NAHUAL FOUNDATION EDUCATION PROJECT-GUATEMALA

The Nahual Foundation, together with the Guatemalan Institute of Radio Education (IGER),formed a strategic and voluntary alliance to work with the Presidents of Community Development Councils (COCODES), Auxiliary Mayors, and community leaders from the sixteen Municipalities in Sacatepéquez to support the formation and training of the department’s civil society.

The Educational project called “The Teacher at Home" is a distance learning project offering people -unable to attend traditional schools due to scarce resources – the opportunity to study at their own schedule via the radio. The attainment of knowledge and skills to expand life options and improve living standards is the greatest of struggles in Guatemala. Today less than half the population has received a primary education and 34% are illiterate. Given these realities, three quarters of the population live below the poverty line and it is extremely difficult for people to break the cycle of poverty.

The Nahual Foundation seeks to improve the state of education in Guatemala with the Teacher at Home program as the core of a Nahual Foundation Education project. In November of 2004, the Nahual Foundation entered into a partnership with the Guatemalan Institute of Radio Education (IGER) to bring the institute’s Teacher at Home project to the department of Sacatepéquez, where 17% are illiterate and 25% live in poverty.

The Nahual Foundation’s education program aims to establish an IGER center in each of the sixteen municipalities of Sacatepéquez and provide scholarships to students of scarce resources through the newly established Nahual Foundation Scholarship Fund. IGER’s radio education model has had tremendous success over the past 30years in Guatemala and other areas of Central America, due to its novel teaching method stressing not only the acquisition of literacy and knowledge, but also the development of critical thinking and leadership skills. A program tailored to those unable to attend traditional schools because of the need to work, a lack of financial resources, and extreme distance from schools, among other reasons, it provides students with textbooks, radio classes, and a system of study. Volunteer teachers supervise the learning process and report to regional coordinators to ensure that the requirements of the Ministry of Education are met.

Among the courses offered by IGER’s Teacher at Home program are Basic Literacy, Accelerated Primary, Basic Cycle, Bachillerato (high school diploma), a refresher course for Primary School teachers, and Bilingual programming for Spanish and Mayan populations, including instruction in Q’eqchi’, Kaqchikel, and Ixil. While the Teacher at Home program aims to help those of scarce resources,it unfortunately still must charge a fee to cover the costs of registration, school supplies, activities, Saturday/Sunday transportation, and text books. Each student pays a base amount of 220 Quetzales (US$29) each year in addition to the costs of each program which are similarly low. A list of course prices may be found at http://iger.edu.gt/estudios.

In order to provide financial aid to students of scarce resources, the Nahual Foundation has established a Scholarship Fund. In January of 2006,the first of the Nahual Foundation’s scholarships were awarded. Three women and five children received scholarships; the women used the money to begin secondary school through IGER and the children to continue their education at the San Lorenzo Public School. Since January, fourteen more students from the village of El Hato have been awarded scholarships to continue their education through IGER courses.

In addition to direct scholarships to students, the Scholarship Fund will support an after school program for K-8 students of scarce resources and educational trainings for teachers. We are very excited about our new partnership with IGER as well as our Scholarship fund. We hope that you can support the Teacher at Home Program as well as the other activities of our Education Program with your continued volunteer efforts, financial support, and in-kind contributions.