Welcome to the Virtual Education Wiki ~ Open Education Wiki
El Salvador
Original Re.ViCa entry by Paul Bacsich with desk research by Iris Velasquez Noguera
For entities in El Salvador see Category:El Salvador
Partners situated in El Salvador
None.
El Salvador in a nutshell
(sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_salvador)
El Salvador (Spanish: República de El Salvador, literally meaning Republic of the Saviour) is the smallest and most densely populated country in Central America. It borders the Pacific Ocean between Guatemala and Honduras. It lies on the Gulf of Fonseca, as does Nicaragua further south.
El Salvador has a population of approximately 5.7 million people as in 2009 in an area of 21,000 km2.
The capital city of San Salvador is the most important metropolis of the republic, with about 2.1 million people; an estimated 42% of El Salvador's population live in rural areas.
El Salvador eliminated its currency, the colón, and adopted the U.S. dollar in 2001.
El Salvador is divided into 14 departments (departamentos), which, in turn, are subdivided into 262 municipalities (municipios).
El Salvador has the third largest economy in the region (behind Costa Rica and Panama) when comparing nominal Gross Domestic Product and purchasing power GDP. El Salvador's GDP per capita stands at US$6,200, however, this "developing country" is still among the 10 poorest countries in Latin America. Most of El Salvador's economy has been hampered by natural disasters such as earthquakes and hurricanes, but El Salvador currently has a steadily growing economy
As of 2004, there were approximately 3.2 million Salvadorans living outside El Salvador, with the US traditionally being the destination of choice for Salvadorans looking for greater economic opportunity. Salvadorans also live in nearby Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. The majority of expatriates emigrated during the civil war of the 1980s for political reasons and later because of adverse economic and social conditions. Other countries with notable Salvadoran communities include Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom (including the Cayman Islands), Sweden, Brazil, Italy and Australia. There is also a large community of Nicaraguans, 100,000 according to some figures, many of them are seasonal immigrants
Spanish is the official language and is spoken by virtually all inhabitants (some indigenous people still speak their native tongues, but all speak Spanish). English is also spoken by some throughout the republic. Many Salvadorans have studied or lived in English-speaking countries (primarily the US, but also Canada and Australia), including many young Salvadorans deported from the United States, many of whom had grown up speaking only English. Furthermore, today all public schools teach English as a required course in both primary and secondary school.
Although more than half of El Salvador's residents are Catholic, Protestantism is growing rapidly and represents nearly 30% of the population. The Catholic Church plays an important role in the Salvadoran culture.
El Salvador education policy
The Ministry of Education, Republic of El Salvador is in overall charge of the education sector.
Schools in El Salvador
The public education system in El Salvador is severely lacking in resources. Class sizes in public schools can reach 50 children, so Salvadorans who can afford the cost often choose to send their children to private schools. Lower-income families are forced to rely on the public education system.
Education in El Salvador is free through high school. During high school students have the option of a two-year high school or a three-year high school. A two-year high school prepares the student to transfer to a university. A three-year high school allows the student graduate with a vocational career and enter the workforce or transfer to a university as well to further their education in that field. The national literacy rate is 80%
Higher education
The various wikipedia and other derived lists of universities and other institutes of higher education in El Salvador are at the time of writing (August 2009) seriously out of date. Below is a list extracted from the 2009 list of institutions documented by the Ministry of Education, Republic of El Salvador - see http://www.mined.gob.sv/descarga/DIRECTORIO-IES-2009.pdf
These are split into public and private and then into types of institution.
