Quarterly Report No. 9: Education for Children and Youth Project

The Project aims to support the Ministry of Education (MOE) in its efforts to expand access to education for children and youth living in areas where there are high rates of violence and crime in El Salvador. The Project started on January 2, 2013, and will end in December 2018. It is being implemented in 25 cities, 54 of which have the highest rates of violence. The governmental partner is the Ministry of Education (MOE) of El Salvador. USAID has signed an implementation agreement with the Foundation for Comprehensive Education of El Salvador (FEDISAL) as the local partner, which has a partner network comprising six organizations: Salvador del Mundo Foundation (FUSALMO), Salesian Association Institution (AIS), Education and Work Foundation (EDYTRA), Don Bosco University (UDB), Pro-Education Foundation of El Salvador (FUNPRES), and an international partner, which is Family Health International (FHI 360). This report covers achievements and activities from the second quarter of the USA fiscal year (FY2015, Q2) for the period from January 1st to March 31st, 2015. The Integrated System for Full Time Inclusive School Policy is promoted and its continuity and sustainability is supported in conjunction with national and international partners in order to improve the quality of education, peaceful coexistence, and access to education for youth. Meetings were held on an ongoing basis with the National Directorship for Departmental Management, as well as the National Coordinator for the Teacher Training Plan at the central level, in order to discuss, design and secure approval for the Project's Program for technical assistance. The intent is to align it with the National In-Service Teacher Training Plan, which will be implemented by the MOE, and ensure the actions implemented at the schools are coherent and harmonized. The MOE has authorized starting execution of the plan to strengthen pedagogical capacities and coexistence for MOE officials and teachers in the project to support the technical assistance strategies for the expansion of the Full Time Inclusive School (FTIS) approach in 254 schools in 9 "new" high-risk municipalities. This endorsement will boost the number of schools supported by the Project to a total of 664 schools in 27 municipalities, contributing to the expansion of the FTIS approach in the selected schools in 2015. Coordinating these training actions has involved 11 meetings with officials at MOE Central with participation of 123 people (47 men and 76 women) in order to align the training and technical assistance program with the institutional vision and ensure it adheres to the educational policy. Coordination meetings were also held at the departmental level: 6 meetings were held with MOE departmental directors with participation of 121 people (51 men and 70 women). At the local level, capacity building has been provided for the principals at 409 schools on the systemic vision of school administration, and the Full-Time Inclusive School framework, in order to align the Project strategies with the national policy at the local level. Also during this period, two meetings were held with USAID implementing partners in order to identify opportunities for coordination with other projects that are being implemented in the education sector, and work toward greater synergy and impact. Technical assistance provided at the 410 selected schools, and support for the implementation of the Integrated Systems and Education Networks for the improvement of the quality of education in lower secondary. To date, support continues at a total of 409 schools with the number of young people registered in lower secondary rising to 62,767 (30,540 women and 32,227 men) in the 18 municipalities. The expansion of the improvements in the quality of education reached 121,115 students in other educational levels registered in 2014 at the 410 target schools. So far, a total of 6,240 people in the education community are registered in different training and technical assistance actions. This quarter, 402 education stakeholders were trained in the pilot program on issues that are related to improving the quality of education in lower secondary, aiming to reduce the number of dropouts, with a youth-development approach. The project continues to strengthen the capacity of education stakeholders to improve the quality of education in lower secondary, with a focus on reducing the number of dropouts and promoting a youth-development approach.