Ministry of Education Adopys ProFuturo Program

A digital education programme was launched today by the Ministry of Education in partnership with the OAS and two foundations. Eleven rural schools will be equipped with tablets, laptops and projectors as well as digital content in Math, English and Life Skills. The programme will teach the participating students to effectively use the information technology to develop ICT solutions.  News Five’s Hipolito Novelo reports.

Hipolito Novelo, Reporting

For the past year, the Ministry of Education has been working with Telefonica Foundation and La Caixa Foundation with the support of the OAS to finalize ProFuturo for today’s official launch. The programme seeks to narrow the education gap by providing quality digital education for students of eleven participating schools.

Luis Carballo

Luis Carballo, Focal Point, M.O.E.

“It has been some hard works, especially over the past months as we prepare two weeks of training for some of our personnel and the two coaches that will support schools in Belize District and in the Cayo District.  These are the eleven schools due to the guide that was given to us as to which schools we can use, wanting some of them to be in rural areas and some of them to be in hardship areas so in putting all these together we came up with a list of eleven schools for us to start the programme with.”

The programme was launched globally in 2016 and since then ProFuturo has signed agreements with over six partners.

Starrett Greene

Starrett Greene, O.A.S. Country Representative

“The O.A.S. welcomes this collaboration particularly that it will make learning more exciting and relevant to our students while developing applicable ICT solutions to every day challenges. In this connection the ProFuturo programme will complement the existing efforts of the Ministry of Education by expanding digital education through the provision of hardware that includes tablets, laptops and projectors as well as deliver digital content in Math, English and Life Skills to impact eleven schools with a combine enrolment of three thousand students in two major districts.”

Today’s launch signifies a partnership which aims to improve education, promote inclusiveness in the use of accessible ICTs and empower teachers and students with skills to change along with changing times.

Valeria Cruz Gomes

Valeria Cruz Gomes, Training and Support Manager, ProFuturo Foundation

“Active learning leads to innovation. Technology represents an opportunity to transit from purely transition based teaching models to active learning models. We need to prepare our students to learn how to learn, to be passionate about learning new things, to be autonomous and create sustainable solutions to the challenges their community face.”

Reporting for News Five, I am Hipolito Novelo.