Educational Technology Support Program. Ministerio de Educación operates in El Salvador.
The operation will: (a) expand access to the third compulsory cycle of basic education in rural areas through distance education; 9b) improve children's performance from first through third grade in mathematics and Spanish through expansion of interactive radio; (c) improve children's learning in basic education by developing new teaching practices based on application of technology to instruction; and (d) continue strengthening community participation. The program consists of three components: (a) distance learning; (b) improving the quality of basic education; and (c) institutional strengthening. The first component will open more than 500 sections of grades seven through nine based on the Telesecundaria distance education program. The second component will: 9a) expand the interactive radio program coverage to improve the quality of learning in grades one through three; (b) introduce technology in basic education through a pilot scheme; (c) establish a fund for education projects to be carried out by school administration organizations in order to promote community participation and sustainability of investments; and (d) provide for complementary teaching aids. The third component will consist of: (a) activities to develop information for use in measuring the project's impact; (b) strengthen the Ministerio de Educación's (MINED) evaluation and research system for monitoring the effectiveness of new technologies in teaching and learning processes; and (c) provide technical assistance to ensure that MINED has the technical capacity to coordinate execution of the project
