The education we want is the name given to a forum of debates on educational themes hosted by Santillana Foundation at its central office in Madrid. It organises a series of conferences in the autumn on a wide range of important cultural and educational topics, and a Spring Seminar on a monographic subject in the area of education. The ultimate aim of The education we want is to contribute to improving the quality of teaching, and to encourage discussion and a critical analysis of educational themes.

Since it commenced its activities in the autumn of 1998, the forum has been attended by personalities such as Antonio Muñoz Molina, Carlos García Gual, Juan Pablo Fusi, Fernando Savater, José Manuel Blecua, Francisco Rodríguez Adrados, Miguel Artola, Emilio Lledó, Juan Luis Cebrián, Victoria Camps, Raymond Carr, Ralph Dahrendorf, Howard Gardner, Manuel Castells, Mariano Fernández Enguita, Tom Bentley, Cayetano López, Josep M. Bricall, Edgard Morin, Adela Cortina, Carmen Iglesias, Raffaele Simone, Angela McFarlane, Santiago de Torres, José Antonio Millán, César Coll, Andreas K.R. Schleicher, Alejandro Tiana Ferrer and José Luis García Garrido, among others.

The Santillana Prize for Educational Experiences has been held every year since it was set up in 1979. The main aim of this prize is to promote, reward, and publish the most innovative and valuable teaching experiences. Every year a number of exemplary works are chosen which may serve as a source of inspiration for other teachers, thereby contributing to improving the quality of teaching.

In order to achieve this objective, an essential part has been the publication of the prize-winning entries in book-form, which are distributed free of charge to educational centres. The volumes published to date bear testimony to the imagination, initiative, and dedication of Spanish teachers for over more than two decades.

The works submitted over this period of time have dealt with a wide variety of very important topics: the teaching of reading, mathematics, science; citizenship themes like education for health, living together, the consumer society; classroom essays, oral expression, music, art, etc. In 2000, Santillana changed the format of the competition and based it on any work undertaken by the participants. The competition was revised to include recent changes such as a greater diversity of participants, and an increase in research into classroom activities and the number of topics which interest teachers.

Over the years, the competition has always had a panel of judges who are selected from the experts in the field of education and culture, chaired by distinguished public figures such as Pedro Laín Entralgo, Joaquín Ruiz Giménez, Gonzalo Torrente Ballester, Álvaro Gil Robles, S.A.R. don Carlos De Borbón Dos Sicilias, Adela Cortina, Francisco Grande Covián, Josefina Aldecoa, Fernando Savater and Mario Vargas Llosa, among others.

The Santillana Prize is organised by several of the Group’s companies in Latin America, including Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru and Venezuela, as well as Portugal.