In September I wrote a blog about the Ministries of Education in Peru and Bolivia taking up our Alma teaching methodology and including it in state-run training programs.
Recently, in late November, we had a meeting with UNEFCO, the branch of the Bolivian Ministry of Education that is responsible for training Bolivia’s 150,000 teachers and principals, and we agreed to wrap the Alma Methodology teaching strategies into next year’s nation-wide training program! To do so, Alma will provide training for all of UNEFCO’s specialists throughout 2023. In addition, UNEFCO gave Alma permission to teach courses for students and professors in the public university for education and is reviewing our secondary trade school program to see if it will become a stand-alone course within UNEFCO.
With tighter budget constraints than we’ve ever faced, it is cause for celebration that we can not only continue empowering teachers and communities in Peru and Bolivia but actually expand through the state and have our projects taken on sustainably by the Ministries of Education in both countries.
There is still much work to be done to ensure high quality education that promotes critical and creative thinking, social-emotional wellbeing, and local indigenous culture for students in Peru and Bolivia, but that bottom-up and now top-down support that we receive is a great step towards that goal.
Ian McGroarty
Executive Director