of the National University of Education within this process of cooperation.
Operational plan
During the visit a first proposal for an operational plan has been finalised, based on several meetings and input from both sides. The visitors also observed schools at the coastal region of Ecuador. It helped them to link what is happening on the level of the schools to what is needed on higher levels, e.g. the Ministry of Education and the teacher training.
