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Strengthening the UNESCO Associated Schools Network in Latin America and the Caribbean
UNESCO ASPnet is the oldest and largest school network dedicated to building peace in the minds of children and young people through transformative education. It was founded over 70 years ago and connects close to 10,000 institutions in 181 countries. In Latin America and the Caribbean, there are 27 active national networks, encompassing approximately 1,800 schools, with 90,000 teachers and over one million students.
A historic meeting to energize the network
Entitled 鈥淪trengthening the UNESCO Associated Schools Network for a Peaceful and Sustainable Future鈥, the event brought together 21 National Coordinators from across Latin America and the Caribbean, high-level Dominican authorities, including the Minister of Education, 脕ngel Hern谩ndez, and representatives of the ministries of Culture and the Environment, as well as over 50 school directors and teachers from the Dominican Republic.
Over three days, participants built stronger connections among the national networks, learned about opportunities for international cooperation and exchanges, and consolidated a sense of community around the values of UNESCO. The efforts of National Coordinators and the focal points of member institutions are essential for the success of the programme; they are putting in practice global commitments such as Target 4.7 of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 on Education that focuses on the promotion of global citizenship education, sustainable development, and cultural diversity though education. Several schools presented their sustainable development initiatives.
The meeting was an opportunity to discuss the results of the 2024 and its recommendations to improve the network鈥檚 efficiency and effectiveness. The National Coordinators were also trained on the new online collaborative platform to find information about member institutions and national networks, keep their country data updated, communicate with each other, and process applications from new schools.
Transforming education in ASPnet schools
The experiences shared by National Coordinators on implementing ASPnet鈥檚 core goals in their countries were among the main highlights of the meeting, as was the presentation of an ongoing study of the transformative practices in ASPnet schools in Cuba, Venezuela, and the Dominican Republic. According to the preliminary results, the greatest progress in terms of transformative learning were made in history and social sciences, language and communication, and mathematics, while subjects like physics and chemistry require additional support. The preliminary results emphasize that teachers need more training, institutional support, and targeted teaching materials to accompany these transformations.
The meeting was organized by UNESCO in collaboration with and the Ministry of Education of the Dominican Republic and is intended to inspire every other region to hold similar meetings in 2025, to reinvigorate the network, align and consolidate efforts to implement the SDG 4 Target 4.7, and empower educators to adopt transformative practices in their daily work.
