“The Horizontes programme has changed my life and my vision for the future. It gave me the socio-emotional support I needed. Before, I was afraid to speak in front of an audience, I was embarrassed. I also didn't know how to control my emotions, how to channel them and how to regulate myself. Now I feel better about myself, I practice self-knowledge, I know my strengths and weaknesses”. Flor, 16 years old. 4th grade secondary school, Educational Institution Centro Piloto de Educación a Distancia – CPED 50853 – Quispicanchi (Cusco Department).
As well as Flor, 724 adolescents from the 8 educational institutions where the Horizontes Programme works in Cusco have improved their socio-emotional skills by 2022, which is manifested in their school performance and interactions with their peers and adults. This number of students represents 94% of the total number of students enrolled in the five grades of secondary education.
Horizontes Programme, UNESCO's rural secondary programme in Peru, works in 6 regions of Peru (Amazonas, Ayacucho, Cusco, Piura, Arequipa and Puno) to ensure that adolescents in public schools located in rural areas complete their secondary education. They strengthen their socio-emotional skills and strengthen their individual identity and intercultural citizenship.
Since 2019, Horizontes Programme has been working to ensure a renewed secondary education for 6,662 students between the ages of 12 and 19, building the capacity of 517 teachers and directors of 45 educational institutions. In Peru, 61% of state schools serve the rural school population. At the regional level, Cusco has one of the highest number of rural schools in its territory.
Horizontes Programme began its intervention in the rural areas of the Cusco provinces of Quispicanchi in 2020 and Acomayo in 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic and crisis. The 2017 National Population and Housing Census found that the rural population in Acomayo was 33.07% of the total population and in Quispicanchi province it represented 51.28%.
In partnership with the Regional Government of Cusco, the Regional Management of Education of Cusco, the Local Education Management Unit of Acomayo and the Local Education Management Unit of Quispicanchi, the Horizontes Programme achieved that 441 students in 3rd, 4th and 5th year of secondary school in rural schools in Cusco acquire socio-emotional skills and technical and entrepreneurial competencies by the year 2022.
In the area of Education for Work, the students received a double certification in technical specialities such as: Business and commercial computing, bakery and pastry making, textile cutting and assembly, welding and agricultural production. These specialities are offered in agreement with a Productive Technical Education Centre - CETPRO.
“Horizontes Programme has supported us a lot with our bakery project. They have given us workshops on how to start a business and how to take it forward. Now I have a technical certificate that gives more value to my learning”. Paul, 17 years old. 5th grade secondary school, Educational Institution Virgen Asunción - Acomayo.
The programme thus promotes relevant educational training that is complemented by technical training that provides adolescents with the necessary tools to develop their life projects. This will enable them to develop their talents and continue their careers with an impact on the development of their community.
"Now that I have done the exercise of writing and putting together my "life project" I have discovered that I want to study medicine, because it is what I like and I know that I am good at it. Now I know what I want to be in life, I have a goal, a horizon where I want to arrive". Gabriela, 16 years old. 4th grade secondary school, Educational Institution Virgen Asunción - Acomayo.
Like Gabriela, 141 students (74 boys and 67 girls) in the 5th grade secondary school in the schools participating in the Horizontes Programme graduated in 2022 with a life project linked to their local and cultural identity. The 141 students represent 95.92% of the total number of students enrolled in the fifth grade of secondary school.
In addition, Horizontes Programme has ensured that adolescents in Cusco participate in prevention learning experiences that enable them to deal with risk factors in a resilient manner and to be cared for from a gender perspective. Likewise, teachers and administrators have transformed their professional and pedagogical practice by including the approaches and components of the Horizontes Programme.
More specifically, the vision of the Horizontes Programme in Cusco can be summed up as happy adolescents with life projects and creating community.
Read about the experience of UNESCO's Horizontes Programme in Peru here:
Horizontes, Rural Secondary Program of UNESCO Peru - Summary (English)
