Secretariat for Education Publishes a Construction Manual for Educational Spaces

By Secretariat for Education
May 16th, 2018

Throughout 2016 and 2017 the Secretariat for Education facilitated and encouraged collaboration among school management teams in the different regions of the global network in order to put together a document on the construction of educational spaces in Jesuit Schools.

The text, unique in its kind, has some special characteristics, for example: 

The document is designed to be a “living text”–one intended to spark conversations that will help improve the manual. As the Secretary for Education, Fr. José Alberto Mesa, SJ requests the reader in the introduction, “send us the recommendations and modifications that you feel should be added to future editions… “

The text recognizes the enormous challenge of providing a set of common criteria that can “respond to the particular local circumstances in which our projects are developed”, but the work …offers a set of criteria that can guide those planning to build education spaces in spite of the unique circumstances of each school, to allow discernment through certain guiding criteria.

The framework has two parts: (1) the starting points for the design, and (2) the primary areas of consideration.

Starting point of the Project:
1. Planning facilities for a new school.
2. Building new facilities for an existing school.
3. Renovating existing facilities in a School

The three areas of consideration are:
1. Education.
2. Architecture.
3. Engineering.   

The elaboration of the text as an experience of working as an apostolic body.

The document was written with the generous support of people with expertise and experience in designing and constructing educational spaces. In early 2016, Fr. Gonzalo Silva, SJ wrote the first version of the draft, then, colleagues from various regions (Latin America, Africa and Madagascar, Europe and North America) proposed improvements on the first version. We would like to thank Educate Magis for helping us conduct these inter-regional conversations.

All contributions were collated by the Secretariat for Education’s team for incorporation into the final version. The completion of this project is a testament to the benefits of global networking as a way of proceeding.

San Francisco Javier School, Puerto Montt, Chile
Santo Inácio de Loiola School – Ulmera, Kasalt, East Timor

Presentation of the text.

The document was formally presented during the celebration of the International Congress for the Education Delegates in Brazil, JESEDU-Rio2017. All those present were encouraged to consider the document a collaborative work-in-progress, and each one was invited to share new ideas and suggestions to enrich this guide for designing and constructing Jesuit educational spaces.

Publication Details:

Name:

“Some Considerations on the construction of new facilities for Jesuit Schools (Construction Manual for Educational Spaces)”

Author: Secretariat for Education of the Society of Jesus and Collaborators of the global network of Jesuit education.
Year 2017
Language:   Spanish, English
Format Print, PDF (virtual)
Pages: 31
Size: A5 (14,8 x 29,7 cms)
Contact: Text is not for sale, for internal distribution only in institutions of the Society of Jesus, more information write to jesedu-ast@sjcuria.org

Tmov Keo Village – Kampong Speu, Cambodia
Loyola Jesuit Secondary School – Kasungu, Malawi