SISTEMA DE APRENDIZAJE TUTORIAL REDEFINING RURAL SECONDARY EDUCATION IN LATIN AMERICA Christina Kwauk and Jenny Perlman Robinson SISTEMA DE APRENDIZAJE Sincere gratitude and appreciation to Priyanka Varma, research assistant, who has been instrumental in the production of the Sistema de Aprendizaje Tutorial case study. TUTORIAL We are also thankful to a wide-range of colleagues who generously shared their knowledge and feedback on the Sistema de Aprendizaje Tutorial case study, including: Mario Ayala, Reyes Benedict, REDEFINING RURAL Regis Benedith, Elia del Cid, Bita Correa, Claudia Costin, Soheil Dooki, Heriberto Flores, Orlando SECONDARY EDUCATION Gabarrete, Danilo Iraheta, Jeff Lansdale, Kevin Marinacci, Alejandro Martinez, Yesenia Martinez, Patrick McEwan, Erin Murphy-Graham, Juan Miguel Pérez, Gerardo Quijada, Renan Rapalo, Michael IN LATIN AMERICA Richards, Marcelino Moreno Rivera, Ana Salinas, Ruhollah Sayyah, Eucebio Torres, Ingrid Vasquez, Ian Walker, and colleagues. Lastly, we would like to extend a special thank you to the following: our copy-editor, Alfred Imhoff, our designer, blossoming.it, and our colleagues, Kathryn Norris and Jennifer Tyre. The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit organization devoted to independent research and policy solutions. Its mission is to conduct high-quality, independent research and, based on that research, to provide innovative, practical recommendations for policymakers and the public. The conclusions and recommendations of any Brookings publication are solely those of its author(s) and do not reflect the views of the Institution, its management, or its other scholars. Support for this publication and research effort was generously provided by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and The MasterCard Foundation. The authors also wish to acknowledge the broader programmatic support of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the LEGO Foundation, and the Government of Norway. Brookings recognizes that the value it provides is in its absolute commitment to quality, independence, and impact. Activities supported by its donors reflect this commitment, and the analysis and recommendations are not determined or influenced by any donation. Christina Kwauk and Jenny Perlman Robinson INTERVENTION OVERVIEW: Sistema de Aprendizaje Sistema de Aprendizaje Tutorial (Tutorial Learning System), also known as SAT (late 1970s– present), which was designed by the local Colombian nongovernmental organization named the Foundation for the Application and Teaching of the Sciences (Fundación Tutorial at a glance para la Aplicación y Enseñanzas de las Ciencias, FUNDAEC), provides alternative lower- and upper-secondary education to rural youth in a way that integrates relevant theory and practice so that they can continue to work on their agricultural pursuits and livelihoods. The program’s trained tutors use a “learning-by-doing” methodology, such as learning mathematics and science in the context of agricultural innovation, to promote rural education and community development in marginalized communities. SAT is grounded in Baha’i principles, and it emphasizes civic engagement, social justice, and EDUCATION LEVEL: female empowerment, in addition to academic skills. SAT is accredited and recognized Secondary by governments in Colombia and Honduras, which enables graduates to continue on to attend a university or get jobs that require secondary degrees. TYPE OF LEARNING MEASURED: Literacy and numeracy (measured with learning assessments), school retention, and civic responsibility and women’s empowerment (observed through qualitative studies) COST: In Honduras: total annual budget of $400,000 to $500,000 for the local Sistema de Aprendizaje Tutorial: Redefining rural secondary education in Latin America in secondary education rural Redefining Tutorial: de Aprendizaje Sistema nongovernmental organization partner, and $3 million to $4 million for the Honduran government to cover tutors’ salaries, for an annual total of $450 per student. Costs are Guatemala typically funded by grants from foundations and bilateral and multilateral donors. In Honduras, however, 70 percent of costs are self-financed by textbook sales. Honduras Nicaragua SIZE: Colombia Ecuador Direct reach—300,000 students in Latin America since SAT’s inception (7,400 students Brazil in Honduras). Indirect reach (in Honduras)—155 centers. IMPACT: Test scores—Children in SAT villages in Honduras had test scores 45 percent better than children in neighboring government rural schools. Social learning outcomes— Qualitative studies suggest that SAT students in Honduras had a stronger sense of social responsibility for their communities, and female SAT students had enhanced LOCATION: levels of empowerment (defined by