Public institutions (INSTITUCIONES ESTATALES)
Universities (UNIVERSIDADES)
- Universidad de El Salvador (UES)
Specialised institutes (INSTITUTOS ESPECIALIZADOS)
- Instituto Especializado de Nivel Superior Escuela Militar "Capitán General Gerardo Barrios"
- Instituto del Nivel Superior Escuela Especializada en Ingeniería ITCA
Technical institutes (INSTITUTOS TECNOLÓGICOS)
- Instituto Tecnológico Escuela Nacional de Agricultura Roberto Quiñónez (ENA)
- Instituto Tecnológico de Chalatenango (ITCHA)
- Instituto Tecnológico de Sonsonate (ITSO)
- Instituto Tecnológico de Usulután (ITUS)
Private institutions (INSTITUCIONES PRIVADAS)
Universities (UNIVERSIDADES)
- Universidad Albert Einstein (UAE)
- Universidad Autónoma de Santa Ana (UNASA)
- Universidad Capitán General Gerardo Barrios (UCGB)
- Universidad Católica de El Salvador (UNICAES) - Accredited (ACREDITADA)
- Universidad Centroamericana José Simeón Cañas (UCA) - Re-accredited (RE-ACREDITADA)
- Universidad Cristiana de Las Asambleas de Dios (UCAD)
- Universidad de Oriente (UNIVO)
- Universidad de Sonsonate (USO)
- Universidad Don Bosco (UDB) - Re-accredited (RE-ACREDITADA)
- Universidad Dr. Andrés Bello (UDAB)
- Universidad Dr. José Matías Delgado (UDJMD) - Accredited (ACREDITADA)
- Universidad Evangélica de El Salvador (UEES) - Accredited (ACREDITADA)
- Universidad Francisco Gavidia (UFG) - Accredited (ACREDITADA)
- Universidad Luterana Salvadoreña (ULS)
- Universidad Modular Abierta (UMA)
- Universidad Monseñor Oscar Arnulfo Romero (UMOAR)
- Universidad Nueva San Salvador (UNSSA)
- Universidad Panamericana (UPAN)
- Universidad Pedagógica de El Salvador (UPED)
- Universidad Politécnica de El Salvador (UPES)
- Universidad Salvadoreña Alberto Masferrer (USAM)- Accredited (ACREDITADA)
- Universidad Técnica Latinoamericana (UTLA)
- Universidad Tecnológica de El Salvador (UTEC) - Accredited (ACREDITADA)
Specialised institutes (INSTITUTOS ESPECIALIZADOS)
- Instituto Especializado de Educación Superior El Espíritu Santo
- Instituto Especializado Escuela de Comunicación Mónica Herrera - Accredited (ACREDITADO)
- Instituto Especializado Escuela Superior de Economía y Negocios (ESEN)- Accredited (ACREDITADO)
- Instituto Superior de Economía y Admón. de Empresas (ISEADE) ACREDITADO - Accredited (ACREDITADO)
- Instituto Especializado de Nivel Superior Centro Cultural Salvadoreño Americano (IECCS)
Technical institutes (INSTITUTOS TECNOLÓGICOS)
- Instituto Tecnológico Americano de Educación Superior (ITAES)
- Instituto Tecnológico de Profesionales de la Salud de El Salvador (IEPROES)
- Instituto Tecnológico Escuela Técnica para la Salud (ETPS)
Education reform
The Bologna Process
Administration and finance
Quality assurance
Accreditation of institutions and overseeing of quality assurance is under the control of the Commission for Accreditation of the Quality of Higher Education, an autonomous agency of the Ministry of Education, Republic of El Salvador.
Information society
Towards the information society
The El Salvador National Education Plan 2021 contains several initiatives of relevance.
REDES ESCOLARES EFECTIVAS (Effective schools networks)
The programme REDES ESCOLARES EFECTIVAS aims to improve efficiency in the provision of educational services and ensure that children and young people from poorer areas and areas of backwardness in higher educational backwardness have access to quality education.
CONÉCTATE (Connect)
The CONNECT programme aims to the National Education System with technology tools to improve academic quality standards and develop, in the students, technical competence required to raise the level of national competitiveness.
Information society strategy
Virtual initiatives
Interesting Virtual Campus Initiatives
Interesting Programmes
The Modular Open University is worthy of more attention in view of its interesting approach and history.
Note also that, as reported in El Diario de Hoy in 2006 (http://www.bnamericas.com/news/technology/Fedecredito_launches_e-learning_program):
- El Salvador's savings and loans federation Fedecrédito launched this week an e-learning program to train the more than 1,500 employees of its members over the internet how to improve their attention to the public.
- The plan includes boosting efforts in marketing, financial risks, internal auditing and public relations.
Re.ViCa Case-study
None.
Lessons learnt
There appears to be considerable e-learning activity in El Salvador "under the surface" in universities but almost none is reported in English.
References
Wikipedia
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_salvador
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_El_Salvador
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_universities_in_El_Salvador
Others
- Descriptions of universities in El Salvador, unknown date, http://www.ostamyy.com/Universities/El-Salvador.htm
- Informe sobre la investigación de títulos irregulares de licenciatura en Ciencias Jurídicas realizada por la Fiscalía General de la República, 2001, http://www.elfaro.net/secciones/repisa/documentos/informe.doc - contains a section II on Situación legal de las universidades salvadoreñas which gives their dates of authorisation by the Ministry
For OER policies and projects in El Salvador see El Salvador/OER