Rural primary in Cadereyta, NL, drives education and environmental sustainability

Alexia Villaseñor

La Jornada newspaper
Monday, September 29, 2025, p. 13

In the municipality of Cadereyta Jiménez, Nuevo León, there is a multigrade rural primary that promotes sustainable educational development through projects in favor of the environment and healthy eating. It is the Aquiles Serdán Multigrado Rural School, with a registration of 75 students, 42 parents and four teachers.

The director of the campus, Eduardo Garza Cortés, points out that since 2018 the teachers sought to influence the perception of environmental care with sustainable projects that involve both students and parents, “since reaching significant achievements entails a community work”.

In an interview with this medium, he affirms that a favorable indicator on the reception of this type of programs is the increase in registration, because before the sustainable projects began, the number of registered students was a third of those it currently has. “Now there are students from nearby communities who prefer to move for more than 30 minutes, despite having educational centers in their villages because they prefer the training we are providing.”

He considers that these rural children are making a difference from their sector, since graduates who now study secondaryly have enabled this type of initiatives in their new schools because being sustainable is already part of their life. “

That habits are accused to protect the environment at an early age helps to form conscious citizens, and schools are spaces that contribute to this purpose, he says.

The first project with the sustainable school model was a pollinating garden. Then they included a greenhouse, a rainwater collector, a harvest and consumption of garden products and recycling campaigns. “Now we totally close the sustainability cycle within the school,” says Garza.

He explains that there are two seasons of crops-Own-winter and spring-summer-when they put different types of seeds to the earth and begin the circle of sustainability, when children sow them in the greenhouse and help germination, water them, transplant them in the school garden, take care of it and then harvest. Then, in school cuisine, parents prepare food with these crops.

The campus won the first place at the national level in the preschool-primary category in the Sustainable Schools Award, organized by the Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture (OEI) and the Santillana Group. This contest includes projects from Mexico, Colombia and Brazil; The international awards in October will be in the latter.

Janett Patrinos, Marketing Director Santillana México, points out that the award was held in the third edition of this contest. At the national scale they received 70 projects and there were 10 finalists. The objective, he details, is to promote programs to improve the environment from schools, so they grant an economic incentive for schools to invest in their programs and thus promote their growth.