During the month of March, it was the local service that achieved the highest percentage of attendance of children at this level at the national level. This result accounts for the effort of the educational teams and also of the Un Buen Comienzo Network of Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, which systematically reinforces these centers with educational strategies.
Good news was received by the Colchagua Local Public Education Service (SLEP), which includes establishments in the communes of San Fernando, Nancagua, Placilla and Chimbarongo. This is because during the month of March it reached the highest average in attendance in the educational establishments of the New Public Education with transition levels in preschool education, reaching 89.9%.
Patricia Leiva Barahona, a pedagogical technical support professional at the preschool education level of SLEP Colchagua, said that "we are happy and proud of this achievement, which is undoubtedly the result of the expression of the effort of the educational communities, in assuming attendance as a manageable indicator in the logic of continuous improvement."
The satisfaction with the good figures achieved by SLEP Colchagua is shared with the Un Buen Comienzo (UBC) program of Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, with whom they began working in October 2021, through an agreement that allowed them to accompany 12 establishments in the communes of San Fernando and Chimbarongo, which voluntarily joined this work.
"SLEP Colchagua has done an excellent job, implementing the strategies of the UBC program, but also monitoring the data properly, which has allowed them to make the improvements visible, and at the same time raise the needs in a timely manner," explained Perla Chávez, head of the program and A Good Start Improvement Network of Fundación Educacional Oportunidad. And he added that "we are convinced that the systematicity and perseverance of this work will allow them to sustain the best results over time."
For her part, Patricia Leiva explained that when the four communes were transferred to the Local Service, two of them, San Fernando and Chimbarongo, had already worked with the UBC program.
Leiva added that Nancagua and Placilla did not know about this program. "For this reason, a 'leveling' was carried out in parallel to the formation of the SLEP-Un Buen Comienzo early childhood education improvement network, training those establishments that wanted to participate in the network, but did not have previous training."
He added that "this was achieved with training through the moodle platform and direct advice, achieving today 48 educational establishments with transition levels trained in the program."
Patricia Leiva indicated that during these last years, significant improvements have been observed thanks to the accompaniment of the Opportunity Educational Foundation. "One of them is the commitment and strengthening of the leaders who attend the educational centers, the educational and management teams that apply the tools provided by the program, embodying it in systematic work and focusing on the learning of the children we serve, achieving significant progress, specifically, in the area of language, but that also transcends the other areas," he said.
Regarding the strategies provided by the UBC program, Patricia Leiva pointed out that "it teaches various strategies to the educational teams, but the one that stands out the most is the Super Attendance, which visits students monthly and has been used as an educational transition strategy in the higher levels, managing to increase the percentages of attendance in some cases of the entire school."
