Bukele builds 2 schools per day, but what is taught inside?


On November 2, Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele broadcast an address to the nation to announce that his administration was inaugurating 70 remodeled schools that day. The upgrades to the schools were part of Bukele's "Two Schools Per Day Plan" in which the government says it is commencing the upgrades of two new schools each day, 70 of which have now been finished.


The announcement came with the usual production values of a hallmark Bukele presentation -- the delivery of some new infrastructure project or building, and the Salvadoran president receiving a tour and the adulation of the citizens gathered for the event.

[Fact checkers at VozPublica highlighted several misrepresentations in Bukele's presentation regarding the number of schools built by his administration (overstated), the number of schools built by prior governments (understated), and the existence of university scholarships funded by the government (nothing new with Bukele).]

A similar multimedia production was broadcast when Bukele first announced the Two Schools Per Day plan in May 2025, which you can view here, and these school remodeling projects appear to be a focal point for government publicity efforts this year.  

This was not the first year in which Bukele has promised to build schools. In 2022, he announced that 5000 schools would be renovated in 5 years.   But at the beginning of 2025, only 424 of those schools had been completed. 

The new schools are now built under the auspices of the Directorate of Public Works ("DOM") which utilizes prison labor at many of the work sites.  There is a website, dosescuelasxdia.com, dedicated to the program with photos of each new school being added to the list.

Schools added Nov. 7 on Two Schools Per Day Website

During the time period while schools are under construction, students and teachers often must improvise under difficult circumstances for education.  An article in El Faro from earlier this year titled Schools in Shambles and Tent Classrooms: Public Education in Izalco, described UNICEF tents, churches and private homes being places where teachers were trying to hold classes.  

But education is not simply accomplished by having shiny new school buildings. Alexia Ávalos, a Salvadoran academic currently living in Mexico, wrote a piece titled School infrastructure is necessary, but not sufficient  in Revista Factum, making the point:

All the “invisible factors” of educational quality—teacher training, pedagogical practices, and a relevant curriculum (unbiased and free of ideology)—continue to be neglected by this administration. The presidential agenda prioritizes what is photogenic and inaugurated; the real critique isn't about a freshly painted wall, a new desk, or the distribution of computers and tablets, but rather about how these things have become a substitute for debating the essential questions: How is teaching being done? What methods are being used? Why is the teaching staff still being neglected?

Ávalos pointed out that on the 2022 edition of the international PISA test, Salvadoran students in public schools unfortunately had some of the lowest levels of achievement worldwide, but students in private schools in El Salvador had some of the best outcomes.  For a statistical analysis of education across the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean see El estado de la Educación en América Latina y el Caribe 2023 produced by the InterAmerican Development Bank.

This week, an estimated 78,000 students took the AVANZO test administered by the government, which measures their academic achievement and ability to graduate.  The test is given over two days in half day sessions, totally online.  Details of the test here. The AVANZO test has been given since 2020 as the government's standardized test for secondary schooling achievement, replacing the prior test known as "PAES."  

In 2023, less than 10% of students taking the AVANZO test achieved a grade of "Superior," getting the correct answer on 70 or more of the 120 questions in the test.  This was the lowest level of "superior" test results in 10 years.  However, 2023 did produce fewer poorly performing students, with the smallest percentage in 10 years of students who only achieved the "basic" level.  11%  of test takers performed at this level in 2023.   On average in 2023, students answered less than half of the questions correctly.  

In short, the Salvadoran public school system has much room for improvement in the educational attainment of the children in its care.

To improve student achievement, the Salvadoran Ministry of Education has announced to teachers a  nationwide education modernization through a new format for classes beginning in the 2026 school year. Under the new format, school hours will be standardized across the country, and class lengths increased from 45-55 minutes and minutes for recess shortened.  Curriculum will be delivered via digital means over internet-connected screens in classrooms.

On November 5, the Legislative Assembly approved an additional $7 million for technology expenditures for delivering the new education curriculum.

Minister of Education Karla Trigueros

The learning to be delivered in El Salvador's schools might be called in the United States an "anti-woke" curriculum. In an article titled Government bans the words feminism, diversity and concepts such as climate change, journalists at El Faro expose a new internal "style and editing" manual for the Ministry of Education which has the purpose of aligning texts used in El Salvador's public schools with the conservative posture of the Salvadoran government and president Bukele on a range of social issues.  No longer in today's El Salvador shall school materials mention feminism, empowerment, gender identity, sexual orientation, inclusivity, diversity or globalism.   

This style manual goes along with the directive of the Minister of Education that "inclusive language" which smacked of the "ideology of gender" were prohibited from use in the country's schools.  She has also insisted on conservative haircuts and polite demeanors for the country's scholars.

At the same time as the cameras and lights are shining on school remodeling, the overall education budget in the country is being reduced and thousands fewer students are being enrolled in the country's schools.  

There is little doubt that renovating schools to make them cleaner, brighter, and inviting can improve student performance.  The World Bank published The Impact of School Infrastructure on Learning,  a summary of research of the impact of school design on learning, which offered ample evidence of this effect.  The design differences and physical appearance of the newly built schools compared with many of the older and poorer schools in rural areas is like night and day.    

But El Salvador must also focus on training the thousands of teachers how to use all of the technology investment. Changes to the content of the curriculum appear to point towards favoring particular political ideologies rather than producing independent thinkers.  Underlying economic forces which lead to high drop out rates continue to challenge education achievement in the country.

"Two schools per day" is a slogan that puts the focus on the buildings and not what happens inside those buildings.

       


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