Read, write and lead: Meet the Quechua women of Cusco who are rewriting their stories

Through its Municipal Community School, the district has developed an educational model based on a simple but powerful conviction: women do not enter the classroom without knowledge. On the contrary, they bring with them knowledge related to agriculture, animal husbandry, family health, community organization and Quechua culture. Literacy is not built by replacing this knowledge, but by recognizing and strengthening it.

For this reason, the teaching of reading, writing and mathematics is connected to real-life situations. Learning also incorporates content related to agricultural production, health, sexual education, community leadership, entrepreneurship and the exercise of rights. In this way, education acquires immediate meaning for participants and becomes a tool for improving their quality of life. Innovation lies not only in the curriculum, but also in the way students are reached.

Rather than expecting women to travel to an educational centre, the community school goes to where they live. Community educators travel for between one and two hours each day to reach the most remote communities. There, they work individually or in small groups, adapting to participants’ availability. Some sessions take place at dawn, before agricultural activities begin; others take place at the end of the family and productive workday.

Without this flexible approach, many participants would have to travel for one to two hours to reach the nearest educational centre. Furthermore, while regular youth and adult education programmes may require several years to complete an educational pathway, the Municipal Community School enables students to complete their studies in approximately one to two years for those who did not complete primary education and one year for those who did not complete secondary education, thanks to a contextualized approach and mechanisms for recognizing prior learning.

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