A Communication Approach to El Salvador's EDUCO Education Reform Efforts
A well-designed communication plan proved to be critical in implementing successful education reform efforts in El Salvador (World Bank 1998). El Salvador's experience with the Education with Community Participation Program (EDUCO) demonstrate...
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2017
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/776231468037136086/Case-study-a-communication-approach-to-El-Salvadors-EDUCO-education-reform-efforts http://hdl.handle.net/10986/26893 |
| Summary: | A well-designed communication plan
proved to be critical in implementing successful education
reform efforts in El Salvador (World Bank 1998). El
Salvador's experience with the Education with Community
Participation Program (EDUCO) demonstrated that special
emphasis on communication strategies can build consensus,
inform communities, and improve public support for complex
reforms. During the 1990s, efforts to reform El
Salvador's failing schools mobilized a number of actors
that included rural communities, education stakeholders, and
government officials. The results revealed acute shortages
in basic resources that were largely tied to conditions
caused during El Salvador's civil war (1980-92). At
that time, many public schools in rural areas were forced to
close because of security concerns and lack of public
resources. The teachers that were contracted were not paid
consistently and often unable to teach in the impoverished
conditions. This project was financed by the World Bank
along with other multilateral organizations from 1995 to
2007 (World Bank 2007). In this program, local school-based
parent associations (community education associations
[ACEs]), given appropriate training, were granted control
over the administration of schools. This proved to be a
challenge as low literacy rates were common among members of
the ACEs. A lot of parents especially mothers were not able
to read and write. Therefore, a training program was
developed to improve literacy among parents and increase the
participation among women. Financial management was also a
part of these capacity-building efforts, where parents were
trained to manage the funds of the associations. |
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