ERA Alliance
Life is a cooperation network that allows those who partner together to succeed. This thinking has led us to evolve as an organization through projects and partnerships that enhance the people, entities and events that have shaped Secrets to tell. With each step we take together, we seek a better world for rural families.
Through our projects and alliances, we seek to support the formation of tomorrow’s human beings. We create content and projects to make this a better world and promote reading and access to education for the rural population.
A little bit of history
During the reading promotion process, while walking through the countryside, our interest expanded, and we began to investigate about rural education models in the country and the department.
In these tours, we realized that, in Antioquia, as in the rest of the country, we lack a clear and contextualized education policy for rural areas. Despite the many efforts that have been made, there is no sustainable strategy that covers rural areas in a relevant and comprehensive manner, neither at the national nor at the departmental level.
Our first exploration began in 2007, when we investigated how rural education worked with Escuela Nueva in primary schools in Antioquia. Secrets for schools was born from this initiative. This project gave us the opportunity to dive into the didactics of the work of rural teachers, to explore teaching techniques and mainstreaming, and to investigate the shortages of the education system (the lack of materials in some areas and for some ages). Through this project, we sought to bring a pedagogy that would allow the integral development of human beings during preschool and elementary school and support rural teachers on subjects such as: learning bases, reading and writing and pre-calculus. In this project, we created didactic material and new pedagogical strategies that allowed us to enter the classroom and the school curriculum to complement the Escuela Nueva methodology.
In 2017, the Foundation convened entities of the department of Antioquia with experience in education and promotion of development, such as Gobernación de Antioquia (local government) Comfama, Fundación Fraternidad Medellín, Comité Departamental de Cafeteros and Proantioquia. They initially joined to form a public-private alliance, which convened the Governor’s Office as the guiding authority of the educational policy in the department, with the aim of promoting rural development through education. Today, the ERA Alliance is an alliance that is growing day by day and to which many more allies have committed.
The ERA Alliance is a project aimed to strengthen rural education based on the experience of the Escuela Nueva Caldas program and currently present in the Southwest, Urabá and Bajo Cauca Antioqueño, and projected to other sub-regions of the department.
Based on active pedagogical support to rural educational centers and the implementation of higher education programs relevant to rural areas, the project seeks to link preschool education with primary, secondary and post-secondary education and working life through a unique educational model with territorial relevance and focused on the individual. Thus, we seek to contribute to the quality of rural education and to promote the development of life projects for students, in order to strengthen their territorial roots and personal growth and improve their quality of life.
Mission
To support the improvement of the quality of rural education through active, inclusive and relevant strategies in order to provide as much opportunity as possible for Colombian families living in out of the way parts of the country.
Objectives
1
To consolidate a pedagogical methodology that contributes to the improvement of rural education, in accordance with their realities and environments.
2
To support the different educational actors in the implementation of active pedagogical strategies to improve the quality of teaching and learning processes.
3
To create more and better opportunities for the educational communities living in rural areas.
4
To strengthen the link between schools and communities.
Modelo de intervención – Programa ERA
Both in educational centers that had been working under the New School model, as well as in centers with traditional models, the implementation of the different strategies proposed by the ERA methodology has been valued by teachers, students, and the community as a program that helps educational actors improve their practices and teaching and learning processes. ERA Alliance has shown significant impacts in managing greater rural educational coverage in Antioquia.
This dream come true has been possible thanks to the support of many allies from all sectors, who have committed with complete dedication so that today, rural inhabitants can access public, free, and quality education, from preschool to university, in their territory.
Nuestro impacto
Establecimientos educativos
Estudiantes asesorados
Municipios
