Academic failure of 3.6 million students in Central America

Lorena Baires talks about some of the ways that the various Central American states are working to turn around their failing educational systems.

In Honduras

Students, teachers, administrative personnel and community leaders are learning strategies focused on prevention, protection and assistance in cases of violence.

In the area of prevention, educational materials have been developed on humanitarian principles and values. To ensure protection, risks are evaluated and security measures are implemented at each school. In terms of providing assistance, training is provided in first aid and urgent emotional care.

And in El Salvador

To support the threatened students, the PNC in 2010 introduced the School Police Program, which assigns pairs of officers to schools to provide psychological care, give preventive talks to students in problematic situations and offer sports classes.

Last year, the National Sports Institute (INDES) provided training to 400 police officers to help them give guidance to students in 300 public schools through sports, according to Inspector Blanca Lidia Figueroa, the head of the PNC’s Youth and Family Services Division.

The officers work with schools and provide a one-hour class to about 40 students. Through sports, officers seek to strengthen values such as solidarity, companionship, honesty, respect and tolerance. At the end of the activity, students are asked to provide a summary of what they learned.