Press release
January 20, 2020
MINED begins the school year at an education center built by FOMILENIO II
The Ministry of Education (MINED) held a ceremony to open the 2020 school year today. The event was held at the La Libertad Educational Complex, a construction built with an investment of $2.1 million in funds provided by the United States government through the Millennium Challenge Corporation’s (MCC) funding of FOMILENIO II. The ceremony was hosted by the Minister of Education, Carla Hananía de Varela; MCC Country Resident Director, Martha Keays and Executive Director of FOMILENIO II, William Pleites.
A number of infrastructural improvements in 2019 helped the La Libertad educational center to be upgraded to the category of “Educational Complex”. The complex has also increased its student population from 676 children last year to 1,033 this year. In addition, the educational grade levels were extended to serve students from kindergarten through high school, as well as a new Vocational Technical Bachelor (BTV) program which began in 2019. FOMILENIO II also awarded 35 computers to the BTV program.
The La Libertad Educational Complex has become the main headquarters of the “LIB 8” integrated system. LIB 8 consists of five educational centers and serves more than 1,932 students; all of whom will receive a better education with this new quality infrastructure.
This project is part of a $9.3 million investment in construction and rehabilitation of six educational centers in La Libertad. Those centers now implement a Full Time School Integrated School System (SI-EITP) — an educational model that gathers schools in proximity to each other to share resources and provide longer periods of education each school day. FOMILENIO II has invested more than $100 million to boost SI-EITP through teacher training, curriculum development, improving educational infrastructure, providing equipment and teaching materials. In La Libertad alone, FOMILENIO II donated 269 computers, 818 tablets and 269 electronic readers, in addition to equipping eight new libraries and nine innovation centers.
In Ahuachapán, Sonsonate, La Libertad, San Salvador, La Paz, Usulután, San Miguel and La Unión combined, FOMILENIO II is supporting the construction of 46 integrated education centers. Of those, eleven integrated education centers have been opened and 35 are still under construction.
