In Bolivia high schools follow what is called a “Bachillerato Tecnologico Humanistico” (BTH) to graduate students in different specialties depending on the choice of each school. This approach is aimed at giving high schoolers the possibility of training in a specialty that guarantees an economic livelihood when graduating and better knowledge to access […]
The pandemic’s impact on the education system in Bolivia meant that in 2020 schools were closed and that teachers, students, and parents had to face new and different challenges. The challenge of figuring out how to deliver education during an extended ban on in-person learning when there was so little access to and understanding […]
“Scaling up” was championed as a key element of success back in business school. But then, in the real world, I saw that a focus on growth and scale came with huge costs to the welfare of employees, the actual client experience, the long-term sustainability of businesses, and the health of our environment. At […]
As the 2020 school year in Peru comes to an end, we are starting to see the impact of our training programs. Of the 1,076 teachers trained in our Peruvian Distance Learning Program, after only two months: 78% observed improvement in academic performance in their students thanks to the techniques covered in the […]
We all understand that kids can’t sit down for 40 minutes and stare at a computer screen during virtual learning sessions, but we expect them to sit down for 40 minutes and stare at a whiteboard in a typical classroom. We understand that parents are busy during the pandemic and have trouble finding time to […]
“What about special education?” As we continue our teacher training in Peru and Bolivia, and as their respective Ministries of Education gain more and more confidence in Alma, we are receiving additional requests for add-ons and new proposals to address all issues in education. Problems like how to manage a virtual classroom, work with trade […]
When COVID 19 hit North America schools shut down and teachers were told to teach remotely. Few educators had experience with online education delivery and teachers began scrambling to create new lesson plans and new ways of communicating those plans. In Peru and Bolivia, the same thing happened. In Peru, a national program called “Aprender […]
One of the most interesting pieces of using our Alma methodology within the official state curriculum and adapting it to remote and virtual learning has been seeing how many obstacles to distance learning are actually just obstacles to learning exasperated by the distance. We always need to keep students engaged, always need to get parents […]
By early August, Alma will have trained over 10,000 teachers in Bolivia and Peru; helping them to connect the gap between theoretical national curriculums and practical classroom implementation, all within the context of remote and virtual learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our distance learning proposal was adopted first by the largest province in Cusco, […]
As I write this, the number of reported cases and deaths in Peru and Bolivia is not “flattening” and the situation is dire. Trinidad, our base in Bolivia, has the highest per-capita caseload in the country and the total cases in Peru puts them 10th in the world (twice as many cases as in China). […]
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Education in Peru is working hard to make sure the 2020 school year is not lost. It created a distance-learning platform called “yo aprendo en casa” (I learn at home) which broadcasts daily lesson plans for all grade levels through television, internet, and radio. In addition, the national […]
Since late last year Alma has been working with 14 educational specialists and 2,218 teachers from the UGEL Quispicanchi to use Alma’s unique teaching methodology based in local indigenous knowledge, critical and creative thinking, harmonious values, and state mandated academic competencies in order achieve the goals set forth in Peru’s national curriculum for all of […]
Iquitos is a large city in the northern jungle region of Peru. It has a high level of economic poverty clustered into three neighbourhoods in particular. That is where we support two “partner projects” and I must say that when I visited a few years ago I was struck by the difficult living conditions. COVID-19 […]
Bolivia was just put in total quarantine throughout the territory because of the coronavirus crisis. We can no longer walk about the city or live our normal routine. Representatives from the Alma Foundation in Bolivia, along with the Bolivian Police, went to drop off food and necessary goods to our Alma Alumni project, located in […]
Have you ever wondered how the Alma Foundation teachers do their planning? Our teachers have to create practical and theoretical lessons and run through the lessons themselves before going to their communities. They want to ensure that the children are inspired, and they enjoy their learning and have fun. That is why our teachers are […]
In Peru and Bolivia, the start of the school year has been pushed back to April. Our teachers and coordinators are working hard from home on refining their lesson plans, reviewing teaching strategies, and creating new culturally-based projects. Instead of being a setback, these two weeks of state-enforced quarantine have given us time to clarify […]
If there’s one thing we all agree on, it’s that no one seems to agree about anything! There is no need to go into specific examples of the polarization affecting societies around the world – we all seem to have a list of examples on hand at all times. I was in Bolivia last […]
Bolivia has experienced an unprecedented political crisis since October 2019. The conflict began earlier in the year, with the protest from many sectors of the Bolivian society against Evo Morales Ayma fourth consecutive run for president, contradicting what is postulated in the Political Constitution of the State, the country’s magna rule. Following the general elections […]
As the school year comes to a close in Peru and Bolivia, we hold our “Achievement Day” assemblies with parents, teachers, and children in all of the communities we work in. The children present the processes and products of their projects during the year, the parents challenge their children to explain and show what […]
On October 20 Bolivians voted Evo Morales back into power but there were “irregularities” on election day. You may have read about this. The Organization of American States (OAS) and others suggested that the ballot system was manipulated and pressure grew for Evo to resign. Evo supporters, as well as those demanding his resignation, took […]