Badi School Panama
About Badi School
Mona Partner since 2000
Badi School started in 1993 as a kindergarten in the carport of a trailer home and has since grown into one of the finest K-12 schools in Panama, serving over 400 students. Badi integrates high quality academics, arts, and technology programs with an inclusive moral leadership program and service. Most Badi School graduates receive full scholarships to the best universities in Panama and elsewhere.
Impressed over the years by the exceptional quality of Badi school's graduates and their contributions to the betterment of their communities, the Ministry of Education in Panama adopted
their moral education curriculum, the key lever of Badi's outstanding results, as their standard course on religion, implementing it in
3,400 K-12 schools reaching about
950,000
students.
The Challenge
Panama has the second most unequal income distribution in Latin America with its dollar-based economy relying primarily on operationg of the Panama Canal, offshore banking, and insurance.
Panama's primary education system ranks 129th out of 139 nations according to the World Economic Forum's “Global Competitiveness Report” for 2010-2011.
The Solution: Badi's Programs
K-12 Education
Badi School provides kindergarten through high school education to over 400 students.
Educational activities, including arts, music and sports, foster the development of the whole child — academically, artistically, technically, and morally — and empowers each student to work towards the betterment of their community.
Arts and Technology Programs
Badi's award-winning Arts Program begins in 7th grade and gradually teaches more complex techniques, even surpassing the arts program at the University of Panama.
The school is also a
pioneer in technology education. The computer lab is Linux based and runs completely on recently installed solar panels.
The award-winning Arts Program at Badi School
How we help
Badi School is a great example of what the Mona Foundation seeks to support. From humble beginnings, it gradually grew from an after-school tutoring program to a Kindergarten with 7 students to a First Grade with 15 students. A few years later we stepped in to support Badi's development to a full K-12 school.
With the help of our generous donors we initially provided a limited number of scholarships and gradually increased our investment over several years to build additional classrooms, a library, a common room, technology and science labs, and to support the music, arts, and character development programs.
2024 Achievements
- 3,400 schools continue to offer Badi School’s moral education curriculum as the evolution of the standard public-school curriculum on religious studies, impacting 950,000 students
- 400 students received quality education at Badi School
- 36 teachers trained
- 15 students awarded full scholarships
- 750 culturally relevant educational books written and distributed to free of charge to students

Badi School has worked tirelessly over the past 26 years to develop educational programs that address "all aspects of being human" so that its students are empowered to improve their own lives as well as contribute to the betterment of their families and community.
From the outset, Badi considered moral education to be as essential to the well-being of its students as academics and the arts. Over the years, they have developed and refined a Virtues curriculum for all grades to help students see themselves as equal members of society deserving of respect and empowered to serve and contribute to their community. In time, Badi became recognized as one of the best schools in Central and South America, both for the high academic achievement of its graduates and for having zero incidence of teen pregnancy, a major issue in Panama.
The school's impact was so significant that the Ministry of Education took note and printed Badi’s entire "virtues program" in the nation's Daily Newspaper so others could learn from it.
In the past 10 years, Badi School has continued refining its Virtues program, teaching students lessons of justice, equality and integrity and service as a compliment to its rigorous academic and creative humanities program. The results have been impressive.
Recently in its continued collaboration and following providing many educational seminars to Panama’s Ministry of Education Curriculum Directors, the Ministry issued an “edict” to replace the standard course on “Religion," to the more inclusive Badi School’s Virtues/Moral Education program in more than 3,100 public schools and 300 private schools, impacting 950,000 students!
Badi School will provide the Curricular Structure and the guidelines to be used by different schools by age and grade according to their social reality, economic situation, regional culture, and knowledge.
Badi School considers this to be their finest contribution to their country.
2025 Plans, $30,074
- Provide
15 Scholarships to high-performing, low-income students
- Engage 200 students in the art program
- Train 62 students in the music and band program
- Publish and print 500 textbooks tailored to local cultural and educational needs
- Support
3 students and alumnae through the R. Wilson Arts Scholarship
Updates
Stories of Transformation
