The challenge of balancing higher learning

It is not about creating an ideology out of competitiveness and productivity. We cannot leave aside equity, or the guarantee of respect to human dignity and environmental sustainability. We shouldn’t be tempted by “spurious competitiveness”, which is the one achieved by freezing or reducing the salaries, limiting the basic social services and threatening our environment. It is necessary to design a development strategy that satisfies at the same time the requirements of the economic growth and of social equity. Concerning competitiveness, Nicaragua is within the least competitive countries in Latin America, only outpaced by Paraguay and Venezuela.

 

The dream for those of us who are not willing to refuse to the utopia, is that the XXI century could be the century of ethics, overtaking the century of technology. It is necessary to build an ethical modernity, which maintains the values of humanism and of equality of rights for all and each human being, subordinating technological and political power to the ethical values. In this sense, although the University should create knowledge and provide the students with the competence and necessary abilities to exercise their specialty, it cannot neglect its character as the center par excellence, for the cultivation of an ethical, critical and responsible consciousness to confront the national and global problems. The University cannot neglect its mission as an institution former of a culture of social responsibility that goes beyond the function of preparing the high level intellectual capital of the country. University should be an example and guide of ethical commitment, so this permeates all social activities, including politics that should never be separated from ethics. The ethical revaluation of politics would lead citizens, specially the youth, to recover the credibility in politics as a kind occupation, which last aim is to serve the common good and not simply seek power just for the sake of power or wealth. This reflection acquires special importance on the actual context of our country, immersed in the worst ethical crisis of its history. It is time to promote, through graduate students, a new political culture, with a profound ethical base.