On May 18, 2021, a special moment took place in Guatemala: the manual with which 30,000 teachers will be trained this year was officially presented. A great milestone! Thanks to teacher training, tens of thousands of children in Guatemala will receive better education. The training is a joint project of Woord en Daad, Guatemala Prospera, AMG Guatemala and Universidad Mariano Galvez.
Both parents and teachers are two important key figures in the education of children. However, the reality in Guatemala is that parents cannot always be involved in the education of their child. Many children grow up in broken homes. Every day they have to deal with violence at home or on the street. That is precisely why, according to Sander (project leader from Woord en Daad), it is extremely important that teachers are well trained to impart important norms and values to the children. ‘Teachers bare a great deal of responsibility in the development of a child, but at the moment not all teachers have the right training and the right vision on education and learning. This affects the quality of education enormously. ‘
In addition, there are teachers in Guatemala who see a job in education as the only way of income, which has an effect on their motivation. Sander: ‘That is precisely why we want to build on the intrinsic motivation of teachers based on important educational principles. Only then will they be driven from within to provide education that prepares children to build a better, fairer and sustainable future. ‘
Joining forces
Sander Verduijn, as Woord en Daad project leader of the education program in Guatemala, has been closely involved in the development of the training. He sees the collaboration within the consortium as a unique opportunity. ‘We can join forces within the consortium. We make use of the insights and knowledge from NGOs, private actors, academia and the government. In developing the training, we focused on the teacher and the context in which they live and teach. ‘
Our dream? Good education throughout the public sector!
With the manual that was handed over on Tuesday, 30,000 teachers can get started in the coming year to improve their teaching quality. The training takes four years in total, so we are currently working hard to complete the manual for the coming years. We recently received some great news! Sander: ‘The Ministry of Education has expressed the intention that a new group of 30,000 teachers will also start next year. Ultimately, our dream is to serve the entire public sector. In addition, we also want to introduce the training program into private (Christian) education. The start has already been made at our partner organization AMG Guatemala, which will train 177 teachers this year.
