Edistio Cámere passed away this Tuesday, the 27th. I was in Chiclayo attending to family matters. He was an excellent person, a true professional, a gentleman of faith as Kierkegaard understood it, a great friend. Last year, he was kind enough to invite me to present one of his books. As a token of appreciation and sincere public affection, here are a few lines from his book “Private Initiative in Education. Challenges and Realities” (Lima, USIL, 2023), in which he reflects on the fundamental right to freedom of education, recognized in Article 13 of the 1993 Peruvian Political Constitution, placing special emphasis on the right of private enterprise to create and manage educational services in the various established modalities and levels. Likewise, “the book aims to eradicate the prejudice—deeply entrenched in the minds of governments and many citizens—that only the State is capable of addressing social needs, and that private enterprise—always and everywhere—exhaustively pursues its individualistic interests (p. 18).”

Edistio considers that “freedom of education presents itself as the best platform for social pluralism. The existence of varied and rich possibilities of choice available to citizens is one of the fundamental features of any free educational system (p. 30).” This range of possibilities opens up avenues for parents to choose the education they seek for their children, and at the same time, this healthy plurality of options “prevents a single-minded approach dictated by those in power (p. 38).” It is a wise decision to link freedom of education with the fundamental right to freedom of conscience and thought (Art. 2, paragraphs 3 and 4 of the Constitution).
Edistio argues that “the freedom to create educational centers includes two constitutive elements: providing them with a set of principles and organizing and managing them according to the principles and values ​​embodied in this set of principles (p. 34).” State intervention is unjustified when it seeks to standardize and control educational activity. Ensuring the proper functioning of education in all its forms is desirable, but not at the cost of nullifying the diversity of offerings: bureaucratic overregulation stifles innovation and creativity. In this field, the principle of subsidiarity must be applied, whereby civil actors exercise the right to create educational institutions, assuming the responsibilities that quality management demands. The collectivist mentality generated by state intervention strips citizens and the various actors of civil society of responsibility. In the field of education, as in so many others, we do not need more State, but more society.

The author also points out the ease with which private initiative in education is delegitimized when it is reduced solely to the profit motive. “In this way, the possibility of any other motive being driven by it is eliminated: solidarity, altruism, the common good, aid, integrity, human values, the education and comprehensive improvement of children and young people (p. 49).” An organization, including a private school, is not limited to the desire to maximize profits. There is also a desire to serve that addresses the real needs of students and their families. Service is not a human dimension monopolized by state entities. Civil society also has the capacity to intervene in solving the problems that plague social coexistence, joining the effort to improve educational quality.

On the other hand, in response to the rushed slogans that state entities occasionally issue, Edistio states that “schools cannot be treated as laboratories where ‘happy ideas’ organized by bureaucracies far removed from reality, but close to the fashionable ideology are occasionally tested. Schools—that is, parents, teachers, and students—deserve respect and consideration. The willful imposition of ideas and behaviors radically affects the exquisite nature of things, the dignity and freedom of individuals, and the essence of schools, which is the transmission of knowledge and values ​​to free people (p. 76).” Certainly, haste and improvisation are not acceptable in the delicate world of education.

In short, a book full of ideas and a well-deserved praise of the creative force of freedom in the field of education.