A fifth of young people in our continent indicate that what they learn at school is not useful for life or work. This is completely contrary to the idea that education and what is gained in school is what allows progress and advancement.
That conviction, so deeply rooted in their parents’ and grandparents’ generation, was no longer present in the imagination of the more than twelve million boys and girls in Latin America and the Caribbean who were out of school before the pandemic. They went.
Today, after the experience of COVID-19, without a doubt, there are a great number of skeptics and disaffected here and around the world. These are the results we are still looking for.
In Chile, more than 227,000 children and youth are outside the school system. Now the government has started the work of educational reactivation, but those outside will hardly believe that educational institutions will remain like this.
That is why everything contained in the “Transformer-nos” study developed by UNESCO with the participation of the Fundación Súmate is so interesting. It is a distribution of the “Framework for Educational Change Based on Social-Emotional Learning in Latin America and the Caribbean”.
I’ll give you some preview of this interesting text: “Innovative programs on tobacco and junk food consumption at the school level replaced discussions about their harm and consequences with campaigns that showed that the reasons behind the production of tobacco and junk food are great. Corporate power and the injustices faced by workers and workers in production. After four years of implementation, the campaign has prevented 450,000 youths from using tobacco and thousands more from adopting healthier lifestyle habits.
The moral in this and in many other cases – on the prevention of teenage pregnancy and school violence – is the one that gives results, as it is understood, not messages aimed at stopping sensations and emotions. Those that are engaging, persuasive and effective focus on “identifying ways to inspire young people in the context of the values, languages and codes that interest them, providing them with a path where they can engage with adults and may feel respect for their closest comrades”.
Those who are concerned today about security, organized crime, drug trafficking and the fight against violence must appreciate the importance of an education that is meaningful, comprehensive, empathetic and, above all, useful. So useful that it becomes a factor in preventing violence, the alluring easy money offered by drug traffickers and the most solid and lasting safeguard for our children and youth.
