Taking part instead of sitting in silence

Breaking the silence

Children have rights. This also includes the right to participate. However, children speaking their mind and having a say is rarely the case in Central American schools, where the emphasis is on a pedagogy of silence: quiet obedience is expected from the children, and questions and criticism are not welcome. This leads to high drop-out rates in schools.

Motivating children to learn

Our partner organisation combats this through a pedagogy of participation. Innovative teaching methods and materials are developed in cooperation with the teachers, who are taught to facilitate a learning atmosphere that promotes curiosity and participation from the children. It also enables values such as equality, freedom, respect, personal integrity and human dignity to be passed on to the children.

The aim is to give the children the tools they will need to assert their rights, as well as creating a basis for society to develop in a positive way. At political level, the project accelerates the integration of this type of teaching into national curricula.