EDUCACIÓN, POLÍTICA Y CIRCUNSTANCIAS

Si pudiéramos regresar el tiempo y mirar desde la altura que nos da el tiempo transcurrido, el curso que ha seguido la historia de la educación en nuestro país, llegaríamos a la conclusión lógica y desesperanzante de que la institución educativa en nuestro Perú ha sido siempre, en gran parte, un órgano político al servicio de la ideología dominante. A esto último se debe en gran parte el caos en el sector educativo de nuestro país. Cada gobierno entrante ha instaurado una nueva política de desarrollo educativo olvidándose del anterior sistema. Cada gobernante ha planteado una maravillosa reforma educativa sin importarle el anterior camino andado. A esto último se suma la dificultad del territorio, las grandes distancias, las diferencias étnicas y socioculturales y el importante hecho de que la docencia en nuestro país esta ubicada en casi el último escalón laboral. Comparado con países de regimenes educativos sólidos, en los que la educación es impartida por dos fuentes importantes: el Estado y la familia, de alguna manera, los sectores mas bajos, que son en promedio el 80% de la población total, se han vuelto completamente dependientes del sistema. Es sobre el estado que cae la tan difícil tarea de satisfacer la necesidad educativa en los sectores en los que la familia no puede cumplir el rol educativo. Para nadie es un secreto que la educación en nuestro país cumple una función tan solo paliativa, remedial. Una revolución educativa debe ir de la mano de la depuración del sistema educativo, esto no quiere decir la eliminación de personal no capacitado, si no por el contrario, es necesario, en lugar de generar mas profesionales docentes sin suficiente preparación, es necesario una reagrupación, una reorganización del sector con la finalidad de una intensa capacitación. La idea de que cualquier profesional podría ocupar el lugar de un docente en una escuela, es de por sí una utopía, aquellos que de alguna manera hemos tenido algún acercamiento con niños sabemos lo arduo y difícil que puede resultar el intentar mantener el control sobre 15 o 20 niños. Esto sin tomar en cuenta que es necesaria una formación pedagógica y psicológica para poder luego tratar con niños. Esto último para opinar sobre aquella idea que dice que cualquiera podría ponerse al frente de un aula en caso hagan falta profesionales docentes. Lo último que necesitamos son profesionales desempleados cumpliendo de mala gana y a regañadientes la función tan importante de un educador.
La tarea de educar un país y de cambiar por este medio su futuro, no es una tarea que se puede hacer de la noche a la mañana. Pasaran todavía algunas generaciones antes que puedan verse los resultados de los cambios que se tomen en este momento. Tendremos mas huelgas y mas gente protestando en la calle por que el cambio genera siempre terror en las masas (los cambios siempre valen la pena si son los correctos). Lo importante es QUÉ estamos haciendo ahora. Lo importante es que cada vez más gente se aventura a dar una opinión, a poner un granito de arena, a ayudar en esta ardua tarea. Lo importante es empezar ahora.



Felipe Gamboa.

Indefinite time... and reasons

07/15/07

Posted by sara in the blog "2007 Fellow: Sara Zampierin" @ 07:14:44 pm

This blog is in response to a post on the blog, “Educational Equity, Politics & Policy in Texas.” As a part of my AP fellow position, I feel that it is important to express my views and what I have seen firsthand in working with SKIP. Hopefully, I can spread awareness of this issue beyond Peru, because education is truly a universal right that is due to these children.

From the perspective of someone currently working in Peru with an education-focused NGO, I do not think this reaction by the teachers is understandable.

In the past 15 years, teacher strikes have caused students to miss 167 days. Since the entirety of public school is 10 grade levels, this amounts to almost two-thirds of a school year missed over those 10 years.

This strike isn’t the first time the teachers have responded in a negative way to attempts to elevate the quality of teachers. For example, after it was announced last year that they would be required to take an exam, the teachers union got a hold of a copy and posted it on their website. Once a new one was created, they demanded teachers boycott the test. Four out of five teachers still took it, but half of these teachers failed the elementary-level math questions and a third failed reading comprehension.

It’s no wonder the students in Peru do so badly in comparison to other nations. In the 2000 PISA test of 15-year old students from 43 countries, Peru children had the worst average score in all three tests of reading, math, and science literacy. To put this into perspective, in mathematic literacy the United States ranked 20th out of the 43 countries. Peru’s average score was lower than the scores of 95% of the children in the US, with similar results on the other three exams. Throughout my education classes in college, I constantly lamented about the state of education in the US, especially for those students who were perpetually stuck in the lowest-performing schools. Imagine an entire country where the norm is those schools.

