The Institute for Access to Public Information (IAIP), in coordination with the Ministry of Education (MINED) and with the support of the European Union's EUROsociAL Programme, held a workshop on 19th and 20th November to validate the teaching materials on transparency and access to public information for their incorporation into the Salvadoran educational system.

The workshop elicited the opinions of experts from the Ministry of Education and Institute for Access to Public Information, in addition to those of teachers from the Ministry of Education, with respect to the feasibility of implementing teaching guides and entertaining pamphlets for learning about the Access to Public Information Act (LAIP) at the different educational levels for which they were designed.

The teaching guides were designed for the preschool, basic education (first, second and third cycles), and baccalaureate levels.

In addition to these guides for supporting teachers, entertaining materials will be prepared for the same educational levels aimed at the students themselves. Production of these materials is unique in their class at the regional level, as specific material does not currently exist for each educational sector as is being proposed on this occasion.

On the part of the MINED, participants included representatives of the National Directorate of Early and Basic Education, the Secondary Vocational Department, and the National Directorate of Secondary Education (third cycle). Teachers at the preschool, basic education, and baccalaureate levels also attended.

From the IAIP, attendees included commissioners, members of the legal services unit, and the training unit, which is leading the effort to include the LAIP in curricular plans.

The activity is framed within the objectives pursued by the LAIP of contributing to the construction of a culture of transparency and access to information through the creation of tools that promote recognition and full exercise of the right of access to public information (DAIP) on the part of Salvadoran children and youth by including and developing content on the subject of transparency and information access in study plans for formal education at basic and secondary levels in El Salvador.

Art. 46 of the LAIP establishes that: “The Ministry of Education shall include content addressing the democratising importance of transparency, the right of access to public information, the right of citizen participation, and the right of personal data protection in formal education study plans and programmes for the initial, preschool, basic, and secondary levels. The Institute shall provide suggestions for said study plans…”

Validation of the guides represents the culmination of the specialised advising process promoted by EUROsociAL since mid-2015, under the coordination of FIIAPP, which has made it possible to achieve an inter-agency partnership between the IAIP and the MINED.