Primary School School The World

Help us build better futures

Join our mission to transform education, create a new impact. Solving extreme poverty through the power of education around the world.

Help us build better futures

Join our mission to transform education, create a new impact. Solving extreme poverty through the power of education around the world.

Primary School

Our five-pillar primary school model builds safe and comfortable school buildings and playgrounds, deeply engages parents, creates classroom libraries, and aims to have motivated and competent teachers to be as fundamentally important to create a thriving school.

Infrastructure: Before we decide to take on any construction work and build schools, we involve parents, teachers, and government officials. We also agree upon sharing costs. For instance, the local municipalities provide 50% of the infrastructure costs, whereas School the World invests the remaining 50% through service trips, individual donors and corporate sponsorships. This creates transparency and accountability, which we feel is paramount.

Parent Training: Parents know what is best for their children but, through our training, they have the ability to focus on the most important things. For instance, mothers are trained to get their children ready for school, become their first educators to help their children absorb what they study in school, and hold teachers accountable after learning about their rights and responsibilities.

Teacher Training: Our programs provide in-depth understanding of teaching methodologies and pedagogy. For example, our two-year training program offers monthly group and one-on-one training, with a special focus on teaching methods that promote functional literacy and social and emotional learning among students. In 2023, our teacher training introduced the concept of Teaching at the Right Level, a rigorously tested methodology adapted for our small group tutoring programs. Teachers felt motivated to learn it after seeing the progress the students had made through the tutoring program last year. It is an in-person group training, followed by rigorous coaching in the classroom.

“The partnership established with School the World is incomparable. They use a tripartite model: municipality, community and STW. There is a transparent approach with the communities. There are so many NGOs that have come to Quiché and then disappeared! STW has never done that. STW doesn’t just build classrooms and playgrounds, but they also empower parents through training so that they can take responsibility for their child’s education by making sure that the teachers are doing their job well.”

José Francisco Pérez Reyes, Mayor of Santa Cruz del Quiché, Guatemala

School Libraries: Books have the ability to change lives. That’s why we keep our libraries stocked with the latest books for our students to enjoy and learn from. Every year, we do book deliveries right after schools reopen and our students absolutely love it. We also involve parents in this activity by way of contributions for purchasing these books and we match that contribution 5x the first year, 4x the following year, 3x the third year, 2x the second year, and 1x the final year. Parents typically contribute $1 per child. At times, they have to pay in installments, but they also find this activity empowering as they make a significant contribution toward their child’s future.

“Before STW came to our school, we didn’t have any books to read. I talked to my students about animals, letters, colors, numbers and other countries, but it was difficult to describe them in words. There was no teaching material to teach them. When STW gave us the option to buy books with their matching funds, we were thrilled. The system with STW is incredible. The community raises the funds for purchasing books, and for five consecutive years, STW matches the amount. It’s amazing to see our students read and enjoy new books every year. It’s a great way for them to identify with different characters and cultures, and improve their vocabulary,” says Pedro Tamup, Teacher and Principal at a school in Guatemala.

The Power of Play: Academics are important, but so is play. The evidence is overwhelming that play improves learning and builds critical life skills. We build playgrounds at our schools so children can experience the joy of play and develop skills like patience, mastery and conflict negotiation.

Other programs

Early Childhood

The Early Childhood Program objective is to ensure that children from 0 to 6-years old develop the basic skills and abilities they need to be ready to learn when they start 1st grade.

Scholarships & Alternative Schooling

Most communities we work in do not have schools after the sixth grade and children have to travel long distances by foot to get to school, which is not always safe.

Accelerated Learning Recovery

Adapt the rigorously tested and proven model of Teaching at the Right Level for a small group tutoring program for the Spanish language and the contexts of rural and primarily indigenous communities.

Help us build better futures

Help us build better futures

Primary School

Other programs

Early Childhood

Scholarships & Alternative Schooling

Accelerated Learning Recovery

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