During this most recent strike, some of the teachers have been involved in violent protests— blocking roads and airports, fighting with police, and even killing a child who got caught in the middle of a rock-throwing fight between teachers and police. Now that the law has successfully been passed that forces teachers to pass an exam, they have changed their position in order to continue the strike. They are now demanding more government spending for education before going back to work.

It’s understandable that these teachers are worried about losing their jobs, judging by the results of the last exam. However, why not demand more teacher training or support for these exams instead of refusing to be held to any standards? It is also understandable that these teachers want more money from the government for education, and I completely agree. But it’s hard to justify that by striking they are really helping the children when these kids are kept out of the schools and not able to learn.

Anticipating a long strike, the teachers gave the children stacks of worksheets as “homework” to do during the strikes, and sent them home to somehow learn this material on their own. With parents who often did not attend school, a lack of educational resources, and a weak foundation of basic skills and education, how do they expect these children to understand new material on their own?

The children enrolled in our program have been coming to SKIP every day, some in both the morning and afternoon. When some of the older children beg me to teach them more English, or another asks for help with learning fractions (starting from what a fraction even is and going all the way through to adding, subtracting, etc), how can I say no?

Peru has solved one of the first major problems in education, in having 90% of the school-aged children enrolled in school and getting these children excited to learn. I see it every day, when our kids line up at the SKIP offices before we even get there or fight over what new vocabulary they want to learn in English. The government and the teachers both need to do their parts to make sure it is worth it for these children, and that they are getting the education they desire and deserve.

Now, the trouble is getting that message through to both groups…

Sixth grade girls Maria and Vanessa practicing their new vocabulary (and correcting each other)

Advocacy and SKIP

Hola! My name is Sara, and I'm one of the new SKIP volunteers along with Jessica. We have come to SKIP through The Advocacy Project, a US-based non-profit, and our goal is to create a new advocacy campaign for SKIP. We will be posting blogs over the next few months as we describe our experiences, but we have a few to catch up with first!
Enjoy! -Jessica and Sara

SARA:

07/04/07

Huelga indefinida

Posted by sara in the blog "2007 Fellow: Sara Zampierin" @ 02:32:13 pm

I wouldn't normally update my blog so soon, but I find myself with unexpected free time since school was canceled for today, tomorrow, and indefinitely beyond that...

The teachers union has declared a "Huelga Indefinida", an indefinite strike to protest a law that would require all teachers to pass examinations. The current teachers who failed the basic skills test three times would also be fired. One of the union leaders was quoted as saying, "It's like telling a student that doesn't pass exams, just go home." Right, the only difference is that children depend on these teachers to teach the material on these exams, not just learn it... which would give a better explanation for students currently failing tests as well.

The subdirector at the colegio (vice principal by American school structure) told us the news this morning, and said it could be a few months or more if they could not come to an agreement with the legislature. When we remarked, "The poor students", his concern was seemed minimal, and he said maybe they would make the days up in January, during their summer break.

At the same time, in reading news articles and blogs on the topic, it seems that the teachers are trying to stop passage of this law at least partially because they want to include a larger budget for education and teacher training for every teacher. Both of these things are necessities for Peru to improve their education, and they are correct in that the government isn't doing this on their own. It seems that both sides are fighting each other, but which side really is fighting with the best interests of the children and their education in mind?

In light of the strike, we will be meeting with SKIP staff and volunteers to discuss how SKIP will react, including possible extra classes or different activities for the children. Also, we need to discuss how we will use this strike, the newest attack on education for the children of Peru, to go forward with the advocacy project.

Meanwhile, I thought I'd post a report done on SKIP by news here. Even if you don't understand Spanish, you can see some of the SKIP children, families, and volunteers in action!

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07/03/07

Holidays and money... and what I can make of the Peruvian system of education

Posted by sara in the blog "2007 Fellow: Sara Zampierin" @ 03:42:32 pm

The two most important new words I’ve learned in Spanish here: feriado and huelga, implying national holiday and strike, respectively. Last week, the public schools were closed 3 out of 5 days for a combination of a strike and two days feriados, a Saint holiday and extra day mandated by the president to encourage tourism.

