Alternative classrooms A strategy of educational attention to children in the rural area of the Department of Liberty

Abstract

Alternative Classrooms of Basic Education in our country, is the name that has been given by the Ministry of Education, to a strategy of educational attention, by a single teacher to two or more grades that have low enrollment in the rural area and working simultaneously in the same classroom or classroom, and at the same time separately because the children belong to different grades; It was started in 1996 by the EDUCO Program. This strategy is based on curricular instruments known as Learning Units. The research carried out in late 1999 and early 2000, aimed to assess whether the application of the educational strategy of alternative classrooms contributes to achieving the quality of the teaching-learning process. The way in which the educational practice is carried out in six schools of the Department of La Libertad that have the Alternative Classrooms was analyzed; it is determined how close or far the strategy of what is proposed by the Ministry of Education is applied. The results have the possible and necessary validity so that they can serve as a basis for reassessing the different aspects that make up this strategy. The Alternative Classrooms strategy was not fully applied in the Alternative Classrooms at the time of the study; between the Alternative and Regular Classrooms there were no major differences in educational quality, when in alternative classrooms they work with the Learning Units, group work predominates, ex-classroom work was more frequent in the Alternative Classrooms as well as participation of the different actors in the process. Among the most significant conclusions of the analysis of the Learning Units, there are: 80% written and graphic presentation, they do not make a difference between a basic, practical or application activity; no graduation is displayed in the requirements of learning activities; There is contradiction in some activities, some contents had more approaches to urban than rural, among others.