Servet Martínez, researcher at the Center for Mathematical Modeling (CMM), participated in ‘Reform and Public Education: Reflection and debate from the University of Chile’ colloquium, organized by the Office of the Vice President of Outreach and Communications. In four panels, professors and National Prizes shared and exchanged ideas and views about the challenges related to public education, higher education, the educational reform and the public system that faces the institution.
“We are living an historic opportunity. We have to use a moment like this, because if we do not use it, I do not think there will be another one”, said the rector Ennio Vivaldi at the beginning of this event attended by several National Awards and academics on Tuesday 19 August 2014.
Professor Servet Martínez participated in the panel called ‘The relation between the public system and the University of Chile’, which also counted with the presence of Cecilia Hidalgo, National Award in Natural Sciences 2006; Inés Pepper, from Medicine, and María Eugenia Góngora, Dean of Humanities and Philosophy.
During his speech, the National Prize in Sciences 1993 stated that “the CMM makes its capital available for the country. One example is the National Laboratory for High Performance Computing (Nlhpc), which serves the national scientific community”. However, he regretted that this approach is not the regular rule at the University.
His words emphasized the importance of having a more equitable and excellent standars education. “We must face how to combine these two values by analyzing the fundamental variables, including the increasing investments required by the high quality and relevant research. A reform without quality has no sense”, pointed out Professor Servet Martínez.
He also noted that the CMM is concerned to meet these standards. In addition, he advocated the existence of a Faculty of Education at the University of Chile. He said it was incomprehensible that the University has not yet created one, as it dashed the hopes that people have on it in order to respond to the immense challenges in the country.
It is expected that this event would be a milestone in the discussion about the higher education system. “Due to the open profile of the University and the participation of different views in these four panels, the coloquium was very enriching”, highlighted Faride Zerán, Vice President of Outreach and Communications.
