Rural Secondary Education Program "HORIZONTES"

Horizontes, UNESCO's Rural Secondary Education Program in Peru is an initiative focused on rethinking the meaning and services of rural secondary education and its contribution to the trajectory of rural adolescents, so that they may be users of a relevant and attractive educational experience that allows them to develop their potential and talents. We believe in the power of an education that empowers their life projects.

Our goal is to work to ensure that adolescents in rural public schools complete their high school studies, strengthening their socioemotional skills and strengthening their individual identity and intercultural citizenship. We seek a relevant educational training that is complemented with an enabling technical training that provides them with the necessary tools to develop their life projects. This will allow them to enhance their talents and continue their career impacting their community.

The Horizontes program has an impact in Ayacucho, Cusco, Amazonas, Piura, Puno and Arequipa, providing support to ensure a renewed secondary education for 6,662 students between 12 and 19 years old, building the capacities of 517 teachers and directors of 45 educational institutions in rural areas. The Local Educational Management Units of the territories are also considered as beneficiaries.

The Horizontes program started its strategy in 2018 in secondary schools in rural districts in four regions of Peru: Amazonas, Cusco, Ayacucho and Piura. Conditions were generated in the 4 regions of the Program: social license in schools, baseline, constitution of territorial teams in partner institutions.

In 2019, systematic work began in prioritized secondary schools, the node schools. Meanwhile, in 2020, despite the crisis generated by COVID 19, the Program redefined its strategy and achieved important results. 

By 2021, the Horizontes Cusco team expanded the intervention to four new schools in the province of Acomayo. In Puno, a collaboration agreement was established with Ser Maestro to implement the Horizontes Program in secondary schools in the Sandia UGEL. While in Arequipa, a collaboration agreement was established with DESCO Sur to work with UGEL Caylloma.

Between 2019 and 2021, Horizontes went from working with 20 schools to working with 45 (125% increase); from working with 278 teachers to working with 517 (86% increase); and from benefiting 3,456 students to benefiting 6,662 (92% increase).

 

National and international presence of the Horizons Program "from the top down”

 

The year 2021 has also allowed us to test strategies for the Program's "bottom-up" impact and scalability. Horizontes school principals participated in several meetings with the Ministry of Education to present their good practices and demands.

A remote support strategy was initiated in two new regions to determine what human and economic resources would be required to ensure the start-up of Horizons in other regions. With the new government, a strategy has been co-designed to serve 1,000 rural secondary educational institutions by 2022. This sustainability and scalability strategy is strengthened with the "¡Educación Rural Ahora!" [Rural Education Now!] initiative.