Invest for Education Development in the Highlands (IDEA) of Guatemala

• In Event: Food for education: strategies for sustainable school meals programs

Proposal

Since 2003, US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) McGovern-Dole (MGD) school feeding program has supported national efforts to reduce malnutrition and improve the quality of education for children across the western highlands of Guatemala. Guatemala’s MGD program has evolved from focusing exclusively on school feeding to a more comprehensive programming model that promotes stakeholder participation and engagement, and builds government capacity to meet the needs of children, parents, teachers, and school administrators. Save the Children’s MGD-supported work in Guatemala began in 2014 with the Investment for Educational Development in the Highlands (IDEA) project. Over the past four years, Save the Children’s strong relationship with the Ministry of Education (MINEDUC) at municipal, department, and national levels has paved the way for the project to affect educational policy change, reduce hunger for 43,580 pre-primary and primary students, strengthen Parent Associations (PTAs), and increase literacy comprehension among children in the department of Quiché.

IDEA’s work in Guatemala resulted in significant successes in school feeding, literacy, school health and nutrition (SHN), and maternal and child health. Follow-on programming will align activities with the new School Feeding Law and ensure that the benefits of education, enrollment, and attendance of children in schools in these targeted communities will be sustained after USDA MGD assistance ends. To sustain the project benefits, Save the Children is working closely with MINEDUC administrators at all levels, student government groups, and parent groups to advocate for adequate allocation of resources to ensure a healthy school and community environment.

Addressing the issue of hunger in the short-term by providing a hot breakfast likely contributed to an impressive drop in absenteeism – from 20% absenteeism at baseline to 5% in impact schools. Teachers, parents, and volunteers use the techniques and tools of the Literacy Boost methodology to improve the quality of education for students in the impact area. Community activities to practice reading include reading camps, reading buddies and “book banks” (libraries). Book banks provide books, magazines and supplementary reading materials in Ixil, K´iché, and Spanish. In addition, municipal libraries were established in Cunén and Sacapulas. When parents go to town on market days, these libraries promote and encourage children and adolescents to read. Village mayors provided facilities and hired staff to run the libraries. These strategies and activities resulted in significant improvements in literacy and decreased absenteeism for school children as demonstrated in the IDEA midterm evaluation, which showed that children in third grade demonstrated significant gains in Spanish language reading ability. Spanish reading comprehension increased dramatically from 9% in the baseline to 36% at mid-term. Moreover, IDEA has significantly reduced absenteeism from 20% as baseline to only 5% at mid-term.

All IDEA-supported schools promote best practices in the use of water, basic sanitation and hygiene. Schools in the intervention areas have received water filters so that children can have access to safe and clean water. Water stations and hygiene corners are available in every classroom of all IDEA-supported schools. Recently, MINEDUC issued a school infrastructure operation and maintenance manual, supported by Save the Children. This manual specifies daily activities for maintenance and repairs.

Author

• Lucrecia Mendez, SCI