El Salvador's educational reform and the Partnership Compact developed with GPE give central importance to early childhood education and transitions to primary education. This project aims to develop learning tools and teaching practices to support this through the effective integration of play-based pedagogies. It seeks to contribute to a more comprehensive and inclusive learning experience for boys and girls by scaling up the impact of the early childhood education model “Growing and Learning together”, developed and tested by Fundación Educo in several municipal settings, to a national level in El Salvador.

This model combines the adaptation of curriculum, educational content and guides, with training and accompaniment for teachers and management level support, all implemented in sequence and assessed together as a single intervention. It aims to strengthen the competencies of teachers and educators in play-based learning to promote an inclusive and friendly school transition pedagogy that supports the comprehensive development of literacy, numeracy and social-emotional learning. The project is building evidence on factors that either hinder or promote the development of play-based pedagogy, in close collaboration with representatives from the Ministry of Education of El Salvador, local organizations working in early childhood education, community leaders, and caregivers.