Costa Rica: Educational centers free of racial discrimination

 
2 May, 2017

In Costa Rica, educators across the country have set the challenge of preparing themselves to adequately address the cases of racial discrimination in their schools. In the short term, the aim is to establish a protocol and, in the long term, to establish the basis for a model that will allow schools to be certified as free from racial discrimination.

 

This is an initiative implemented by the Department of Intercultural Education of the Ministry of Public Education of Costa Rica, in coordination with, the Presidency of the Republic, the IOM Mesoamerica Program, the Ombudsman's Office, the African Studies Chair of the University of Costa Rica and the Teachers Association. All of which have allied to develop a 40-hour course to detect and prevent acts of discrimination, and ensure the right to education in equitable and equal conditions.

The main objective of the course is to raise awareness within the teaching community (including technical teachers) on the recognition of racism and discrimination as a social phenomenon, and on the possible ways of combating it by fostering healthy coexistence in a multiethnic and multicultural society.

The program started with a first workshop in March in Nicoya, province of Guanacaste. In April another workshop was held in Cartago and six more workshops are planned this year covering the main areas of the country and involving about 240 teachers.

 

IOM developed and facilitated the course’s migration component, which encourages a reflection on the misconceptions about migrants and uses mythological educational approaches to tackle xenophobia. The course provides methods to address the challenges of integrating migrant girls and boys in the classroom, by emphasizing an intercultural perspective that creates an environment free of violence, discrimination, and racism.

"In Costa Rica there are a high percentage of foreign students studying in public schools. One of the concerns of teachers participating in this process is the difficulty they face with migrant children and adolescents who, because they do not hold a regular migration status, find no access to scholarships and face difficulty to be able to graduate", explained Noemy Serrano, IOM.

Anger Smith Castro, from the Ministry of Public Education, acknowledged that despite the efforts made in curricular and extracurricular activities, discriminatory acts continue to be evident in different educational centers. "We know that discriminatory practices persist in the classroom, that structural racism is there in the unconscious and comes out on topics as regular as a haircut or generates discrimination for aspects of phenotype," said the official.