Western Honduras is an extremely mountainous region filled with beautiful and lush pine forests. It is inhabited by the population of lenka origin, descendants of Lempira, who was a great ancestor of the independence of Latin America. On the other hand, this region of Honduras faces major development challenges today. Its poverty rates are higher than the rest of the country, which is related to the low educational achievement of its population.
Every year, throughout Latin-America and the Caribbean, hundreds of thousands of young people drop out of secondary schools. Most of them do so with limited skills, qualifications and experience to enter today’s competitive job market.
Cada año, en América Latina y El Caribe, cientos de miles de jóvenes abandonan la escuela secundaria y pocos de ellos cuentan con las aptitudes, calificaciones y experiencia necesarias para entrar al muy competido mercado laboral de hoy en día. Según A Ganar, un innovador programa que combina fútbol, aptitudes para la vida y oportunidades laborales, el 70% son "ni-nis" porque ni estudian, ni trabajan.
En la aldea de Rotepeque, en Santa Bárbara, Honduras, vive José. José tiene cinco años y en febrero de 2013 empezó a asistir al kínder, al cual va muy feliz porque pasa el tiempo jugando. La decisión de la familia para matricularlo no fue fácil. Por un lado, se preguntaban si era importante que jugara en el kínder cuando pudiese hacerlo en la casa y, por otro, tenían el temor de que caminara en el monte por más de 30 minutos solo.
In the village of Rotepeque in Santa Barbara, Honduras, lives José. José is a five-year old who, in February 2013, began attending kindergarten. He goes to class very happy because he spends time playing. The decision of the family to enroll him was not easy. They wonder if it was important for him to play in kindergarten when he could be playing at home and, on the other hand, they were affraid for him walking in the mountain for more than 30 minutes.
In recent years, socio-emotional skills have become a topic of interest for the education sector, from the skills that are essential for the labor market to the attitudes that become shields of risk behaviors. The truth is that these skills have found more benefits than aloe vera.The big question for any education system and, consequently, for any country, is how and when is it convenient to invest in them, especially in the context of an education reform as several countries in Latin America are currently undergoing.
En años recientes, las habilidades socioemocionales (HSE) se han convertido en un verdadero tema de interés para el sector educativo: desde capacidades que son imprescindibles para el mercado laboral, hasta actitudes que blindan contra el desarrollo de conductas de riesgo. Lo cierto es que a dichas habilidades se les han encontrado más beneficios que al propio nopal.
In February 2014, I posted a blog about the impressive results of Vietnam in the 2012 Program for International Student Assesment (PISA) . Why was I surprised? The reason is simple: Vietnam, despite being one of the poorest countries in that race registered one of the highest scores, breaking the almost omnipresent and negative relationship between socioeconomic status and education quality outcomes.
En Febrero de 2014, presenté una entrada de blog sobre el gran logro registrado por Vietnam en las pruebas PISA 2012. ¿Por qué estaba sorprendido? La razón es simple: Vietnam, a pesar de ser unos de los países más pobres que participó en la prueba, había registrado uno de los resultados más altos, rompiendo así la relación negativa, casi omnipresente, entre condiciones socioeconómicas e indicadores de calidad educativos.
Yesterday, Colombia celebrated the Day of Education Excellence or "E Day". Throughout the day, public and private education institutions got to know and discussed the results of the "Synthetic Index of Education Quality", a comprehensive measurement of the performance of public and private schools produced by the Ministry of National Education (MEN) and the Colombian Institute for the Evaluation of Education (ICFES).