A well-designed communication planproved to be critical in implementing successful educationreform efforts in El Salvador (World Bank 1998). ElSalvador's experience with the Education with CommunityParticipation Program (EDUCO) demonstrated that specialemphasis on communication strategies can build consensus,inform communities, and improve public support for complexreforms. During the 1990s, efforts to reform ElSalvador's failing schools mobilized a number of actorsthat included rural communities, education stakeholders, andgovernment officials. The results revealed acute shortagesin basic resources that were largely tied to conditionscaused during El Salvador's civil war (1980-92). Atthat time, many public schools in rural areas were forced toclose because of security concerns and lack of publicresources. The teachers that were contracted were not paidconsistently and often unable to teach in the impoverishedconditions. This project was financed by the World Bankalong with other multilateral organizations from 1995 to2007 (World Bank 2007). In this program, local school-basedparent associations (community education associations[ACEs]), given appropriate training, were granted controlover the administration of schools. This proved to be achallenge as low literacy rates were common among members ofthe ACEs. A lot of parents especially mothers were not ableto read and write. Therefore, a training program wasdeveloped to improve literacy among parents and increase theparticipation among women. Financial management was also apart of these capacity-building efforts, where parents weretrained to manage the funds of the associations.
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