Situated on a hill in the seaport city of Valparaiso, on the Chilean coast, the Juan Luis Vives school was founded in 1999. Today it has 550 students. What makes it unique is that it is located inside the city’s prison. Every day, the teachers who work there are forced to cope with the challenges of the prison world – which include disparities in learning abilities, and emotions on edge. The school was awarded the UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy in 2015.
Carolina Jerez Henríquez, UNESCO Office in Santiago, Chile
Far from the historic quarter of Valparaiso, which features on UNESCO’s World Heritage List, the Valparaiso Prison is located off the tourist track – in a windswept neighbourhood in one of the city’s most disadvantaged areas. This is where the Juan Luis Vives school welcomes prisoners, who attend to resume their often-disrupted schooling or to pursue vocational training courses. In all cases, the aim is to better prepare them for the life that awaits them outside, once their sentences have been served.
Read more: UNESCO Courier October-December 2019
