Nearly 150 teachers graduate from training program in Guatemala, workshops and tours postponed

COVID-19 has impacted several activities planned in support of the Escuela Nacional Central de Agricultura (ENCA) project in Guatemala funded by the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC).

As the pandemic began to spread, ENCA held the closing ceremony for the teacher training program on March 10 at its headquarters in Villa Nueva, Guatemala.

Approximately 150 teachers participated in the training program from the network of 19 agriculture and forestry technical education schools across Guatemala. Due to COVID-19 concerns, international program partners from Virginia Tech and EARTH University were unable to participate in this ceremony.

Virginia Tech, EARTH University, and program partners were scheduled to visit three network schools in mid-March, but the visits were postponed due to COVID. These site visits were designed to enable program partners to meet and discuss successes, challenges, and opportunities with teacher training participants at their home schools. Because of COVID, these site visits have been postponed.

A small group of faculty representatives from the Guatemalan agriculture and forestry school network were scheduled to visit Blacksburg in late April to learn more about experiential learning practices and analytical service labs. For now, this study visit has been put on hold, but the Virginia Tech team looks forward to hosting their Guatemalan colleagues in the future.