This is a project designed and managed by the Educational School of St. Andrew’s University and supported by the Georges and Jorge Born Educational Program and other organizations. The project aims to strengthen schools whose populations are categorized as high-risk in social terms in order to help improve the quality of teaching, and set up an installed capacity in each school, as well as create tools that can be replicated in other schools.

This project has been financed thanks to a donation by the HSBC Guyerzeller bank, and has been underway for a year and half. It involves applying the SFP (Schools of the Future Project) methodology at the School No. 26 of San Isidro and now, for the first time, at pre-school level (three kindergardens in San Isidro, Beccar and Pilar).

This is a 3-day training course provided to teachers about the importance of playing and the creative process, which the Bunge y Born Foundation has been providing since 1995 and one which is much-sought after by schools in Greater Buenos Aires, for whom the course was designed.
The program is aimed at facilitating the use of games and play as a teaching resource and at providing a games library for each school taking part, as well as at stimulating teachers to take full advantage of these resources with their pupils.

The seminar, which is sponsored by the General Directorate of Schools of the Province of Buenos Aires, was audited in 2007 by an external consultancy, which evaluated it as extremely efficient in achieving its objectives.

The Georgetown University Latin American Board and the Georges and Jorge Born Award Program of the Bunge y Born Foundation invite young leaders to apply for their two scholarship grants for the “Leadership for Competitiveness” program held at the University of Georgetown, Washington D.C., during the first semester of the academic year. The 13-week leadership track is aimed at strengthening the capabilities of a new generation of Ibero-American leaders in order to promote competitiveness, progress and the international integration of Latin America.

The closing of the fourth contest ended on 2 October 2009 and the winner of the scholarship is the Bachelor of Economics, Federico Malek, 24, who will travel in January 2010 to Washington DC for three months to study the Leadership Program.

Aimed at public or privately-managed farming and animal husbandry colleges, or those specializing in the agro-foods industry, this is an innovative project which involves the selection of 12 colleges from all over Argentina in order to train their head-teachers and other teaching staff. The purpose is to set up an Educational Quality Management System (SGCE in Spanish) in order to receive the ISO9001:2000 certification for each college taking part.

The Alfredo Hirsch Project for Education in Farming and Animal Husbandry is a 4-year program. The first year covers training and assessment while the second takes the college up to certification. Once this has been achieved, there are two further obligatory years of maintenance required by the ISO standards. This period allows for all the assessment, training, transport and accommodation expenses to be covered for the teachers and heads from the schools selected, as well as the fees and costs of the certification body.

Through this project, the Bunge y Born Foundation ensures that the heads and teachers of these colleges receive training in the basics of Quality and Quality Management Systems. The long-term goal is that each certified college be a multiplier of the “quality philosophy” and generate an employment network based on ISO standards among all the colleges taking part.
Undoubtedly, a college’s positioning, image and own efficiency will be greatly improved with the certification of an Educational Quality Management System to international standards, with the corresponding benefits for both teachers and students.

1st EDITION: Six educational quality agricultural schools certified under ISO 9001:2008

After the success of the first contest, which ended with six certified schools in 2009, it was launched a second call for new schools to achieve quality certification.

2nd EDITION: The six new schools that wins the second contest seeks to certify educational quality

The project is being carried out in co-operation with the Navarro Viola Foundation and the Escolares Foundation, which are in charge of the initiative and have been running it for eleven consecutive years in rural schools from the provinces of Chaco and Misiones. The aim is to strengthen the development of pupils’ learning and expression skills, to update rural teachers’ training and to encourage local communities to become involved in education.

Teacher training focuses on encouraging reading and writing skills and also on creating vegetable gardens at schools. In 2008, a book was published outlining working methods in the field based on ten years’ experience in the area including a brief analysis of the current status of rural education in north-east Argentina. The Argentine Ministry of Education, Science and Technology has declared this project to be of educational interest.

The initiative is about promoting the planting, maintenance and maximization of vegetable gardens for students, teachers and the educational community of rural schools. In 2008, the Bunge y Born Foundation’s support has been focused on the provinces of Corrientes and Catamarca.