their capacity for self-determination and their Rural areas of Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Guatemala hosted ability to make strategic life choices). Expansion—The SAT model has been exported an SAT program until 2005 with varying degrees of success across countries in Latin America. In Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific, SAT has been adapted into a sister program called Preparation for Social Action, known as PSA. Rural development—By hiring tutors from local FOCUS OF INTERVENTION: communities, SAT contributes to employment creation; applied learning projects Alternative secondary school program for rural youth who have finished primary school contribute to the improved well-being of communities. 4 5 conceptualized, designed, and delivered education system, it was targeted at Background (Soheil Dooki, interview by Jenny Perlman rural communities without any secondary Robinson, January 31, 2015). For instance, education coverage due to, for example, Although Latin America has made result, countries across the region have learning is conceived as broader than problems of distance, accessibility, and/ considerable progress in primary school experienced mass migrations of people gaining traditional academic skills; there or limited national education budget enrollment, secondary school remains a from rural areas to cities and across is also a strong emphasis on analysis, and resources (Richards 2005). In this challenge, particularly in rural areas. It borders to other countries seeking better inquiry, community service, and moral way, although SAT was implemented is a region known for its stark inequities, opportunities. It should come as little and character development. SAT’s by FUNDAEC or other local NGOs, where young people living in urban areas surprise that in many Central American students—as described by Yeri, a recent it was aligned with the government’s are often twice as likely to go to secondary countries, children and youth risk their SAT graduate in Honduras—“are not seen need to provide secondary education school as their counterparts in rural lives everyday to cross borders in search as empty vessels to fill but considered as to students in areas that are difficult communities. For instance, in Honduras, of better lives. a mine rich in gems of inestimable value to reach. For instance, when SAT was 28 percent of rural youth complete lower that education reveals” (SAT graduate in first introduced in Honduras by the secondary school, compared with 63 Against this backdrop, the Sistema Le Ceiba, Honduras, interview by Jenny Asociación Bayán in 1996, students in percent of urban youth (Secretaría de de Aprendizaje Tutorial (Tutorial Perlman Robinson, January 31, 2015). most rural communities on the northern Salud [Honduras], Instituto Nacional de Learning System), better known by its coast had to travel to and board at the Estadística e ICF International 2013). Spanish acronym SAT, emerged as a Having been envisioned as a rural closest urban centers in order to pursue In Colombia, the rural-versus-urban formal, alternative secondary school development strategy and influenced by secondary education. Not only was this proportions are 45 and 73 percent program responding to the absence the central beliefs of Baha’i teachings, costly, but it also pulled students away (Profamilia, el Ministerio de la Proteccion of quality education and training for SAT leverages education as “a key tool to from their communities, cultures, and Social y ICF International, Encuesta young people living in isolated, rural unlock the development process where livelihoods. SAT thus provided a welcome Nacional de Salud y Demografía 2010). communities. Offering grades 7 through actors are the key agents of change” opportunity for students to continue 12, SAT is a flexible, six-year program (Bita Correa, interview by Jenny Perlman their education closer to home. And, with Sistema de Aprendizaje Tutorial: Redefining rural secondary education in Latin America in secondary education rural Redefining Tutorial: de Aprendizaje Sistema Inadequately trained teachers, a scarcity focused on the development of relevant Robinson, February 12, 2015). That is, SAT its structural innovations, SAT made it of teaching and learning materials, and knowledge, skills, and service-oriented creates a social learning space aimed at possible to overcome constraints posed limited interaction between schools and values that rural youth need to become bridging theory and practice by linking by other alternative rural secondary communities exacerbate the challenges productive members and leaders of classroom work with practical learning school models—like the requirement to for secondary school enrollment their communities. In short, SAT aims