Over the past two years, over 30,000 Peruvian and Bolivian public school teachers participated in Alma’s training programs. And though that is a big number, only a percentage of them were able to receive year-long accompaniment in our focus groups, because we simply don’t have enough staff to work on a daily basis with 30,000 teachers! And there are many more who wanted to participate in our programs, but due to capacity limits, couldn’t. Therefore, in order to continue the reach of our training programs without sacrificing quality and depth of engagement, we are taking the necessary steps to pass our training programs onto the state, where the resources exist to reach many more teachers and students.
The month of September was busy with training sessions for regional and provincial educational specialists in Peru, who are tasked with passing our program onto their respective administrations late this year. It was uplifting to see their enthusiasm for our programs grow as they experienced the practical implementation of our teaching methodology, and exciting to hear their ideas about where and how our methodology could be put to use in the coming years.
In Bolivia, we began speaking with public universities about training the education professors, who will then include Alma methodology in the courses that aspiring public school teachers must take in order to graduate. We also may have our training programs taken on as state-run professional development for teachers by the Ministry of Education, and we are continuing to advance the possibility in meetings and discussions with the respective educational authorities at both departmental and national levels!
We set a hard course to pass our programs onto the state, and are delighted that we are advancing in exactly that direction thanks to the support and enthusiasm of the students, parents, teachers, and administrators who have been touched by our training programs!
Ian McGroarty
Executive Director