Thanks to the initiative and funding of Aristos Real Estate, through the Aristos Foundation, in partnership with the Fundación Salvadoreña para la Salud y el Desarrollo Humano (FUSAL) and Fundación para la Educación Superior (FES) we have implemented a program called “Improvement in Educational Quality” at the José Antonio Escobar Guillén Public School (CEJAEG), in Ciudad Arce, La Libertad.

The program seeks to strengthen reading and writing skills in children from kindergarten to ninth grade, directly benefiting more than 800 boys and girls and the entire teaching staff (21 teachers). We are obtaining results by focusing on the teachers, we offer workshops in order to strengthen their teaching skills, as well as their leadership and creative capacity. Another goal is to create a strong reading community by creating reading corners per classroom and the creation of a functional library. In addition, we offer other workshops related to: self-esteem, soft skills, and art classes for children from seventh to ninth grade.

The pledged investment is $125,000 to be carried out in four years. The vision for the coming years is to make this Public School the best in teaching reading and writing skills, and in the use of technology applied to teaching and learning. We intend to increase the use of technology especially at the high school level, and to incorporate English as a second language throughout the school.

Response to COVID-19:
In light of the preventative measures taken by the Ministry of Education, which consist of suspending face-to-face academic activities at least for the rest of 2020, our program was adapted to continue with workshops for teachers in a virtual classroom, using Web 2.0 tools, strengthening their teaching skills through the Internet, and accompanying them in the transition to remote teaching and monitoring their students online.