Fund a teacher and support more than 250 students

18 months ago, the pandemic lead to an enormous disruption of the already fragile Guatemalan education system and suddenly obliged teachers, parents and students to new ways of teaching and learning. The crisis is worsening pre-existing education disparities within the country by reducing the opportunities of the most vulnerable children and youths to continue their learning. Many students, especially from rural areas fell severely behind in their learnings. Due to a lack of resources, education or time, many parents are simply not in the position of accompanying their children during homeschooling.

Debate is a great tool for engaging students and help them nurture rational and critical thinking skills, assertive communication, argumentation, research and public speaking. As part of CasaSito’s Teacher Development Program, the participating teachers initiated the second phase of the training with 75 students of different schools. They taught them about the importance of reliable and safe information sources, and have carried out activities to motivate the reading of local newspapers. The students learned to defend their ways of thinking with arguments, modulate their voice, have an open mind and heart, be more tolerant, respectful and empathetic, and to seek solutions through assertive dialogue and responsible listening. The classroom debates helped them to test their thoughts and views against the ones of their peers.

It is expected that the program will culminate with a final Debate Festival of all participating schools end of September.