The Edunauta Passport: we are continuing to foster equity outside the classroom

The Edunauta Passport is launching a new edition in earnest after ending the academic year with more children having used the passport and a summer full of various activities and proposals. We are beginning the new academic year with exciting challenges and a focus on continuing to extend educational opportunities to all children, acknowledging their learning and connecting learning settings through actions that help to build a local, all-round education policy.

The previous academic year provided a setting of growth and learning

The previous academic year came to a conclusion with almost 11,000 Edunauta children taking part in the more than 700 stimulating educational activities that were organised for them. Arranged in around 30 local areas, these activities were led by more than 200 public facilities and resources that fostered access to activities outside the classroom.

Can you imagine the huge amount of learning children could gain if all public facilities and resources in the same local area were to offer meaningful experiences relating to their interests?

Moreover, the Edunauta Passport has been present throughout the summer in various exciting formats that have allowed the tool to be enjoyed beyond the school year, providing children with challenging proposals to continue to learn and enjoy, such as being present at annual town celebrations, benefitting from the planning of summer activities or the design of summer camps.

Certain challenges for the new 2022-23 academic year

This academic year, the Edunauta Passport is taking on relevant challenges to continue to expand and enhance its functions in order to broaden its use.

Let us share some of these challenges with you:

- Placing equity at the heart of the intervention: As part of the programme we wish to continue to encourage socially disadvantaged children to be given access to educational opportunities in their local area. This academic year we wish to involve teams from the local areas who are leading the programme in implementing support, information and recommendation strategies addressed to families who less frequently take part in out-of-school activities. The Edunauta Passport is a resource that serves as a springboard for children to become active and take part in activities in their area, but in order to capitalise fully on this tool, local actions need to be coordinated to guarantee and expand on the range of quality out-of-school activities offered.

- Networking with education agents: The public resources and facilities in the area have huge educational potential and are a vital component in the project. We must continue to work very closely with them to forge more relations, to capitalise on the community experience, and to optimise educational resources. Community centres, sports organisations, theatres, socioeducational bodies and many other settings can help to build a broader and more heterogeneous offer of open, challenging and skills-building activities. It is worth remembering that during the previous academic year, 3 in every 4 children who took part in the Edunauta Passport stated that they had learnt new skills. Can you imagine the huge amount of learning children could gain if all public facilities and resources in the same local area were to offer meaningful experiences relating to their interests?

- Expanding on key information to improve management and to drive local policies: The digital tool and the Edunauta Passport assessment indicator system are two instruments that can help to gain a better acquaintance of the range of options linked to the Edunauta Passport catalogue of activities: for instance, how children who use the tool take part. This information will make it possible to deliver improvements in the implementation and use of the tool.

- Strengthening and enabling the growth of the community of areas implementing the tool: The programme strives to go on being an invaluable forum for connecting the different local areas implementing the tool and which are already committed to educational equity. This academic year, work will continue on promoting settings for training, reflection and the exchange of best practices that provide knowledge and new ideas to develop more local actions from an a full-time (360) perspective.

We wish to support the local areas that are committed to equity and the expansion of educational opportunities

The Edunauta Passport is an open project that aims to encourage more local councils, regional councils and socioeducational networks to join. We wish to support the local areas that are committed to equity and the expansion of educational opportunities in order to effectively provide the right to education beyond the classroom. If you wish to find out more, do not hesitate to contact us to discuss the initiative at the email address hola@passportedunauta.cat.