Costa Rica Project: The School in Our Hands

Presented by: Leonardo de la O, Ministerio de Educación Pública, Costa Rica
Presented at: Sustainable Regional Education Efforts for Safer More Inclusive Communities Working Group, Heredia, Costa Rica
Date of Session: November 9 – 10, 2010

Session Description: The aim of the education system in Costa Rica is to develop critical, responsible and creative people who are able to make decisions and live peacefully and respectfully in a diverse democracy. One example of this new programming is the “School in Our Hands” model. This model, currently in 64 secondary education schools, is focused on a rights based approach with an aim to promote coexistence and human rights and enable students to practice democracy through modeling in student government as well as learn how to express themselves in a variety of ways through the arts.