Nuevo León: Participative School Projects

Participatory School Projects ("Proyectos Participativos Escolares") arises as an initiative of the Secretariat of Citizen Participation in Nuevo Leon (Mexico) with the purpose of opening spaces of participation to all people, including priority groups such as children and adolescents to guarantee their right to participate in matters that interest and affect them. 

This is a participation mechanism that opens spaces where children have a voice and vote for decision-making on public resources and the improvement of their school environment. This project aims to contribute to increasing children's interest in participating in decision making and to guarantee their right to participation. 

The methodology of "School Participatory Projects" brings together various mechanisms of participation, from the representation, via lottery, of a group of students in the generation of proposals, dialogue and consensus to design and define project ideas, voting of all children in the school to decide the project to be implemented and, finally, the creation of a Monitoring Committee led by the children and composed, in turn, of directors, teachers, mothers and fathers, who ensure that the essence of the projects is maintained as proposed by the children, responding to their best interests.

The collaboration of actors and institutions was key to the success of the project. Participatory School Projects involved governmental agencies and entities such as the Ministry of Education, the State Electoral and Citizen Participation Institute, the State Youth Institute, municipal institutions, school principals and staff, parents, young people and children from 13 schools in 13 different municipalities. 

During the process, evaluation instruments were applied to identify the level of satisfaction of participating children and young facilitators. The results obtained were that 95% of the children finished the project design workshop happy or delighted. In the youth satisfaction survey, the active participation of children, the coexistence of children and youth, and the freedom of expression of children were highlighted as valuable aspects of the exercise: 83% of the young people were satisfied with the workshop. 83% of the young people who facilitated the workshops would participate again. 

As a result of Participatory School Projects in its first edition, 13 projects to improve the school environment were implemented in 13 municipalities: Apodaca, San Nicolás de los Garza, Guadalupe, Juárez, Cadereyta Jiménez, Santiago, Salinas Victoria, El Carmen, García, Santa Catarina, San Pedro Garza García, Escobedo and Monterrey. We trained 120 young people in the state to facilitate the workshop on project design with children; 624 girls and boys participated in the workshop. The workshop generated 52 ideas for projects to improve the school environment. 

The objective of Participatory School Projects was met by generating spaces for participation where girls and boys, with their voice and vote, decided how to use 1.950.000 pesos (approx. 104.000€) of public resources to improve their school environment and surroundings. 

More information: 

• https://participacionciudadana.nl.gob.mx/proyectos-participativos-escolares/