In October 2024, IES Las Salinas renewed its recognition as a benchmark center in UNICEF's education in Children's Rights. This distinction recognizes the center's long-term commitment to making Children's Rights and Global Citizenship a daily reality through their knowledge and dissemination, student participation in center decisions, protection against risks and violence, and the development of a school climate inspired by democratic values in collaboration with families, the community, and the authorities.
IES Las Salinas obtained the first level of this recognition for the first time in 2017 and is, currently, the only educational center in the entire archipelago to be recognized by UNICEF as a top-level benchmark. Since that year, the educational center has been constantly working to transform its structure and imbue this vision in all its areas, making positive coexistence and participatory culture its hallmark.
"We started to think of our institute as a friendly and welcoming place for its students and the entire educational community, placing the person at the center," declared the UNICEF subcommittee of IES Las Salinas, established to coordinate all actions that are developed under this umbrella. "It is a transversal work that is achieved thanks to the collaboration of the different didactic departments, plans, and programs that are developed each year in the educational center, from the elaboration of the programming to the continuous training of the teaching staff themselves," they add.
One of these initiatives is the implementation of the Big Brother program, which promotes the improvement of the school climate through the establishment of healthy and welcoming relationships between peers, generating a protective atmosphere where care is valued. Likewise, the center has taken a further step towards child participation with the incorporation of the Student Service Office, managed by the center's own students with the main objective of channeling their initiatives, deepening the democratic culture, listening, and participation in daily life and decision-making at the center.
The renewal of UNICEF's recognition of IES Las Salinas also coincides with preparations for the celebration of World Children's Day, on November 20. This is a day that the subcommittee considers "very special for our center", as it will be celebrated, as every year, working on the knowledge of Children's Rights, with a novelty: the intention to include families, listening to their testimonies about adolescence as another stage of childhood to help generate a reflection and a kinder look at this fundamental period of our lives.
"We want to create a center designed by and for our students, where they feel heard, recognized, and valued, and where they feel they can take a step forward to make decisions that improve their lives and those of their peers. It may seem like a utopia, but our experience tells us that generating these spaces for coexistence and participation is clearly a milestone in student well-being," said María José Curbelo, director of IES Las Salinas, who has defined this recognition as "an incentive to continue working in this line with all our love and dedication."
