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1990-2000: Expansion of Coverage and Systematization
of SAT Tutor Training
This
period was one of intense activity for FUNDAEC. Demand
for the SAT program continued to increase throughout
Colombia and other countries—the Bayán
Association in Honduras and Talita Kumi program in Guatemala
being pioneers in this respect.
In
Colombian departments that received governmental support
and an outstanding local backing (such as in Risaralda
and Antioquia), the SAT program expanded rapidly, and
it gradually became a viable alternative for regional
efforts to improve the quality of the rural education
offered and expand its coverage. FUNDAEC’s position
in the field of rural education was further strengthened
by the Ministry of Education’s adoption of a project
to expand coverage and improve the quality of rural
education throughout the country, supported by the World
Bank. FUNDAEC was chosen and hired to make an analytical
description of the institutions which at that moment
had incorporated SAT into their development plans. The
reflections that emerged from this process paved the
way for the subsequent elaboration and adoption of the
national government’s Rural Education Plan—PER—in
which several regions were chosen to receive an expansion
in educational coverage and participate in the overall
plan. This expansion of the SAT program made FUNDAEC
aware of the need to modify its texts in order to make
their contents more universal, more easily adaptable
for tutors and students, and to amplify some content
matter in accordance with governmental requirements.
At
the same time, the first program created at the
CUBR, the “B.Ed.” in Rural Education
(a 5-year undergraduate program), graduated its
first batch of students. These had come from different
parts of the country, sponsored by institutions
that had already adopted the SAT program or who
wanted to use it to set in motion development processes.
This was the case in Tolima following the Armero
volcanic eruption; one of the organizations who
participated in the reconstruction of the area chose
12 young secondary school graduates from Armero
and Guayabal and sent them to study at CUBR. When
they completed their studies, these youth returned
to their region to participate in educational projects
that included the SAT program.
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First Students of CUBR |
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