9 Marist schools in Catalonia recognized as centers of reference in children’s rights education
UNICEF has recognized 9 Marist schools in Catalonia as referents in education for children’s rights. This is a recognition for schools that work in education from the perspective of children’s rights.
The fundamental objective of the community of Marist educators is to place children and their rights in a privileged and prominent place in school life, which must be guided by the principles of inclusion, equity, solidarity and quality. In the same way, it has to contribute to provide teaching with the dimensions of globality and interdependence, characteristic of today’s world, and essential in the formation of children and adolescents as global citizens.
The Marist schools of Catalonia have made a commitment to integrate the rights of the child in the planning and in the daily school life. This determination has existed for some time for two reasons. On the one hand, because of the Marist vocation to always work in a network, whether it is one’s own network or a network based on affinities in objectives. And, on the other hand, for the clear intention of exposing and showing the work before international organizations that guarantee that the work process itself is a standardized process. The Marist community values that others who have made the journey before or who do it from a global perspective confirm that it is certainly being done in an optimal way.
Through this program, UNICEF offers training in Children’s Rights to the teaching staff of the educational centers, also promoting the existence of mechanisms for child and adolescent participation in the center. In addition, the program promotes the creation of spaces for the protection and well-being of students and the improvement of the school climate through coexistence and cohesion of the educational community.
Collaborating with UNICEF requires a degree of involvement in order to face each year with increasing levels of commitment that bring increasingly profound changes in key aspects of our Educational Project.
In Catalonia there are as many as 22 educational centers that are recognized by UNICEF as referents in education in children’s rights, and almost half of them belong to the Marist network.