October 3 |

The public investment contemplated in the draft General State Budget for 2024 amounts to $1,790.5 million, and includes a strong commitment to the education system in general, and specifically, to the protection and comprehensive care of early childhood and adolescence, according to figures presented by the Ministry of Finance.

As part of the emblematic projects in public investment, the Government of President Nayib Bukele will allocate $245 million for the early childhood programs Crecer y Aprender Juntos, and Nacer, Aprender y Crecer, which will be executed by the Ministries of Education and Health.

All the early childhood work has been led by the First Lady of the Republic, Gabriela de Bukele, with the support of public institutions, with the purpose of settling the historical debts left by the ARENA and FMLN parties, which governed for 30 years.

As part of the work in early childhood, the first lady met last week at the Presidential House with Afshan Khan, United Nations undersecretary and coordinator of the Global Movement for the Promotion of Nutrition, to whom she presented the work of the Government of President Nayib Bukele in favor of this segment of the population.

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At the end of the meeting, Khan highlighted the work done by the Government and the First Lady for early childhood and remarked that El Salvador is one of the few countries that invest in this area. “The program of the First Lady, Gabriela de Bukele, is one of the best child development programs I have ever seen,” said the UN official during her visit.

As part of the strategic bet, next year’s state budget also allocates $140 million for the educational reform Mi Nueva Escuela, in addition to $16 million for the improvement of educational environments and $75 million for the program Creciendo Saludables Juntos, whose main objective is the integral development of early childhood.

The educational reform Mi Nueva Escuela, announced by the President of the Republic in September 2022, is part of the government’s strategy to transform the public education system that was abandoned by previous governments. The change of school curricula and textbooks, as well as the incorporation of technology and the construction and reconstruction of educational spaces, nutrition and health are part of the axes of this reform.

The sociologist and teacher Mauricio Rodríguez considers that the Ministry of Finance has presented a “balanced” state budget project, with “strategic investment lines” to solve the needs in each of the social areas, including education in the public sector.

“In the area of education there is a strong component with respect to what we know as early childhood”, said the analyst, and recalled that, together with the investment component, the Government is already implementing the Nacer con Cariño Law and the Crecer Juntos (Grow Together) Law. Both regulations were proposed by the Executive and approved by the Legislative Assembly.

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“It makes sense that the general State budget be oriented more towards these areas, to lay the foundations for a country with people of a different type of preparation. What previous governments did was to strengthen the intermediate levels [of the educational system] and forgot about the base [early childhood],” the teacher stated.

In public investment, the budget also allocates $69 million for the integrated health program, to continue improving care at all levels of the public system; and $257 million for the purchase of medicines, medical supplies and vaccines.

Also, $138 million was budgeted for the execution of municipal infrastructure works through the National Directorate of Municipal Works (DOM) and $182 million for the Los Chorros highway viaduct and widening project. ANDA will also receive $26.7 million to execute the water sector resiliency program in prioritized areas.