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Global Praise for El Salvador’s Educational Leadership

Christine Hogan, Vice President of the Global Partnership for Education, praised El Salvador this week for “showing what leadership within education could look like.” Her remarks, delivered during a high-level forum in San Salvador, highlighted the country’s strategic investment in early childhood development — a transformation rooted in national policy and long-term vision.

Hogan emphasized that El Salvador’s Crecer Juntos framework is “not only the right policy, but also a smart investment.” Italy’s ambassador, Paolo Emanuele Rozo Sordini, echoed the praise, citing improvements to infrastructure and the use of digital tools in classrooms.

👩‍🏫 The First Lady Behind the Transformation

The core of this progress is First Lady Gabriela de Bukele, whose office has led the creation of a national early childhood system since 2019. Her initiatives include:

• CAPI Early Childhood Centers
• Child Welfare Centers
• Family Circles
• Community Child and Family Care Centers
• Tree of Life Collection
• La Casa de Lula
• Creativerso
• Tablets for kindergarten and first grade
• A redesigned National Early Childhood Curriculum

These are not symbolic gestures — they are institutions, tools, and frameworks that have changed how El Salvador educates and supports its youngest citizens. Enrollment in early childhood programs has tripled, and parvularia coverage has risen from 50% to nearly 74%.

🧭 Redefining the Role of First Lady

In many countries, the role of First Lady is ceremonial. But figures like Gabriela de Bukele — and, in a different context, Melania Trump, with her Be Best initiative — show what happens when that platform is used to champion children, families, and long-term wellbeing.

Both women stepped into roles often underestimated. Both focused on children’s emotional and developmental needs. And both demonstrated that First Ladies can shape national priorities in ways that endure.

💡 A New Identity for El Salvador

El Salvador’s entry into the Global Partnership for Education in 2022 brought nearly $30 million in financing, executed with the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. The meeting where Hogan delivered her remarks — Education Multiplies Possibilities: An Investment in Our Future — was organized by the Office of the First Lady, the Embassy of Italy, and GPE.

That collaboration alone signals how central early childhood has become to El Salvador’s development strategy. And it reflects a deeper truth: this recognition is not accidental. It is the result of years of coordinated work, much of it led by a First Lady who chose to treat her role not as a formality, but as a responsibility.

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