During the 1995 - 2000 administration,
the Uruguayan government introduced significant reforms
in the public educational system. The reforms involved grades
from pre-school up to secondary level. The goals of the
reforms were to improve educational levels in the poorer
sectors of the population. The reforms began by extending
the school hours from four to eight hours and providing
the children with three daily meals, thus creating the Escuelas
de Tiempo Completo. In order to implement building of the
schools and partially fund the training of teachers, the
Uruguayan government received help from the Word Bank and
the International Development Bank.
During the present administration, the reforms
moved a step further - the revision of curricula. Again
in partnership with the World Bank, the government launched
a pilot English Immersion program for the elementary public
school system. The idea was to have English taught during
half of the day, using immersion techniques and all the
way through the 12 years leading to high school graduation.
The program combined the teaching of English with that of
computer science.
In March 2001, five elementary schools in
very low socio-economic areas of Montevideo (three schools),
Maldonado and Colonia, began implementing the new system.
The program has so far expanded to 104 schools. The World
Bank is using this as a pilot project- if it succeeds, it
will be used as the model for other countries of the region.
This English Immersion Project allows,
for the first time in Uruguayan history, the teaching of
American English, using U.S. methodology and materials in
the Uruguayan public school system. To date, the Uruguayan
school system, as well as that of the entire region, has
been focused on Europe. Before the pilot project was implemented,
English was taught only at high school level, and not a
single public high school in Uruguay used American-English
textbooks.
The U.S. Embassy has been following this process very closely
from the beginning and, with special funds from the Department
of State, has been supporting the program by promoting teacher
exchanges, organizing teacher training programs both in
English and in immersion techniques, providing English books
and other course materials and developing school linkages
with U.S. institutions.
