Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you very much, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. A hug, thank you. Well, thank you very much, thank you very much to all the young people who join us today and who are the most important guests this afternoon. I also want to mention the Vice President of the Republic, the deputies, the ambassadors and diplomatic corps, the government cabinet, the rectors and representatives of the universities where all of you are going to study. Greetings to our friends from the national and international press, to the team from the Integration Directorate, and to my great friend Alejandro Gutman. Good afternoon.
I'm going to take this microphone so I can see you all clearly. Let me look at you well, because let me look at you well, because this day is the day that El Salvador changes. I don't know if you have sometimes seen on social media, on the internet, old videos. I love you too. No, I'm fine. I'm fine. All right. Listen, can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you listen to me for one minute, and then—listen for one minute? Listen to me. Yes, I love you too.
Well, now you can hear me. Can you hear me? Can you hear me? All right, I was saying: this moment we are sharing here, all of us joyful, you must engrave it in your mind. And not only those of us here, but all Salvadorans watching us on television, on social media, on livestreams. I don't know if you've seen old videos of other countries from the past, where you see when the country was poor, underdeveloped. You see that old video, and how that country changed, and 30 or 40 years later it became a developed country, an enviable power. Well, this moment we are living right now—no sugar, no sugar—this moment that we are living right now is our old video.
All right, all right. Well, let's calm down for a little bit. Let's calm down. You know I'm as rowdy as you are, that's why you're bringing that out in me. But let's calm down for a moment. Let's calm down for a moment. Listen. Good, good, good. All right, just for a bit. Let's behave, let's behave, let's behave. Well, as I was saying, that old video we see of other countries, this is going to be our old video. Decades from now, people will watch this video, which will be old, and say, 'That was when El Salvador began moving forward, because all its young people decided to get trained, work hard, push forward, and advance themselves, their families, and their country.' And they will say, 'Look at El Salvador back in 2026, and look at how it is now. Look at everything they achieved.'
But for all of us to be that example for others, so that young people and children who haven't even been born yet see us decades from now and are inspired by what we are doing here today, this day cannot just remain as a speech, or as the launch of a program, or as a fun afternoon. It has to be something much bigger—something that depends on us, but goes beyond us. A little over a year ago, we gathered with 10,000 young people at the National Gymnasium. Ten universities were with us. Now we have 35 universities and more than 30,000 young people joining us today. This is growing, and it is growing faster than anyone would have thought. And do you know why? Because El Salvador is demonstrating what we always knew: that all our youth need is an opportunity.
For decades, for decades, this country accepted something that should never have seemed normal. You can ask your parents: many couldn't study. Those who had the chance to study maybe only finished primary school. Those who finished primary school maybe could only reach ninth grade. And of those who reached ninth grade, only a few went to high school. And of those who graduated from high school, almost none had anything afterward other than having to go to work—not as a first job, which would be good, but as the end of the road. The road ended there: going to work out of necessity for the rest of their lives until they died. That could not continue to be our country's reality, but it was the reality. You can ask your parents, and they will confirm what I'm telling you.
The data is right there. Out of every 100 students, only one to five go to university. Out of 40 students in a classroom, one goes to university, or two with luck. Well, now that must change, and that is what we are going to change. That is why I officially announce to you here that the government is going to make 50,000 scholarships available to you. Fifty thousand scholarships so you can choose from all those careers that will be available: university degrees, technical training, vocational courses, whatever each person wants. In-person, hybrid, virtual. And we're not stopping at what we've achieved in El Salvador, going from 10 to 35 universities; the Integration Directorate and the Foreign Ministry have gone out to secure international scholarships so you can study from your computers if that's what you wish.
I love you too. And don't let anyone think these 50,000 scholarships are just for this year; next year more and more will come, and so on, until every young Salvadoran has the opportunity to study. To guarantee this doesn't depend on any single administration or budget, we have signed a 100-million-dollar agreement with the Inter-American Development Bank, the IDB, who is here with us, to finance all these scholarships long-term. We are also working with the World Bank and the CAF to carry out everything else required for educational transformation.
You know, sometimes in other countries they say young people don't want to study, young people don't want to work. But when I see these youth with this energy, with this drive to get ahead, with this happiness, with this joy, I say: maybe that happens in other countries, but in El Salvador, there is no lack of drive. What was lacking were opportunities, and now there are opportunities for you to channel all that energy into fulfilling your dreams.
We have a goal, and all of you here are going to be the spearhead of that goal. You are the first generation, but we will reach every generation. We will start from early childhood with the First Lady's Office, working from early childhood with childcare centers, preschools, then primary schools, and remodeling schools. Every student in El Salvador has their computer. We are connecting all schools to the internet, and now everyone who graduates like you is entitled to a scholarship for higher education. As you can see: early childhood, preschool, primary, computers for all youth, artificial intelligence tutors—one for each student, including graduates—and internet connectivity in all schools; we're already at 70% and must reach 100%. In short, from birth until graduating from higher education, the government will guarantee the entire path.
