“Ignorance of the territory that as a consequence leaves the contamination of water basins and the use of transgenic seeds cause the loss of ancestral culture, evidencing deep social inequalities due to lack of land ownership”: María Camila Rojas, student at IE Combia
In the Sapán room of the Hotel Movich, the ‘Municipal Educational Forum 2023, towards a quality education that enhances the recognition of diversity’ was held. In this forum, eight institutions showed their significant experiences, of which three were awarded and will represent Pereira in the ‘National Educational Forum’ to be held in the city of Bogotá, an event organized by the Ministry of National Education “Towards a quality education that enhances the recognition of diversity”, in which three lines are addressed. Environmental education that enhances the diversity of the territories; Equity and interculturality within the framework of diversity and Territorial Management for quality education in diversity.
Liliana Zapata Álvarez, current secretary of education of the municipality of Pereira, in an interview with El Diario communicated the importance of recognizing the significant experiences of the educational institutions that are part of the capital of the Department of Risaralda, saying that from each of them there is a management of educational quality where each sector, both rural and urban, presents new initiatives for the strengthening of education, for this reason in the forum 8 significant experiences of the participating institutions were announced, of which 3 rural institutions were They received the highest recognition for their integrated work as a great institution, these were the ones who will represent Pereira in the National Educational Forum that will be held in the city of Bogotá.
The winner
‘Environmental Education that Enhances the Diversity of the School Territory’, which frames the educational institutions La Bella, Combia and Héctor Ángel Arcila, in an agroecological alliance, was presented by Carlos Andrés Guerrero, coordinator of IE Combia and Magda Milena Puerta, coordinator of the IE The Beautiful.
With a video in which directors, teachers and students participated and they made known the problems they have been working on, such as the use of poisons in most plantations, since these poisons are finally consumed by humans and hence the importance teamwork between these rural institutions that promote agroecological practices; The lack of job opportunities and the need for young people to seek these opportunities in the cities and the third major problem is that the peasants do not own the land; Deforestation due to monocultures, the affectation of the habitat of fauna and flora and the most important water basin of the municipality of Pereira, the Otún river basin.
These are the problems that have inspired these educational communities to work on the redefinition and revaluation of the concept of ‘Farmers’ with activities such as the first Andean Agroecological Meeting – Mesoamerican Pacific Amazonian, the microcenters that seek to transform the pedagogical practice of teachers to make it more experiential in farms, farms and sanctuaries and the meetings of teachers and students. Thanks to the conscious pedagogical reflection that highlights the work of these institutions from agroecology and its basic pillars that are the interdisciplinarity of the areas, and social responsibility through research, revaluing participation action that facilitates the development of classroom projects .
“We are very happy because we know that we are going for that award, they manage rural education with the perspective of each one of the students, enhancing each of the skills that each of our sectors has.” Liliana Zapata Alvarez, secretary of education of the municipality of Pereira.
It is worth noting that each of the institutions has its potential and qualities that make them great and excellent for the educational sector of the municipality.
The participating institutions were IE Luis Carlos González, Centro Educativo 30 de Agosto, IE La Bella – Héctor Ángel Arcila and Combia, IE San Fernando, IE Rodrigo Arenas, IE Kennedy, IE Aquilino Bedoya and IE Lestonnac.