Co-creating the future of education
At CollectiveUP, we believe that the transitions our society is facing—whether digital, green, or social—must have one common denominator: democracy. This past week at the Learning Planet Festival, we took a major step toward that vision by presenting FutureEd, an Erasmus+ project dedicated to co-creating a rights-centric education for a sustainable future.
Sharing the stage with our partners from ALLI asbl (Luxembourg) and EUDEC (Germany), we delved into a critical question: Why are human rights often treated as dry, legal abstractions when they are actually the heartbeat of a healthy society?
The wake-up call: Why rights matter now
The data suggests we are at a tipping point. Currently, only 53% of Europeans have heard of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, and nearly 40% of 8th-grade students lack adequate civic knowledge. As Katy (ALLI asbl) pointed out during the presentation, we are witnessing a visible decline in the Human Rights Index globally.
"We should not take human rights and what they mean for our lives for granted. We need to nurture them, and for this, we need to understand their ecosystem and how they work." — Katy, ALLI asbl
The project was born from this urgency. We realized that most people agree with human rights in theory—until you ask them why. FutureEd seeks to bridge that gap by moving from "preaching" about rights to experiencing them.
Moving beyond "adult-centrism"
One of the most powerful themes of the night was the need to treat young people as subjects of rights, not just objects to be molded for the economy. Charlie Moreno-Romero (EUDEC) spoke passionately about the importance of participatory governance and self-directed learning.
"We cannot learn how to drive a car by checking a manual. We need to sit behind the wheel, make mistakes, and learn from those mistakes with somebody who is caring and supportive... we need to learn how to exercise our rights in order to benefit ourselves and society." — Charlie Moreno-Romero, EUDEC
In democratic schools, this isn't just theory. It looks like:
- Participatory budgeting: Students deciding how to spend school funds.
- Restorative justice: Resolving conflicts through mediation circles rather than top-down punishment.
- Age-mixing: Allowing children to learn from each other naturally, fostering inclusion and identity.
CollectiveUP’s focus: Rights in the digital frontier
At CollectiveUP, our founder Liliana Carrillo is leading the development of Guide 3: Digital Rights. In an era of AI and "big data," the digital world can feel like a mission impossible for educators and parents.
"We have the right to privacy... our rights to our privacy and our data are something we should care about, and that is something we should also learn at a very young age." — Liliana Carrillo, CollectiveUP
We are co-creating a child-friendly comic guide that helps students understand:
- The right to privacy: Keeping personal info safe like a "secret treasure."
- The right to be analog: The freedom to choose non-digital paths in an increasingly digitized world.
- The right to protection: Empowering kids to tell a trusted adult if something online feels "unkind or unsafe."
Join the co-creation: Save the dates!
FutureEd is not a closed project; it is an open invitation. We are calling on teachers, students, and citizens to help us refine these tools.
We believe that education must enable the full development of the human personality. As we look toward a future shaped by AI, we must double down on what makes us human: our dignity, our conscience, and our capacity for self-determination. Contact us for more information and check out our website page for this project: FutureEd - CollectiveUP
