Juárez & Associates is proud to announce the USAID/Guatemala Lifelong Learning Project (Leer y Aprender, 2014-2019). The five year contract seeks to improve access to education by underserved populations such as indigenous children, girls, and out-of-school youth in Guatemala. It aims to better the overall quality of schooling in the country through two components:
- Early Grade Reading
- Education for Employment and Lifelong Learning
Lifelong learning is a human self-driven motivation that reaches all aspects of life, enhancing social inclusion, autonomy and responsible citizenship, competitiveness, employability, personal development and a sense of wellbeing. It is not confined to formal education but occurs on an ongoing basis. In a modern society, lifelong learning also rests with persons having sufficient reading skills. The project’s aim is to impact both learning to read and reading to learn.
To this end, the project will provide technical assistance to the Ministry of Education to increase teacher effectiveness; improve classroom learning environments as well as first and second language (Mayan languages and Spanish) acquisition and reading performance; and expand parents' and stakeholder participation in student learning. It is particularly exciting that youth in the Western Highlands region of Guatemala will also be the focus of the project. Interventions will enable youth in Quetzaltenango, Huehuetenango, San Marcos, Totonicapán and Quiché to achieve greater economic self-reliance and higher levels of civic engagement and educational achievement through increased education and through economic and civic participation opportunities.
The USAID/Guatemala Lifelong Learning Education Project builds upon gains made in the last decade through the J&A/USAID/Ministry of Education partnerships in the Education Reform in the Classroom Project (2009 – 2013), the Education Standards and Research Program (2005-2009), and previous programs implemented under the USAID/Guatemala Better Educated Rural Society Strategy (1999-2004) to enhance equitable access to quality intercultural bilingual education.