Education Reform Gets High Marks in El Salvador

[i] In another reliable poll conducted in May 2011, the Ministry of Education (MINED) received the highest approval rating of all ministries (7.69 out of 10). See IUOP, UCA José Simeón Canas, Boletín de prensa XXVI, No 1, P. 13.

[ii] In La opinión. http://www.laopinion.com/article/20120225/IMPORT01/302259918/-1/edicionimpresa, Feb. 24, 2012. Accessed Feb. 26, 2012.

[iii] All statistics in this section for 2009 are from Dirección General de Estadistica y Censos 2009, DIGYSTIC. Ministerio de Economía, 2010.

[iv] For a sympathetic summary of ARENA Administration post war education reforms, see former Minister of Education Darlyn Meza, (October 2009) “Educational Services in the Context of Conflict and Post Conflict.” For a critique of neoliberal education reform, see S. L. Guerra and M. F. Chávez (2006), “Neoliberal Education Reform in Latin America.” http://redie.uabc.mx/vol8no1/contents-lopez.html Accessed March 5, 2012. I do not attempt an assessment of this issue here.

[v] There are no institutos nacionales, for example, in Arambala, Chilanga, San Carlos, Yoloaiquin, Delicieas de la Concepcion, El Rosario, Lolotiquillo, and Sensembra. And there are just 19 in the entire province. Lucinda Quintanilla comunidades@eldiariodehoy.com Jueves, 23 de Febrero de 2012.http://www.elsalvador.com/mwedh/nota/nota_completa.asp?idCat=47673&idArt=6668625. Accessed March 1, 2012.

[vi] Morazan had 135 inhabitants per square kilometer. See Dirección General de Estadística y Censos. DIGYSTIC. Ministerio de Economía in 2009, p. 4, for a comparison with other provinces.

[vii] The author makes use of two versions of the PSE; one published in October 2009 and the updated version accessed on the MINED website in February 2012.

[viii] Plan Quinquenal de Desarrollo 2010 - 2014, Government of El Salvador, p. 78 – 79. This is not an exact translation and includes paraphrase by the author.

[ix] PSE, 2012, p 18.

[x] See PSE, 2012, pp. 32 – 36.

[xi] PSE, 2012, pp. 26 – 28.

[xii] PSE, 2012, pp. 32 – 33.

[xiii] Shor, I. and Freire, P. (1987). A pedagogy for liberation: Dialogues on transforming education. MA: Bergin & Garvey Publishers, p. 13. See also Freire, Paulo (1984). Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Trans. By Myra Bergman Ramos). New York: The Continuum Publishing Corporation. [Original published in Portuguese in 1968]

[xiv] PSE, 2012, p. 13.

[xv] PSE, 2012, p. 5.

[xvi] PSE October 2009, pp. 36-37.

[xvii] PSE, 2012, p. 36.

[xviii] USAID provided $1,556,085.97 to train 1,200 teachers in a 95 hours diploma program in the methodology of the full time inclusive school. See p. 51, Memoria de Labores, 2010 – 2011, MINED.

[xix] See Memoria de Labores 2010 – 2010, p. 49.

[xx] PSE, 2012, p. 44

[xxi] PSE, 2012, p. 42

[xxii] The quantified outcomes are from two documents: Logros MINED 2010 – 2011; Memoria de Labores 2010 – 2011, MINED. The former is more up to date and is in the form of a briefing paper. The latter is more detailed and includes more description of each program area.

[xxiii] Food programs are not new in El Salvador. To give an idea of the expansion of this program, in 1984 the food program reached 200,000 children. In 2008, when the program completed transition from the World Food Program to an entirely national program, it reached over 870,000 children, that is 60% of children attending basic school. This data is from Rethinking School Feeding: Social Safety Nets, Child Development, and the Education Sector, Appendix I, D. Bundy, et al. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank, 2009.

[xxiv] Overall matriculation in the public schools was up 1.7% between 2009 and 2010 (private school matriculation was down by 5.2%). The drop out rate for basic level public schools fell from 6.4% in 2009 to 4.4% in 2010 and in middle school the drop out rate it fell from 10.6% in 2009 to 6.6% in 2010.

[xxv] Another topic that calls for investigation is the integration of the more than 8000 Educación con Participación de la Comunidad (EDUCO) teachers, who have generally been working under one year contracts at semi-autonmous schools, into the more secure “ley de salario” public school system. See Memoria de Labores 2010 – 2011, pp. 19, 26. Also see the recent article on this issue in Diario CoLatino: http://www.diariocolatino.com/es/20100823/nacionales/83475/ Accessed Mach 5, 2012.

[xxvi] $3,350.000 in emergency funds was budgeted in the Five Year Government Plan to address damage to schools caused by Hurricance Ida. For 2012, MINED plans to invest $53.7 million dollars on the construction, rehabilitation, and repair of schools.