USAID/Nicaragua: Schools of Excellence

Schools of Excellence

SUPPORT FOR VALIDATING THE NEW ACADEMIC CURRICULUM

Photo: The School of Excellence Juanita Sobalvarro in Boaco is one of the model schools established under the BASE Project, with a resource center that has videos, books, furniture, computers, and other equipment whose purpose is to improve the quality of teaching. The Government of the United States, through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), delivered a new collection of teaching guides and work notebooks for students to the School of Excellence Juanita Sobalvarro in Boaco, as part of its support for validating the new curriculum based on participatory learning and the application of knowledge acquired. Developed in conjunction with the Department of Education, Culture, and Sports (MECD), the new curriculum is being tested in 200 schools at the national level.

The validation of the new curriculum is one of three components of USAID’s $11.5 million EXCELLENCE Project. The goal of the EXCELLENCE Project is to expand a model of dynamic teaching and learning nationwide to 2,700 schools to improve primary grade completion rates and academic performance. The program will be strengthened with the application of a reformed curriculum that will incorporate the educational needs of the indigenous and Afro-descendent communities of the Atlantic Coast.

A NEW MODEL AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL

EXCELLENCE builds on the work of USAID’s BASE Program, which concluded in 2005. The BASE Program established 641 model schools, reaching approximately 160,000 students throughout the country, with over 20,000 primary-grade teachers receiving training in more modern teaching methods.

The School of Excellence Juanita Sobalvarro in Boaco is one of the model schools established under the BASE Project, with a resource center that has videos, books, furniture, computers, and other equipment whose purpose is to improve the quality of teaching. The school was chosen by the EXCELLENCE Project and the MECD as a mentor school for another 4 schools in Boaco due to the teaching success achieved using modern methods.

RESULTS TO DATE

640 schools at the national level are applying the dynamic teaching/learning model with community participation.
The collection of teaching guides and work notebooks for students corresponding to the first trimester of 2006 have been distributed in the six grades of 150 primary schools at the national level.
Six hundred and fifty (650) professors, directors, and academic counselors received training on the new curriculum as well as on the use of teaching guides and work notebooks for students.