NEW YORK, NY — Earlier this week, the historic partnership between ORT and Mexico’s oldest Jewish school, Colegio Israelita de Mexico (CIM), began with a ceremony in Mexico City. The partnership marks the realization of a long-held desire by ORT Mexico to have a school in the country, allowing Mexican Jewish students access to ORT’s high-technology based teaching programs.

“This is a very, very important evolution, not only for the school but for the larger Jewish community,” said CIM Chairman Dan Ostrosky. “The world has changed in recent years and globalization is the name of the game. Being part of ORT means becoming part of a global network which will bring international best practice to our school. We will be able to raise the skills of our teachers, attract better teachers and increase our graduates’ employability.”

With a Jewish community of 40,000, the newly renamed CIM-ORT school will immediately improve the quality of education, initially with programmatic and pedagogic reforms. This is particularly important as recent socio-economic changes increase the pressure on Jewish children to be able to compete successfully.

“Almost all Jewish children go to Jewish schools but parents make a sacrifice in doing that,” said CIM-ORT’s Vice President Mario Becker who also has three of his own children attending the school. “There are schools with higher educational standards, such as the American School, the French School and the Japanese School. As the economy changes, parents are becoming much more aware of the need for a better education.”

The creation of an ORT school in Mexico City will deliver opportunities for wider reform and advancement. ORT is providing critical support by applying the programs, curricula and technological tools which it has used with such great success. These include two-year post matriculation diploma courses which will equip teenagers to directly enter the workforce, laboratories for the studying of robotics, science, mathematics and languages, and comprehensive courses in Microsoft Office for junior students.

Collaboration between CIM, which was founded in 1924, and ORT stretches back for close to 30 years. In that time, ORT has provided IT, science and technical training programs and four years ago, ORT Mexico inaugurated a Media Training Centre at the school which serves students from all the local Jewish day school as well as young adults seeking to widen their skills base.

“This is a dream come true,” said the Chairman of World ORT’s Board of Trustees, Mauricio Merikanskas. “We expect CIM-ORT to be a world class school within three years. This is going to help the Jewish community – and Mexico – a lot.”