In 2020 we are celebrating four years of being present in 38 countries of Latin American, the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia, where we have improved the opportunities of millions of boys and girls in vulnerable environments through quality digital education. Because we believe that #EducarTransforma (Educating Transforms) and that there is still much to do to make the world a more hopeful place. For us, every new year means a new desire, a new goal to reach. As a result of our commitment to SDG 4, during these last four years we have managed to train over 450,000 teachers, and we have helped to improve the education of 11.5 million children. Our values drive us to continue growing, always, and that is why we are already thinking ahead to 2030.
We want to reach the figure of 25 million children by 2030, community by community, school by school, with the support of every teacher and every family. Because we know that the only way to grow is to join forces. We have learned this over the last 4 years through our system of partners, who help us to ensure the sustainability of the project. The model is based on a solid ecosystem of public-private associations that guarantee the effectiveness of our actions and of the digital education solution over the long term. At ProFuturo, we work with governments, educational institutions, universities, implementation partners and technological partners. They help us to be better every day and to enhance our growth.
ProFuturo’s education framework
The key to our work is our education framework, which is based on training and support for teachers, as well as the personalised learning of each student by taking advantage of the possibilities offered by technology. The model is flexible and customisable: it can be implemented in any environment, whether or not connectivity is available, and it adapts to every country and every school. The overall objective is to enhance both the development of digital skills for life and learning, thereby allowing teachers, students, and school principals to face the challenges of society in the 21st century.
Specifically in 2020, ProFuturo has faced an unexpected challenge: due to the pandemic caused by Covid-19 and in order to respond to the educational crisis derived from the global closure of schools, we’ve made our model even more flexible by opening up our content to students and teachers everywhere in the world.
On the one hand, ProFuturo will make resources available to teachers so that they can continue training and preparing their lessons from home, recommending activities to their students, and helping them to carry out those activities. Over 160 courses and 2,800 hours of training in different languages have been at their disposal since March so that they can enhance the development of innovation and ICT knowledge, in addition to pedagogical and teaching skills. Moreover, teachers have been able to combine these resources with the content of the ProFuturo Observatory, a space for exchanging knowledge, including the main trends and challenges faced by education in the world.
Furthermore, to complement home learning for children, we offer our innovative educational resources to all students. During these months of the pandemic and through multimedia content and activities, younger children have been able to work on the basic universal concepts presented in the first stages of primary school, while children of between 8 and 12 years old have strengthened specific skills in language, mathematics, science and technology, as well as values and skills for life.
2020, a year for growth in África
Our educational activity began four years ago on the African continent. After all this time, we have managed to be present at over 1,100 schools in 16 countries, where over 190,000 children have benefited*.
One of our most ambitious projects for 2020 is the agreement we signed with the Empieza por Educar (Start by Educating) Foundation. Thanks to that agreement, throughout the year we will train 15,100 teachers in Liberia, Nigeria, and Tanzania. The agreement is supported by three local organisations: Teach For Nigeria, Teach For Liberia and Teach For Tanzania, which will select some of the graduates with the greatest talent and social commitment from their respective countries. These teachers will receive training on didactic and pedagogical skills, social leadership, and digital skills, and they will gradually become the agents of change in their educational community.
We are convinced that this professional development project for teachers in Africa will generate many inspiring stories that are full of passion for education, such as those compiled in the book Compromiso con la educación (Commitment to education), launched in November 2019.
In this photographic and emotional journey, we wanted to pay tribute to all the people and institutions that support us and to the thousands of stories of persons who give meaning to our efforts. They are tales of love for teaching and of the professional dreams of the children, as well as their families, all narrated through the eyes of three children, Emilia, Cris and Nicole, whose lives have changed considerably since ProFuturo arrived at their schools. They summarise ProFuturo’s work during this period of time and the promising challenges that await us in upcoming years.
(*Numbers pending audit)
