Children Lead the Way: Systematization of the productive education component in Bolivia

In Bolivia, Children Lead the Way (CLW) has been addressing access to quality education through multiple approaches. One of them supported schools to implement a new education law that promoted a holistic approach through 4 dimensions:

To Be: development of values, aspirations, and feelings of community life worldview principles;

To Make: to implement and develop practice activities, technical and technological for technical and intellectual production procedures;

To Decide: developing the organizational level of the student and determine a drive with critical thinking to solve problems and challenges

To Know: developing empirical knowledge, theories, arts, and sciences

Part of this approach included “productive education”. CLW supported 16 “Socio Productive Projects” in different schools, from the market and training assessments,  to the design of curriculum and teacher training, to the creation of governance bodies embedded in the schools inclusive of school administration, community representative and students, to buying machinery and supply, and finally to supporting them in commercialization of their products.

Those Socio Productive Projects not only taught boys and girls productive skills with a potential market, but also provided them with a space to participate, engage with the community, and re-connect with their traditional values and know how