To achieve that, we also have the national play strategy, new educational curricula, and new teaching materials. We are remodeling two schools every day—two more schools each day—and training tens of thousands of teachers, without whom none of this would be possible. So greetings to the teachers, especially those supporting us in this process with all the drive in the world. Furthermore, we want to provide more spaces for you to spend your time constructively, like the National Library, the CUBO centers, programs like Cubo Plus, financial education, children learning robotics, artificial intelligence, and software—a generation that gives El Salvador the leap forward we've never been able to have.
They used to say El Salvador was condemned to be the most dangerous country on the planet. And we proved to them that we went from being the most dangerous country on the planet to being the safest country on the continent. You have come from every corner of this country, which is the safest in the entire continent. Now we have to show the world that we are not only security, but also education; that we didn't just clear the land, plow it, and prepare it, but we are going to cultivate the finest harvest our country has ever seen—which is you, the best harvest El Salvador has ever had in its history.
And you don't just have to take my word for it. Today we are going to publish the full investment budget for education. Two important facts. The first is that we will surpass an investment of over 3 billion dollars a year. Three billion dollars a year, which is triple—three times what all previous administrations invested, three times. It is equivalent to more than 8% of GDP, making us the country that invests the highest share of its economy in education in all of Latin America. There will not be a single country in Latin America investing a higher educational budget than El Salvador. Over 8% of our GDP, over 8% of our economy dedicated to you, to our youth, to our children, to our future.
Any opposition member, journalist, curious observer, interested party, supporter, multilateral organization, bank, or foreign government will be able to review and verify that we will invest over 3 billion dollars a year and over 8% of our GDP. Just to compare, previous administrations invested 3%. We will invest over 8%, nearly 9%. But you carry a great responsibility, because this scholarship is a deal. We give you the scholarship, we give you the opportunity, but what must you bring? You have to make the effort, you have to study, you have to work. There is one thing no government in the world can give you, and that is your own effort—effort, especially when you might not feel like pushing yourself.
You know the difference between motivation and discipline, right? Right now, you are motivated. We are all motivated, we all want to take on the world, we have energy, we want to move forward. Right now we are all motivated. But tomorrow you might not be so motivated. A week from now you might feel a little down, lacking drive. That is when discipline must take over from motivation. We must have the discipline to study, to work, to always push ourselves—both when we are motivated like today, and when we are not. Only that will lead us to fulfill our dreams: always working, always studying, always striving with motivation and discipline, when we feel motivated and when we do not. Right now everyone is motivated and it's easy, but in a week or a month, some will lose motivation, and that is when you will need your discipline—that inner strength telling you, 'I must keep going to achieve my dreams, to get ahead, to help my family, and to advance my country.'
I am going to ask one more thing of you. I'll ask one more thing. Well, there's no shortage of motivation! Channel this energy. Use this energy to motivate yourselves and build discipline for when the motivation we have right now isn't there. And perhaps you can do something just as important: let each of you raise your hand. The wave! All right, all right. Just so you can see: I think the journalists joining us can see that there is no youth here oppressed by any dictatorship. The last thing here is oppression; what is here is pure joy.
Something important, something important. Each of you has friends, family, classmates, acquaintances, neighbors. Each of you knows someone who might need your help in daily life. Sometimes we see a friend looking sad; maybe we can help them. Maybe we have a classmate struggling with grades; maybe we can help them. Maybe we have a brother or sister having problems, feeling down, depressed; maybe we can help them too. There are 30,000 people here, but if each of you helps 10 Salvadorans in any way—a good afternoon, a good morning, asking 'Is something wrong? Can I help you?', helping them study, helping in class, asking why someone is feeling down—if you help 10 Salvadorans, we will no longer be 30,000, we will be 300,000. And if each of them helps 10, we will be 3 million. That is how the energy you have right now can spread across all of El Salvador.
This event is called 'El Salvador Reborn,' and it's not just a slogan or the name my friend Alejandro gave it; it is literal, because El Salvador will be reborn through you. We went from being the most dangerous country in the world to the most joyful country in the world, and we will become the most skilled country in the world. Not today, not tomorrow, but with your effort we can achieve it. And this will be our old video—the video of when we Salvadorans decided to push ahead, strive, work, study, and move forward. Normally, stadiums fill up for a soccer match or a concert, not for an educational event. But here the stadium is packed with joyful energy, strength, and drive for an educational event.
I don't know if other countries have achieved this; maybe. God bless them. But I want all the business leaders of the world, multilateral organizations, and institutions to see this human talent: young people who aren't despondent, but full of energy, eager to work, eager to study, eager to strive, eager to get ahead and fulfill their dreams. Wouldn't you want this kind of people in your companies? Of course you would. Salvadorans are the best people in the world, and here is proof. Our youth went from fear to this. Security gave us back our peace; now, through education, you are going to win the future for us. May God bless you all. May God bless El Salvador.
