El Salvador’s Education Ministry Introduces Bitcoin Learning in Schools
Two years after bitcoin (BTC) was established as legal tender in El Salvador, the Ministry of Education has begun a pilot program “that could bring Bitcoin education to every school in the country in 2024.”
According to the announcement on the morning of September 7, the pilot program launched on the 2nd anniversary of the so-called Bitcoin Law, with support from projects My First Bitcoin (Mi Primer Bitcoin) and Bitcoin Beach.
The program plans to teach 150 public school teachers about Bitcoin. It is these teachers who will then return to their schools across the country to transfer the knowledge to their students.
A brilliant initiative! 💜
— Kraken Exchange (@krakenfx) September 7, 2023
My First Bitcoin is an education NGO and a non-profit based in El Salvador, which has two main goals: to teach the nation Bitcoin and to help make the country “into an example for the world to follow” it said, adding:
“While the Ministry of Education in El Salvador forges new ground, the world is taking notice.”
Since its launch in 2021, said the announcement, My First Bitcoin has taught “over 25,000 in-person, in-country students.”
Bitcoin Diploma is a ‘Wild Success’
In February last year, My First Bitcoin developed a 10-week Bitcoin Diploma program to enable education on the subject across the nation.
Bitcoin Diploma saw its first students in April 2022. It is “open-source“, hence available and viewable online, currently in its 5th edition.
It was taught to the Ministry of Education staff, who went on to use it as primary source material to develop their own curriculum for the teachers to use in their local schools as the pilot program expanded.
My First Bitcoin Founder John Dennehy said that,
“The Bitcoin Diploma has been a wild success and one that has grown faster than anyone expected.”
It has been translated, printed out, and independently taught globally.
The themes in the study materials are similar to those read in the mega-popular “The Bitcoin Standard,” but the author Saifedean Ammous did not work on the program’s workbook.
My First Bitcoin also works with grassroots education projects in over 20 nations, the announcement stated, in order to share their open-source materials and “best practices.”
Additionally, the NGO started talks with “two additional LatAm governments interested in providing Bitcoin education at scale.”
Day 2 is underway!
— Mi Primer Bitcoin (@MyfirstBitcoin_) September 8, 2023
Professors @pilamaHT & @gerardomoran414 are starting the day with some activities with the public school teachers
Next week they will spread across the country to their local schools to do the same with their own students pic.twitter.com/IQratMple6
Meanwhile, Bitcoin Beach is a “circular economy project” that “led to the nation adopting Bitcoin as legal tender.” This team also helped with funding to print books, as well as training.
Two more organizations that were key to the education program’s success, per My First Bitcoin, are the official government office, The Bitcoin Office, as well as Cubo+, an education program focused on Bitcoin and Lightning developers.
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Learn more:
– US Bitcoiner Moves to El Salvador in Anticipation of ‘Bitcoin City’
– El Salvador Serves as a ‘Beachhead’ in Bitcoin Battleground, Says Samson Mow
– Pro-Bitcoin Libertarian Javier Milei Takes Surprising Lead in Argentine Presidential Primary Election
– Countries Where Bitcoin Is Banned or Legal In 2023
