This November 20, World Children’s Day is celebrated and the Universal Declaration of Children’s Rights is commemorated. According to United Nations this Day “offers each of us an inspirational entry-point to advocate, promote and celebrate children’s rights, translating into dialogues and actions that will build a better world for children.”
Guatemala is signatory of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the UN. SDG4 aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all by 2030.
Guatemala’s school education statistics reflect limited progress in this area. According to data provided by the Ministry of Education, more than 141,000 children are out of the school system. Of them, 37,706 live in San Marcos, Quiché and Huehuetenango, and most are girls.
Aware that low levels of schooling and high dropout levels are a historic reality, 10 years ago we built the Mojarras school for the children of our workers. The dream of my father, founder of AgroAmérica, was made a reality: to take education to rural areas and thus help to reduce poverty in the area where we operate.
The Mojarras school has been a model for other rural schools for its innovative methodology. The comprehensive quality education that it offers helps empower children in more ways than simply by teaching them to read and write. They are taught leadership and life skills.
Also, the school makes efforts to stay up-to-date with the latest advances in education and takes advantage of innovative techniques and methodologies through a full-immersion experience that focuses on students and on their place in the community.
This student-centric methodology is a holistic approach that highlights skills and practices that foster permanent learning and problem-solving. The study plan includes human values and emphasizes students’ critical role in creating meaning from new information and prior experience, in the framework of their own lives.
Several students from our school have won national math and language contests with language grades that are 20% above the average established by the Ministry of Education of Guatemala. I am convinced that education is one of the factors that influences the progress of individuals and societies the most, and that child education builds the foundations for the future development of persons. School education influences the physical, intellectual, affective, social and moral development of children. And an educated child will be, without a doubt, a more productive worker.