Minister Cataldo visits Calbuco to learn about an innovative experience in inclusive education

Tuesday, December 5, 2023

The Secretary of State visited the Multisensory Stimulation Room (SEM) at the San Jose Rural School in Calbuco, where he highlighted that the space “allows for deepening of learning.”

The Mineduc authority met with Senator Fidel Espinoza, along with mayors and councilors from other municipalities in the region, eager to know more details about this inclusive education space.

During his commune tour in the Los Lagos region, Minister Nicolas Cataldo said, “What Calbuco is doing today is a pioneering step in a process that must become more widespread.

The Secretary of State visited the Multisensory Stimulation Room (SEM) of San Jose de Rural School. Calbuco, in the Caicaén department, is a place for curricular support and therapeutic work for students, through a digital library with 3D videos that allow the discovery of places in the world, activities related to logical thinking and light games for stimulation. The room can be used by groups or for individual work with children.

After the visit, Minister Cataldo He highlighted that the resource is “available not just to the specific educational institution, but to the entire community, to other students with autism spectrum disorder or some other problem that affects their development.”

In these ways, the authority highlights that this inclusive educational space “allows us to deepen learning and address a situation that affects many Chileans and is often poorly understood and insufficiently addressed.”

For his part, the Mayor Juan Calbucoy For a commune of less than 50,000 inhabitants, this is a wonderful experience, and we are satisfied to share such efforts with Minister Cataldo and colleagues, mayors and councilors. “Calbuco.”

The Regional Governor, Patricio Vallaspin, participated in the visit to the establishment; Regional Presidential Representative, Giovanna Moreira, Senator Fidel Espinosa and Secretary of Education, Daniela Carvacho.

Inclusive Education: The Multisensory Stimulation Room

San Jose Rural School’s Multisensory Stimulation Room (SEM) opened in August 2022, with the goal of providing inclusive learning spaces that allow for the growth and comprehensive development of students and the entire academic community. It was the first such location in Los Lagos and a $46 million investment.

SEM serves children from these and other institutions, working with six of the seven senses: sight, smell, hearing, touch, proprioperception (the ability to sense the relative position of body parts) and vestibular sense (balance and spatial control).

The experience created by the San Jose Rural School, “The Gathering for Inclusive Education: Multisensory Rooms for our Region”, was created in the Keigan Municipal Park and organized by the Municipality of Calbuco. Regional officers and officials from various municipalities in the Los Lagos region also participated in the activity.

It is important to note that the San Jose Rural School supported by Calbuco’s DAEM was started in 1909. It has 239 students from First Transition to Class 8.

Visit to Bernardo O’Higgins School

Minister Cataldo’s agenda included a visit to Bernardo O’Higgins School, where he shared with the education community. The Secretary of State highlighted, “Today we see a strong community that has overcome the problems that plagued it just a few years ago and is thriving as an educational program, breaking down its enrollment barrier.”

In this context, the Mineduc authority maintained, “For this reason, we, together with the mayor and the regional government, impose the challenge of financing this project, which has been long awaited by the academic community, which is a new establishment.”

Created in 1980, Bernardo O’Higgins School, a community headquarters in the area, has an enrollment of 145 students, distributed from Kindergarten through 8th grade. The school stands out for its extracurricular activities that focus mainly on the development of science with a concern for the environment and sustainability.