FONPLATA contributes to improve state education in the Argentine Province of Chaco

Ph. MECCyT - Argentine Province of Chaco

The Development Bank has approved a USD 15 million funding for the “Project of Social Investment on State Education, Science and Technology”, which aims at improving the quality and the infrastructure of the education system in the Province. This will enable the construction, maintenance, and equipping of educational institutions in different localities of the Province and the deployment of a virtual platform to train students and teachers throughout the provincial system.

In this Province, school performance indicators are below the country’s average. Thus, the project aims at improving the quality of the provincial education system, addressing some of the identified hindering factors of both students’ and teachers’ performances, such as: deterioration of the schools’ basic physical infrastructure, poor educational management, and inappropriateness of school contents and formats.

The total investment is of USD 19 million, of which almost 80% (USD 15 million) are funded by FONPLATA and the remaining amount (USD 4 million), by local contribution. The works and actions provided will directly contribute to fulfill SDG-4 of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals: Quality Education, which aims at ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all. The Provincial Ministry of Education, Culture, Science, and Technology (MECCyT) and the Special Programs and Projects (EEPPE) Liaison Agency of the Ministry of Planning and Economy of the Chaco Province will oversee the execution of the project.

By means of the construction and maintenance of buildings and new school equipment, the project aims at improving the infrastructure of about 40 educational institutions — including kindergartens, elementary schools, middle schools, libraries, technical schools, and special needs schools — throughout the province. The project will benefit more than 47 thousand people, including students, teachers, and administration staff. Regarding the construction of new buildings, the priorities are special needs schools, to move forward towards the universalization of rights for students and teachers with different abilities, and libraries in communities lacking this kind of facility, to promote reading and learning outside the classroom.

In terms of technological solutions, the project will fund the actions needed to continue deploying and developing the Comprehensive Education System (SIE) and the Virtual Platform for Education (ELE). These digital tools will benefit more than 450 thousand students and more than 54 thousand teachers throughout the educational community of the Chaco Province. Likewise, the project will help the MECCyT to boost its role by creating an Innovation, Science, and Technology Agency with the goal of establishing strategic guidelines for the Chaco innovation system based on a master plan, coordinating local agents’ efforts in its execution, and implementing their own programs or initiatives to increase scientific innovation.
 

12/14/2020