A Pilot Plan from the Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID) - Costa Rica Multilingue (Inter-American Development Bank) was launched this week. It was denominated “Mejora de la Enseñanza del Inglés como Lengua Extranjera” (Teaching English as a Foreign Language Improvement).

This national project will give 2,500 Classmate computers, 300 Laptops and 400 desktops,and the software for the English teaching in 54 schools and 64 high schools around the country, during 2010. This project is looking to generate knowledge about methodology in the English Teaching and the use of the technology in the class, to assist in the teaching. It includes, the support for a complete revision of the English Programs of the Ministry of Public Education (MEP, in Spanish).

The financing is a donation from the BID, along with the support of different donors and local associates, including the MEP, Crusa Fundation, National Bank and the Central American Bank for Economical Integration and Intel.

“The study is a pioneering not only in Costa Rica, but in Latin America, too”, informed Marta Eugenia Blanco, Executive Director of Costa Rica Multilingue. “It is also the first research project in the hemisphere that will make easy teaching English for the teachers, along with students in all institutions such as one-teacher schools or TV-high schools”.

Blanco said that the institutions participating in the project were chosen previously at random by the designers of the study, international experts from the University of Texas A&M and Sam Houston State.