During the last two weeks, the directors of the educational centers of Spain and Central America have met with the person in charge of the education area of the Order to analyze and evaluate the Institutional Educational Project and design strategies of communion. The need for teacher training, the exchange of pedagogical initiatives and projects, and international enrichment are some of the factors that have fostered the need to promote networking.
The first meeting took place on Friday, March 31, at the Colegio Agustiniano in Madrid, convening the directors, directors and pedagogues of the schools of the Order in Spain: Zaragoza, Motril, Guadalajara, Chiclana, Valladolid, Granada and Madrid. In a second moment, on Thursday, April 6, the directors of the schools of Mexico, Panama and Costa Rica met in a face-to-face meeting and by videoconference from the Colegio Fray Luis de León de Querétaro (Mexico). Antonio Carrón de la Torre, the General Councilor for Education in the Order, conducted both meetings based on the response to the form that had been sent weeks earlier to gather information of interest on the educational realities of each country.
Among other topics, in both meetings some of the initiatives that are being developed in the different areas and educational centers were put together: consolidation of indicators for the Augustinian Recollect educational centers, online course of introduction to the Augustinian pedagogy, Pedagogical-pastoral, structure of the formative itinerary of the teaching staff with the topics to be addressed and the need for consolation of pastoral schools. The difficulties encountered with respect to the relationship with the educational administrations, the economic sustainability of the educational centers with a concerted regime or a reduction in the number of religious dedicated to the educational task were also brought to light.
Last year the Augustinian Recollect Education Year was celebrated with the aim of promoting in the Order the commitment to the educational apostolate. As a result of the work carried out during the year, several studies and materials of various kinds were prepared, which will soon be published together with the new presentations of the Institutional Educational Project and the Augustinian Pedagogical Bases.
Currently, the educational work of the Order is carried out in 54 educational centers with more than 82,000 students, about 4,500 teachers, more than 1,500 administrative and service workers, a hundred full-time religious and a few others with partial dedication who support the Educational work.