The objectives are to plant vegetable gardens in rural schools so that undernourished children can be better fed and also taught to work on the land for its improvement, thus contributing to community action.

This program consists of a series of four-week internships for head teachers from the provinces of Córdoba and Santa Fe at similar schools in the United States. In return, head teachers from the U.S. will visit Argentine schools for the same period.

The project is also receiving the support of the Fulbright Commission and aims to improve the quality of education for teachers through an exchange program to help them update their classroom and administrative practices, as well as creating closer links between different cultures and communities.

An educational project involving internships for Argentine schoolteachers of English where they have the chance to spend a full school year in the United States to help with Spanish language teaching. Teachers from the United States will in turn spend time at Argentine schools.

The aim of the program is to improve the educational quality of schools by training English language teachers and promoting cultural exchange between both countries. The selection process of the candidates is supported by the Fulbright Commission.

Scholarships are being granted to children with hearing difficulties from low-income backgrounds so that they can learn to hear and speak in the context of a whole-concept educational approach based on oral-auditory methodology. The Bunge y Born Foundation is also contributing funding to purchase hearing equipment.

Since 2007, the Bunge y Born Foundation and the Center for Studies on Child Nutrition (CESNI) have been developing a project called “Nutrition at School”, which aims to teach pupils and teachers about nutrition at elementary schools. The project is based on a series of training programs to improve the alimentary and nutritional environment at schools. The schools participating in the project are from Lomas de Zamora (southern Greater Buenos Aires) and some 3700 pupils are involved.

The teacher and pupil training programs have been specially developed by the team of nutritionists at CESNI, and put together in a book called “Teaching people how to eat – A guide to teaching Nutrition at School” as well as the workbook “Teaching people how to eat – Practical Activities for teaching Nutrition at School”. Both are published jointly by the Bunge y Born Foundation and CESNI, and distributed to each school as a basic work tool.

The literacy project “Mathematics for All, a proposal for 3rd-6th grade”, is being carried out with backing from the School Support Network (RAE) and prioritizes the creation of an appropriate environment to facilitate the teaching and learning of mathematics in the classroom.

The aim is for teachers to change not only their preconception of what it means to “do math” but also their own understanding of the subject. Hence, teachers are given different didactic tools to improve class-planning techniques and correction skills so that lessons can be more stimulating and interesting for students.

Individual scholarships are granted annually to secondary school pupils. Each pupil’s educational progress is monitored on a personal basis and they must attend day sessions called “Jornadas de Encuentro e Intercambio” (Meeting and Exchange Days) throughout the year. The aim of this program is to keep children from low-income families within the formal educational system while helping to improve their learning skills. Since 2007, the Bunge y Born Foundation has assigned grants to pupils from the San Pedro Claver School in Pacheco, northern Greater Buenos Aires.

In 2010, the scholarships were extended to include the following private establishments, María Inmaculada, from the Abasto district and Guardia de Honor, from the Flores district, both in the City of Buenos Aires. Fifty secondary-level pupils from both establishments were awarded scholarships involving a monthly stipend and personalized tutorship. The project also involves training for the teachers at each institute and workshops for parents about the importance of education, the objectives of middle-schooling, the training given at higher level and how to support and encourage their children through school and adolescence as a whole.

The Classroom built and completed with funds contributed by the Bunge y Born Foundation. The Foundation’s Executive Director, Ludovico Videla and Carlos Garavelli, president of the Presbítero J. Mario Pantaleo Foundation cut the inaugural tape at the ceremony.

Based on the premise of helping other to help themselves, the Bunge y Born Foundation provided support for the initiative to help train young people actively interested in their own personal development. The idea is that with this support, they will be able to access university and tertiary education courses, find jobs more easily and contribute to the development of the community as a whole.

The Colegio Universitario Pantaleo creates alliances with leading universities and offers university courses in Business Administration and courses for Instructors in Physical Education at Primary and Secondary Level.