Project News

The development of new mathematics textbooks for the first to third grades in lower secondary schools in the Republic of Guatemala was completed in May 2018. The project team consisting of technical officials for the Ministry of Education of Guatemala (MINEDUC), mathematics professors of Training School for Secondary Education Teachers of the University of San Carlos of Guatemala (EFPEM/USAC), JICA experts and project staff have jointly developed the textbooks since the beginning of the project in January 2017.

In Guatemala, most students in public secondary schools cannot afford to buy textbooks due to economic constraint although several private publishers publish mathematics textbooks. Teachers therefore need to conduct lessons even though students in classroom do not have their own textbooks. The normal lesson lasts only 35 minutes, which is much shorter compared to a typical class in Japan of 50 minutes. Students within this short period of time need to take in a lot of knowledge as the national curriculum of Guatemala covers much broader contents than that of Japan. Without textbooks it is obvious that students cannot satisfactorily prepare for, review and study lessons on their own. The situation analysis made in February 2017 also revealed the importance of the textbooks focused on basic mathematics contents and skills to boost learning achievement of the students in Guatemala.

The project studied the national curriculum and developed the new textbooks that help teachers conduct lessons in line with didactic sequence of mathematics education. Special effort was made to ensure that the textbooks would be user-friendly both for teachers and students. For example, the textbooks include contents covered in primary education and explain the process of calculation in detail.

MINEDUC plans to print the textbooks and distribute them to national lower secondary schools called National Institutes of Basic Education (INEB) across the country in January 2019. This means that approximately 174,000 secondary students will use the new textbooks for their mathematics study. The project plans to develop a teacher's guide that helps teachers effectively use the textbooks, and support MINEDUC to implement introductory training activities for in-service mathematics teachers, while working on the improvement of mathematics teaching method programs at EFPEM/USAC.

Textbooks Before Binding

Lesson on 1st Grade Function