The Power of Persistence: Education System ... - EQUIP123.net

Though the strong leadership of Minister Belli put the Autonomous Schools
Policy in place, he and the Ministers who followed did not garner broad-based
support for the ASP. For example, the primary teacher’s union, ANDEN, strongly
opposed ASP. No space for union voice was provided on the school councils,
and the union felt that the ASP undermined their role. The ASP lacked the
widespread support of teachers and when the Sandinistas returned to power in
2007, the new Minister of Education, Miguel de Castilla, ended the ASP based on
concerns regarding the exclusionary aspect of school fees.
Building gradually from a small, low-profile start working in 40 model schools in
1995, the EA reforms have spread, building deep national support at the school,
municipal, and national level, and influencing national policy. One test of the
sustainability of the reform efforts came with the change in administration in
2007. Minister de Castilla immediately began reversing course from the previous
administration, ending the ASP and suspending all teacher-training programs.
In response, actors at the various levels spoke up in support of the EA reforms.
When Minister de Castilla visited schools, teachers explained to him what they
gained from the active schools program. At public meetings, directors and
teachers requested that the Minister allow the program to keep training teachers
and to accept the new national curriculum. Ultimately, the Minister listened
to the requests and after learning more about the methodology of the project,
decided to scale up the active schools approach to all schools in the country
(de Castilla, MINED 2009).
Political Dimensions
Education is and has been conflicted political terrain in Nicaragua. The trend
over the last 30 years has been a change of platforms, rhetoric, policies and
practice paralleling a change of political party in office. When a new party comes
to power, it works to ‘undo’ or ‘fix’ the work of the previous administration due to
ideological differences.
When Violeta Chamorro was elected in Nicaragua in 1990, the country was
emerging from a decade of war, natural disaster and severe economic decline.
Education during the Somoza dictatorship (1936-1979) had been the privilege
of a very small upper class that maintained power over Nicaragua’s political
processes and economic resources (Arnove, 1986). As the FSLN took power, they
confronted an education system that heavily favored more urban and developed
areas, to the great neglect of the rural areas, where 75 percent of the population
was not literate, and only just more than half of all primary age students were
not enrolled in school (Arnove, 1986). The Sandinistas envisioned education as
a tool to promote mass participation in the development of the country and to
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