Save the Children receives recognition from the Ministry of Education

• For the support in Empirical Teacher Training
• 296 rural teachers from Siuna professionalized

Wed, 2 April 2014. Managua, Nicaragua. By Andrea Núñez-Flores Rey

Save the Children has received an honorary recognition by the Ministry of Education (MINED) of Siuna, in the North Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAN), on March 24^th. The reason was the funding from Save the Children (SC) for the professionalization of 296 untrained teachers in the municipality of Siuna, 185 of whom received scholarships to attend these courses.

This funding has been used for teacher training of 296 educators who had no official title, through courses which began in 2012 and end in December 2014. Furthermore, SC has provided them with all the educational and reading material, and has given scholarships to those who live in rural areas of difficult access, to cover travel and lodging during the training.

In addition, SC has funded the reforms for improving MINED’s office in Siuna, which was in poor condition, and has built a hall to conduct courses and future meetings of teachers.

Objective: Improve access to Quality Education

Over 50% of teachers in the RAAN have not an official title. The objective of this project is to increase access to quality basic education by supporting and training teachers in education methods.

"These trainings are already producing results. Through these studies, we are improving our work and this benefits us. We may share the new know lodges with our children and every day learning is better. With our effort, they can learn a little more. Before, I taught but did not have a base, did not know how to attract the attention of students, for instance. Currently, they are more motivated and happy because we use different teaching techniques. In just one year, the enrollment in my classes has increased”, says Maribel Rodriguez, one of the empirical teachers with scholarship, who had only studied up to high school.

"The MINED would like to thank SC for this great gesture of solidarity and cooperation. We need the help of friendly countries to progress because without education we cannot move forward", declares Francisca Palacios, counselor at MINED in Siuna. 

In January 2015, these 296 teachers will have the official diploma to practice as primary school teachers; with this, 77% of all teachers in the municipality will be professionalized.