Outline of the Project

Project Title

Project for the Improvement of the Quality of Lower Secondary Mathematics Education

Project Implementing Country

Guatemala

Project Site

The whole country

RD Signing Date

5th October, 2016

Term of Cooperation

From 10th January, 2017 to 10th July, 2019

Project Office

Ministry of Education, Training School for Secondary Education Teachers of the University of San Carlos

Background

For the purpose of supporting GOG to improve the academic achievement of the students in mathematics, JICA provided technical assistance to Guatemala for the revision of student's textbooks and teacher's guides from 1st grade to 6th grade in primary education through the activities of Japanese Oversees Cooperation Volunteers (from 2003 to 2005). Moreover, in the Projects of Improvement on Mathematics Teaching for Primary Education (hereinafter referred to as "GUATEMÁTICA") Phase I (from 2006 to 2009) and Phase II (from 2009 to 2012), the workshops for in-service teachers about how to use and handle student's textbooks and teacher's guides were conducted. And also GUATEMÁTICA Phase II collaborated with the Teacher Professionalization Academic Program (hereinafter referred to as "PADEP-D") for primacy school teachers.

With these efforts of the country, the improvement of the results on the regional evaluation tests conducted by Latin American Laboratory for Assessment of the Quality of Education (hereinafter referred to as LLECE) could be seen in 3rd grade and 6th grade on the Third Regional Comparative and Explanatory Study (TERCE, 2013) comparing with the result of the Second Regional Comparative and Explanatory Study (SERCE, 2006).

According to the Directorate-General for Educational Assessment and Research (hereinafter referred to as DIGEDUCA"), the percentage of the students who achieved Excellent or Satisfaction on the evaluation test in mathematics in 2013 conducted by the MINEDUC was only 18.4% in 3rd grade in secondary education while that of the students in 6th grade in primary education was 45.8%. The situation reveals that the improvement of mathematics teaching and learning process in secondary education is required urgently.

In this sense, improving the quality of secondary education is indispensable, and a big contribution to the assurance of consistency in mathematics teaching through the production, using and handling the student's textbooks and teacher's guidebooks is expected as well as GUATEMÁTICA Phase I and II have already done in the past.

In addition, this Project has an exterior role of expanding these materials to some other countries in Central America (El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua).

Overall Goal

Educational activities in accordance with the updated mathematics curriculum are implemented in lower secondary education.

Project Purpose

Educational activities in accordance with the updated mathematics curriculum are introduced in lower secondary education.

Expected Outputs

1. Students' textbooks and teachers' guides in the area of mathematics for the three grades of lower secondary education are prepared.
2. The induction system for mathematic teachers in lower secondary education is strengthened.
3. A guide for the Special Didactics of Mathematics courses for lower secondary education are prepared.

Project Activities

1-1	To define the basic editing guidelines for the students' textbooks and teachers'guides.
1-2	To distribute themes and contents in accordance with the updated curriculum.
1-3	To prepare the annual lesson plan.
1-4	To establish the lesson plan by unit.
1-5	To prepare draft students' textbooks and teachers' guides for validation.
1-6	To coordinate activities of the validation with pilot institutes.
1-7	To implement the validation.
1-8	To reconsider students' textbooks aｎd teachers' guides taking into consideration the experiences of the validation
1-9	To edit students' textbooks and teachers' guides.

2-1	To analyze the training program that have been implemented for teachers in the area of mathematics in lower secondary education.
2-2	To design training contents for teachers as for prepared educational materials.

3-1	To analyze the curriculum for the didactics of mathematics courses in the Teacher Training Course for lower secondary education.
3-2	To prepare a guide for the Special Didactics of Mathematics courses in the Teacher Training Courses for lower secondary education.
3-3	To implement activities to share the guide for the Special Didactics of Mathematics courses in the Teacher Training Course for lower secondary education to teacher training institutes for lower secondary education.

Inputs

Japanese side

1. Experts
   Coordinator(s)
   Specialist(s) of Mathematics Education
   Others, if necessary
2. Reproduction cost of students' textbooks and teachers' guides for validation
3. Reproduction cost for students' textbooks and teachers' guides for teacher training
4. Participation cost in the seminars of the Regional Project and other related activities
5. Training course in Japan
6. Necessary equipment for the participation of education materials (computers, software, printers, photocopying machine, etc.)

Guatemalan side

1. Assignment of counterparts (Project director, Project coordinator, MINEDUC officials and EFPEM/USAC mathematics teachers)
2. Costs
   • Cost for reproduction and distribution of students' textbooks and teachers' guides prepared by the Project to the focus areas
   • Necessary expenses for counterparts to implement Project activities such as transportation cost, per diem, etc.
   • Service charges of the internet, telephone, etc, for the implementation of the Project.
3. Others
   Furnished space in MINEDUC for JICA experts and Project counterparts