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At the Mercosur Building in Montevideo, the SSL approach was presented as a key pedagogy combining learning, community participation, and social transformation in non-formal education.
On 8th October, CLAYSS participated in the Regional Conference on Non-Formal Education held at the Mercosur Building in Montevideo, Uruguay. Organized by the Ministry of Education and Culture (MEC), through the National Directorate of Education in Uruguay and the National Commission on Non-Formal Education (CONENFOR), the event gathered education leaders, specialists, and institutional from across the region to discuss public policies, theoretical approaches, and current and future challenges in non-formal education. Lucila Leis, Ángeles Soletic, and Omar Sellanes represented CLAYSS.
During the panel on Conceptual Approaches and Discussions on Non-Formal Education, Ángeles Soletic, CLAYSS Training Coordinator, presented organisation’s vision of solidarity service-learning (SSL) as a transformative pedagogical approach applicable to both formal and non-formal settings. She emphasized that SSL is not necessarily defined by its institutional setting, but by the intentional link between learning and service activities that address real community needs.
Non-formal education offers numerous opportunities to foster experiences where individuals learn through active involvement in projects with community engagement. Soletic stressed the importance of training educators to design and support these initiatives and creating conditions where educational objectives align with community knowledge and priorities —moving beyond solidarity as a welfare-like approach towards genuine participation, reciprocity, and joint construction.
CLAYSS’s participation contributed to the regional debate on the relationship between education, community, and social transformation, highlighting the potential of solidarity service-learning to strengthen diverse educational initiatives and promote meaningful learning connected to civic engagement and the common good.
More information [in Spanish]: https://www.gub.uy/ministerio-educacion-cultura/comunicacion/noticias/uruguay-reunio-referentes-region-para-debatir-desafios-educacion-formal