The rural school in Colombia that without a library or internet managed to win a world education award

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The institution won the award for best school in the world in environmental action, beating places in countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Philippines, China, Argentina and Canada. The rural institution serves 380 students. William Hernández Guerrero/BBC This is the story of a highly unlikely success. It happened in Huila, the most coffee-producing region in Colombia, the country that provides some of the richest and most popular coffee in the world. There, in the San Francisco area, as in any other rural region in this country, being a child or teenager and studying for a high school diploma is a true feat. According to a recent study by the Javeriana University, 79.8% of educational institutions in rural Colombian areas do not have access to the internet, 18.1% do not even have an electricity supply, and 61.5% of rural students need to travel walk to their schools, often across large territories. Therefore, it is not surprising that today the Montessori Educational Institution, San Francisco unit, does not have a library or teachers’ room. What is extraordinary is that, with the limited resources with which it operates, it has managed to win more than 30 national and international awards for its educational approach. 💰And what’s almost miraculous is that it recently received US$50,000 for winning the award for best school in the world for environmental action, beating schools from countries like the United Arab Emirates, Philippines, China, Argentina and Canada. 🏆This award is the result of more than six years of efforts by the educational community, under the name of CafeLab, an innovative laboratory inspired by the coffee-growing nature of the families of its 380 students. BBC Mundo spoke to the project director and one of the students to understand how they managed to turn their ambitious dream into reality. Professor Ramón and the coffee dilemma Professor Ramón with one of the residents of the Pitalito community. William Hernández Guerrero/BBC Ramón Majé Floriano is 39 years old and is a mathematics and physics teacher. He started working in the town (rural area) of San Francisco in 2017. The first thing he noticed upon arriving was that the institution he became part of, which bears the name Montessori, is not affiliated with and does not practice the famous method of Italian education, which is currently used mainly in upper class schools. “I asked and they told me that it had nothing to do with the method and that they gave it that name because it was beautiful”, he explains. Then, Ramón met his senior high school students. They told him with great pride that the region, Huila, is the largest coffee producer in the country. In fact, it maintained this position until at least 2022, according to a report from the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia. “Here in the municipality of Pitalito (where San Francisco is located), 10,800 families make a living from coffee. The municipality has 21 hectares cultivated with grains and production reaches just over 220,000 loads of dry parchment per year”, he adds. Thus, the majority of students grew up on coffee farms, belong to families dedicated to coffee harvesting or are involved in some economic activity related to the coffee bean. And that was the starting point of Professor Ramón’s project, as he is called at school. “I started to develop a project-based learning exercise, thinking that what is taught to the student must have meaning for him. There is no point teaching the child, for example, the complex number if he will not use it in his everyday life and therefore , you will forget.” The teacher and his students then began with a first observation phase, carried out pedagogical trips and focused on understanding the community’s production practices. “That’s how we began to discover that behind the production of a high-quality cup of coffee there is an environmental impact that is not talked about in Colombia. There is talk of the best coffee in the world, but behind that coffee there is a huge problem of contamination.” Specifically, they realized that throughout the coffee production chain there are five types of natural waste that, when discarded, contaminate and alter the environment and native ecosystems: the stem of the plant, the skin of the fruit called pulp in the region, the gelatinous coating of the seed called mucilago, the skin that remains after roasting the coffee bean and, finally, the residue that remains at the bottom of the coffee cup. “Someone might say that, because they are natural and organic waste, they can be discarded without any problem to decompose. However, the problem is that the ecosystem is not prepared for a high load of this organic waste. Twenty thousand hectares generating, for example, the pulp (peel), which is highly acidic, will alter the acidity of the soil and, therefore, the ecosystem. Furthermore, various residues end up in the region’s streams and rivers, contaminating the water.” CaféLab Students with an experimental test of an electric battery based on the skin and mucilage (chemical substances) of the coffee fruit. William Hernández Guerrero/BBC With the problem identified, the teacher and students began working on possible solutions. Their idea was to create a direct relationship between the school and the community, and between the community and the territory. Each solution proposal was treated as an independent project that had to go through three stages: immersion, transfer and communication. “We start with immersion, reading background and doing field work. In other words, we go to the area and do research, interviews, measurements with sensors, we teach students how to program sensors to measure water quality, air quality, pH, soil, and humidity. We also teach how to use the drone to take perimeter measurements.” But obtaining the equipment and tools mentioned by the professor has not been easy; the few they have were acquired