ducational content and resources related to existing training programs and other issues for people of all ages, from pre-school to adult education. This aim has led to the development of UruguayEduca, the national education portal. Students and teachers alike have access to a wealth of information organized by subject and grade level, whilst a section for parents provides general information regarding the education system in the country.
Uruguay’s ICT policy is the ‘Digital Agenda 2011 - 2015’ (ADU11-15), consisting of 15 objectives across six axes – access, education and culture, e-government, ICT industry, health, and environment. In terms of ICT for education, the government envisaged providing fiber optic connections to all public schools in urban centers with a population over 10,000 by the end of 2015, whilst a distance learning system utilizing video conferencing was installed by 2013.
The Digital Agenda promotes ICT education at all levels, and the strengthening of the digital capabilities of the overall population. To advance this objective, in June 2011, the Ministry of Education (MEC) and Antel, Uruguay’s government-owned telecommunications company, signed an agreement to establish a total of 180 digital literacy learning centers (MEC Centers across the country by 2015, covering 100% of towns with a population of 500 to 5,000 inhabitants. The MEC Centers work towards helping adults and young people overcome the fear of “touching” a computer through simple steps, without the academic pressure of exams or tests.
Another attempt to reduce the digital divide is attested in the ‘National Plan for Digital Literacy’ (Plan Nacional de Alfabetización Digital - PNAD), published in 2010. With adults as the target audience, the PNAD’s main objective is to reduce the generation digital divide and promote the use of ICT to improve access to services, goods, education and culture, contributing to the social integration.
The government has worked with partners such as Microsoft during the roll-out of the laptops. Faced with a teaching community where 90% had no previous ICT experience, Microsoft Uruguay worked with the Council of Primary Education and other expert partners to develop a portal to deliver online training. The training includes demonstrating the basic concepts of distance learning, showing how ICT can be integrated into the core curricula and teaching educators how to use computers in the classroom environment.
2011 - The U.S. Department of State in partnership with the Government of Uruguay launched TechCamp Montevideo, a project aimed to provide training to organizations working on education issues such as teacher training, digital literacy among students, and the provision of education to marginalized communities.
2014 - Beyond Access in collaboration with the Uruguay National Library and ANTEL launched a new digital inclusion project to provide ICT services to communities through public libraries. It will also provide computers, Internet access, and training programs to 10 participating libraries.
2016 - First national Internet Governance Forum of Uruguay is scheduled to be held on 17 May 2016.
Instituto Interamericano del Niño, la Niña y Adolescente (INN)
A specialized body of the Organization of American States (OAS) on children and adolescents policy that provides guidance to the different states on how they must assume protection.
INTERPOL is the world’s largest international police organization, with 190 member countries. Its mission is to enable police forces to collaborate globally to fight crime in the Internet age. Three areas of focus are crimes against children (with a focus on internet crimes and travelling sex offenders), cybercrime and human trafficking.
Latin American Network of Educational Portals (La Red Latinoamericana de Portales Educativos – RELPE)
Formed in 2004 by an agreement of the Ministries of Education from sixteen Latin American countries, a network of educational portals, allowing the collaboration and sharing of educational content between the member countries. It also provides 