Guatemala Threshold Program Education Sector Analysis
The Challenge
MCC is making extensive use of a focused health and education mechanism to acquire services needed to accomplish its mission of helping the world’s poorest countries reduce poverty through economic growth.
Overview and Objectives
URC conducted a detailed assessment of Guatemala’s education sector to share recommendations for targeted education policy reforms with MCC, the Ministry of Education, and other stakeholders. The work emphasized:
- Vocational/technical education,
- Gender sensitive programming to ensure the needs of girls are adequately met as well as those of boys,
- Cost-effectiveness,
- Monitoring and evaluation,
- Country ownership, and
- Sustainability.
MCC intends that these activities will inform Guatemala’s broader educational policy agenda and the activities of other development partners operating in-country.
Achievements
- Conducted an analysis that:
- Assessed the quality of and access to education
- Examined the interplay among health, nutrition, and education programming
- Explored vocational education and training opportunities
- Focused on factors that:
- Constrain efforts to improve school capacity;
- Limit access to and completion of primary school and successful transitions to secondary school, particularly for girls, children in rural areas, indigenous populations, and children living in poverty;
- Affect instructional quality, the quality and relevance of teacher training, and the quality and distribution of instructional materials; and
- Limit the ability of Ministry officials and other stakeholders to obtain reliable data.
- Designed future education programming
- Provided technical assistance to education programming