In this report, we present the final results of the evaluations of three interventions funded
under the Formal Technical Education Sub-Activity of the first Millennium Challenge
Corporation (MCC)-El Salvador compact. These interventions were: (1) an intervention to
strengthen secondary schools
1
, (2) a secondary school scholarship program, and (3) an
intervention to strengthen a technical post-secondary school—the Chalatenango Technical
Institute (known as ITCHA for its initials in Spanish). The impact evaluation of the secondary
school strengthening program employed a quasi-experimental design; the evaluation of the
secondary school scholarship program employed an experimental design; and the evaluation of
the ITCHA intervention employed a mixed-methods performance evaluation design.
The MCC compact with the government of El Salvador was a $461 million (U.S. dollars)
initiative in effect from 2007 to 2012. The compact was designed to fuel economic growth and
reduce poverty in El Salvador’s Northern Zone by improving human and physical capital,
increasing production and employment, and reducing travel cost and time within the country.
The compact had three main projects: (1) the Human Development Project, (2) the Productive
Development Project, and (3) the Connectivity Project. The Human Development Project, which
involved a total investment of $84 million, encompassed the following two activities: (a) the
Education and Training Activity, which invested nearly $28 million to increase the quality of and
access to professional and technical education and training; and (b) the Community Development
Activity, which was designed to expand access to sanitation facilities, electricity, potable water
services, and community infrastructure in El Salvador’s Northern Zone. The compact established
a counterpart entity under the government of El Salvador, el Fondo del Milenio (FOMILENIO),
which was charged with administering the compact’s three projects.
With a budget of nearly $20 million, the Formal Technical Education Sub-Activity
comprised a substantial component of the Education and Training Activity of the Human
Development Project. The goal of this sub-activity was to strengthen technical and vocational
educational institutions in the Northern Zone so that more youth could “gain marketable skills
and thereby increase their opportunities for employment and income generation.”
2 By 2012, the
Formal Technical Education Sub-Activity was scheduled to invest $3.8 million in scholarships
for students enrolled in secondary and post-secondary technical schools in the Northern Zone.
The sub-activity would also provide $9 million to improve 20 technical secondary schools in the
Northern Zone with large-scale infrastructure investments in classrooms, laboratories, and sanitation services; new technical degree and certificate program3 offerings; teacher training in
pedagogy; and student assessment.
In addition, the sub-activity would invest $7 million to strengthen ITCHA. This included
large-scale infrastructure investments, teacher training in pedagogy, and student assessment. As
part of the ITCHA intervention, FOMILENIO also supported the Salvadoran Ministry of
Education’s (MINED’s) development of two new technical degree programs to be introduced at
ITCHA and four feeder secondary schools under the Gradual Educational Model of Technical
and Technological Learning4
(known as MEGATEC for its initials in Spanish). The MEGATEC
approach follows the principles of competency-based education, in which students learn the
skills required of technical professions through firsthand experience. MEGATEC degree
programs feature didactic modules in which students learn relevant theory and engage in handson
practice to enhance their understanding and build key skill sets. Students who complete
technical programs at “linked” feeder secondary schools are eligible to skip the first year of postsecondary
study at ITCHA and receive a superior technical degree in one year (rather than the
traditional two years). In addition, the Formal Technical Education Sub-Activity financed a labor
insertion program, known as PILAS (Programa de Inserción Laboral Sostenible), to help recent
technical school graduates find salaried employment or start their own businesses.5