More than 100 English teachers gathered on Friday for the conference “Conscious Innovation: Balancing Artificial Intelligence and Humanity in English Language Teaching,” organized by the U.S. Embassy in El Salvador and the Escuela Superior de Economía y Negocios (ESEN). The event was part of the Teachers-Up initiative, which since 2021 has built a network of over 2,000 educators across all 14 departments of the country.
The conference highlighted how artificial intelligence can inspire, support, and sustain human connection in classrooms. “We want to balance the importance of using AI with the need to maintain human contact,” said José Everardo Rivera, ESEN’s general director. He explained that AI should not be seen as a replacement for teachers but as a tool “that comes to leverage their work, make classes more interactive, and simplify tasks such as grading.”
Workshops, lectures, roundtables, and interactive presentations explored responsible uses of AI in education. Teachers-Up cofounder José Ovidio Torres noted that some educators view AI with the same initial suspicion calculators once faced in math classes. “It’s not AI itself but what we do with it,” he stressed.
University professor Nataly Flores shared that her students welcome AI training as “an update to the class” and that Teachers-Up has helped her improve both her teaching and pronunciation skills. U.S. Cultural Attaché Jessica Padron emphasized that the program embodies “excellence, opportunity, and innovation,” adding that strengthening English proficiency opens doors for students in education and business.
According to organizers, Teachers-Up has reached around 420,000 students in 14,000 classrooms nationwide, with 56 percent of participating teachers from private schools and 44 percent from public schools. The initiative continues to expand its impact on English education and the country’s future workforce.