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U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
PRESS RELEASE
WASHINGTON, DC 20523
PRESS OFFICE
http://www.usaid.gov/
(202) 712-43202003-030
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 28, 2003Contact: USAID Press Office
Austin, Texas - Adolfo A. Franco, Assistant Administrator for Latin America and the Caribbean of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), today opened the first meeting of the U.S.-sponsored Centers of Excellence for Teacher Training (CETT) of Latin America and the Caribbean at a hotel in Austin, Texas. The Centers were created as part of President Bush's initiative to improve basic childhood "learning and literacy" throughout the western hemisphere, announced in the 2001 Summit of the Americas. The Centers will work to improve the ability of teachers in Latin America and the Caribbean to better teach young children to read. The Conference will run until May 2nd.
"President Bush has put childhood education front and center as the number one domestic priority. Through the work of the Centers of Excellence for Teacher Training initiative, President Bush seeks to extend his vision to every child in the entire western hemisphere," said Franco.
Mr. Franco read a special greeting from First Lady Laura Bush. "President Bush and I strongly support your goal of improving the reading skills of children at the earliest grade levels. Learning to read is the cornerstone of success in school and in life. As teachers and educators, you are critical to inspiring students to achieve their greatest potential. We greatly admire your dedication and know that it will have a profound impact on other teachers and students throughout the region. The United States is pleased to cooperate with you in this initiative which will provide over 15,000 teachers with state-of-the-art skills to reach over one million children in the next four years," said Mrs. Bush in her statement.
In the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), illiteracy rates remain high, with an average of only 5.4 years of schooling. In some countries, fewer than 60 percent of children who start school reach the fifth grade, and only 10 percent of students in the entire region graduate from the sixth grade without repeating a grade.
The reasons for the weak performance are complex, including poor teacher quality. Most teachers and school administrators have limited materials and little support in the classroom. Their training, if they are trained at all, has ill-prepared them for successfully educating disadvantaged students. Many have not finished secondary school.
In response to this problem, the U.S. government, through USAID, is preparing to strengthen the capacity of existing teacher training institutions to form regional training and resource centers in the Caribbean, the Andean region of South America, and Central America. It is doing so in partnership with the democratic nations of Latin America and the Caribbean and corporations from both the U.S. and the region. The three regional CETTs are located in Peru (Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia), Honduras (Universidad Pedagogica Nacional Francisco Morazan) and Jamaica (University of the West Indies).
The objective of the program is to improve teacher and school administrator quality and to improve the quality of reading instruction in the classroom throughout the hemisphere, with special emphasis on poorer countries and teachers who work in disadvantaged communities. The focus of the program will be on improving reading instruction in grades 1-3 by upgrading the knowledge and pedagogical skills of poorly qualified teachers.
The CETT initiative was announced as a public-private partnership. The U.S. government has pledged to commit $20 million to the initiative with additional funding to come from the private sector in the U.S. and the Latin America and Caribbean region. Based on initial fundraising efforts, USAID has received numerous expressions of interest from the private sector to support the CETT program. Several private corporations have agreed to be initial founding partners with USAID in launching the program as well as to provide strategic guidance to the overall, hemisphere-wide fundraising and partnerships development effort.
To engage in fundraising over the five-year period of USAID funding for the initiative and to manage and distribute the funds and in-kind contributions received from the private sector, USAID competitively awarded a Cooperative Agreement to INMED, a U.S. private voluntary organization to establish a CETT Partnerships program. The CETT Partnerships program will also be responsible for providing technical assistance and training in fundraising and sustainability to the three sub-regional Centers.
During the Austin conference, best practices in early grade reading instruction from both the U.S. and the region will be presented and discussed. Representatives from the region's CETTs will also review reading instruction methodologies, diagnostic tools, reading materials and teaching modules from the U.S. and the region and discuss how they can be adapted and used. They will also visit local Austin schools to see effective reading programs and to talk with U.S. teachers.
The U.S. Agency for International Development has provided economic and humanitarian assistance worldwide for more than 40 years.
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