with a lot of effort. “Sometimes people comment that maybe we won the prizes with luck, but they can’t imagine everything we had to do. The institution today doesn’t have a staff room, it doesn’t have a library and until eight months ago it didn’t have an internet connection.” Along the way, they participated in several local, national and international science fairs, winning 30 awards. These fairs are usually events in which projects classified under different themes are presented and the best are awarded. Some prizes include recognition and the opportunity to travel to the fair, while others may be equipment or economic resources. Lucía, a tenth year student, currently 16 years old, had the opportunity to travel to Brazil with a classmate to represent the school at Expo Milset, a science fair. “We traveled to Fortaleza last year. We competed with approximately ten countries and more than 30 projects, and won first place internationally.” This opportunity also marked his first plane trip and his first departure from Colombia. “It was very shocking, when they told me I would travel, I started crying with emotion, I couldn’t believe it because I didn’t even have a passport… I loved Brazil, now I would like to have the experience of living and exporting our coffee there.” Nowadays, Lucía works on a soap project made from the residue left in a coffee cup. “I wanted to create an exfoliating soap. I thought about it, consulted and went through the three phases of the CaféLab project. Then I did the prototype, the design, the testing and the evaluation. It took me a year of trying to achieve it, because you have to work until you reach the goal; if you set your mind to it, you can achieve it”, he says. But this is just one of several solutions that have been created and improved over these almost seven years of work in the laboratory. “With the pulp (peel), we make aromatic drinks, wines, sweets and flour. With the mucilage, we are generating energy capable of lighting a lamp. With the stem of the plant, due to its high density and resistance, we make furniture. For example , the mathematics room where we meet has tables and chairs made from coffee stalks”, explains Professor Ramón. Professor Ramón, Lucía, employee of the Colombian Ministry of Science and student Alan James. Disclosure/BBC Furthermore, the project adopted a gender approach to contribute to reducing the inequality gap. “They usually said, ‘As you are a woman, serve as a secretary’ or ‘Since you are a woman, take charge of bringing the materials,’ so we decided to turn this situation upside down and give space for women to lead and coordinate the working groups”. For this reason, students like Lucía have had access to diverse opportunities that are not generally available to women in rural contexts. “Each work team has defined roles, but we encourage the team leader to be a woman, because the percentage of women entering STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) careers is very low,” she adds. Lucía, for example, will graduate next year and dreams of being part of the Air Force to have a stable income and wants to create her own business. “I want to become a professional and generate income to export my own brand of coffee. I would like my parents’, grandparents’ and family’s farm to become a central point for high-quality coffee with an environmental conscience.” The best school in the world On November 3, 2023, the rural school in San Francisco was full of people. It was the first time that the Colombian Minister of Education visited, accompanied by journalists from various local, national and international outlets. The visit took place as the London-based global platform T4 was to announce the winners of the education award given annually in four different categories, and the rural institution was among the finalists. “At our headquarters, we are 16 teachers, we are few, but we are making noise, even internationally”, explains Professor Ramón. He explains that on that day it was announced that the Montessori Educational Institution, based in San Francisco, was the winner of the environmental action award, beating out two other finalists from the Philippines and the United Arab Emirates. The award “recognizes and celebrates schools playing an active role in the fight against the climate crisis, through educating their students and the wider community, helping them take action to protect their future”, as explained by T4 in your site. This time, in addition to the international recognition that attracted the attention of several institutions and highlighted this small community in southeastern Colombia, the school received US$50,000 that will help improve the laboratory. “We hope to be able to create three specialized rooms for each stage of the project: a science laboratory, an agro-industrialization workshop and a space to develop communication skills. We intend to use these resources to start equipping the classrooms”, explains the professor. The project already has several lines of action on different environmental themes, such as renewable energy, materials, food and agricultural resources. One of his greatest achievements is having changed the curriculum at all locations of the educational institution. “Now, we have not only impacted the 380 students at this school, but the 3,300 across the entire institution, and the new curriculum is to be worked on by 126 teachers. We are all following the three phases of immersion, transfer and communication. It is an immense feat, because it broke a paradigm of traditional education. It wasn’t easy, but we’re doing it”, highlights the professor. The teacher and students did not allow precariousness to limit them. “I’m very proud to study here. After I graduate, I will continue coming to my school and I hope to see it become a reference for other schools. I want students to arrive with all the confidence and say: ‘I’m part of CaféLab Colombia , I am environmentally conscious and I am contributing to reducing pollution'”, concludes Lucía. videos

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