Quarterly Progress Report: EducAcción Project (Teacher-Citizen Participation Program)

The project is being implemented by the American Institutes for Research (AIR) in partnership with six local organizations. The project's overall goal is to increase access to quality education, particularly for disadvantaged groups. The project's activities during the quarter focused on strategic planning and implementation of technical work in the field. Project staff worked with implementing partners to develop a plan for the final seven months of technical work, which includes training for teachers, educational officials, and volunteers. The activities are designed to achieve TCPP's expected results and related indicators, including improved educational indicators at the municipal and school level, increased pre-school enrollment, and enhanced community participation in education. One of the key activities implemented during the quarter was the national event on community participation in education, which will be held in March 2016. The event aims to share success stories and best practices in community participation in education among key stakeholders at the community, municipal, and departmental level. The event will also include round table discussions on topics such as the quality of the learning process and community participation, educational management and community participation, and the organizational process for community and municipal involvement in education. In addition to the national event, each TCPP municipality will host a workshop for CED and COMDE members, CCEPREB volunteers, teachers, and educational and municipal authorities. During the workshop, participants will assess the status of education in their municipalities and evaluate the activities implemented by TCPP since the beginning of the project. The information gathered will be included in a municipal report that will be delivered to the municipalities and the Ministry of Education. The project also supported the educational authorities in the application of the end of grade (EOG) tests in grades 1 through 9 in a sample of schools in the municipalities of the following Departments: Santa Bárbara, Yoro, Colón, Intibucá, La Paz, and Gracias a Dios. The support provided by TCPP included safeguarding the EOG tests, planning the logistics of applying the EOG test, coordinating EOG test application with educational authorities and other stakeholders, selecting, training, and supervising proctors, and providing part of the proctor's stipend. The EOG test application was successful in all the schools selected in the TCPP-supported departments, with no significant difficulties preventing test application. However, some challenges were encountered, including schools receiving fewer tests than the number of enrolled students, teachers providing confusing instructions to students, school principals not carrying out tasks according to the EOG test guidelines, and teachers not following the instructions given by the proctor. The Ministry of Education and the MIDEH Project team are digitalizing the data and analyzing the results of the EOG test application. The results will be provided to the TCPP team in February 2016. The project's technical activities implemented during the quarter focused on achieving Result 1, which is continued support to reach EFA goals. The main activity implemented was the training of teachers and educational authorities, which was provided to 6,838 teachers and 985 educational officials, representing 85.48% of the teachers and 98.50% of the educational officials that should be trained during the 5th fiscal year. The main topics addressed in the training workshops were end of grade tests, educational management, and community participation. The project's overall progress during the quarter was satisfactory, with most of the planned activities implemented successfully. However, some challenges were encountered, and the project team is working to address these issues and ensure the successful implementation of the project's activities.