I was able to start visiting the schools and interact with the children through teaching a few of their English classes. Besides the strikes and holidays, I’m quickly learning more about the Peruvian public education, and I can’t help but contrast it with my own experiences. For example, when a teacher doesn’t show in Peru, the whole class goes home. Of the six classes I’ve tried to teach in the past two weeks, this has happened to two of them (on top of all the days those children already weren’t going to school).

Jessica and I are starting to look more into the issues of advocating for a free, quality education for all children in Peru. It turns out that the government basically only provides enough money to pay teacher salaries. On top of paying for their school supplies and uniforms, each child must pay money to the APAFA, the parent association, which in turn is supposed to supply the money for improvements and maintenance of the school. When I watch the kids at recess kicking around pieces of trash to play soccer or using a big hole in the ground as a mini- jungle gym, I wonder what all the money is going. The APAFAs are not required to report their spending, and are seen as a large part of the corruption of the education system of Peru.

When a country only spends 3.3% of its GDP on education (Economist, link in the blog post from 5/22/07), and household contributions to education are 50% of the government’s expense per student (Saavedra, 2001), it’s no surprise that they come in towards the bottom in international testing. Add that to the problem of teachers striking or failing tests of basic primary skills, and it’s a miracle that students still even show up at all.

Meanwhile, the government wants to spend more money from it’s already inadequate budget—approximately $43,750,000 on the One Laptop Per Child Program (link is to a blog translated to English, since most of the news on this subject is in Spanish). The blog expresses some of the same concerns I have— are the parents going to continue to pay so much for the supposedly “free” education? With a teacher force that has already been so widely criticized for their lack of basic knowledge, how do they expect the students will be better equipped to learn with these laptops?

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06/28/07

Reaching out to the community, here and abroad

One thing that doesn’t change from country to country — free food always attracts a crowd.

We went to a fair in Huanchaco, a beach town very close to Trujillo last week. Tables were set up for a competition and judging of seafood dishes. One of SKIP’s volunteers heard about it and thought it would be a great place to tell local people more about SKIP, so the organizer gave us special permission to set up our own table. We commissioned the mothers to make us special snacks, in order to give them the extra income rather than buying it from the stores.

As soon as we set up our table we had people coming up to us, curious about either the food or what SKIP was. We only asked for donations if people wanted to try the food, and people contributed much more than they would pay for these snacks on the street or in stores.

We had more than 5 people express serious interest in volunteering with us, and we actually made more money than we spent on the goodies. Also, it seemed that since they were donating money, everyone took more interest in really caring about what SKIP does for the kids in El Porvenir, and I think the biggest accomplishment of the day was getting our name, mission, and brochures out to so many people.

Recently, SKIP wrote a “Volunteer Mission,” describing why SKIP uses a volunteer based model. Of course, a large part of the need for volunteers is that as a small NGO, it is not practical to have a largely paid staff. But the SKIP volunteer model provides an opportunity for the kids to interact with people from all over the world, with different cultures, ideas, and perspectives on life.

The volunteers also all work together, since the job descriptions are not rigid and they are free to take on other projects that interest them or match with their previous experience. Most importantly, there is constantly a fresh perspective and creative ideas, brought by people who clearly have a large passion for this sort of work with children, families, and the community. The volunteers have the freedom to suggest new ideas like the Huanchaco Fair, new community newsletters, or new ideas for advocacy—just to name a few of the current projects.

It is exciting to be a part of a small NGO that is trying to expand its outreach and support efforts. As soon as Jessica, the other AP Fellow with SKIP, got to Trujillo, the three of us more clearly defined our advocacy project for SKIP as both helping SKIP improve it's efforts in Trujillo and in pressuring for a higher quality education for the children in Peru.

Hopefully, this advocacy project will put SKIP in contact with many other organizations with similar goals and create a new, more global project for interns. Jessica and I will start with finding organizations at a local, national, and international level that share SKIP's goal of quality education and helping underprivileged children, so if anyone has any organizations or ideas in mind, please feel free to post them!

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06/23/07

Finally in Peru!

Posted by sara in the blog "2007 Fellow: Sara Zampierin" @ 04:05:19 pm

After a long month of waiting to depart and a long air travel complete with lost tickets and unexpected stops, I finally arrived in Trujillo on Thursday. And moments after arriving in my new home, I sat down with Larry, the director of SKIP, and had a candid discussion about advocacy and what it means to advocate for SKIP and the children they support.

It’s not an easy topic for many reasons. There’s not even an equivalent translation in Spanish, and I’ve gotten used to explaining advocacy in Spanish with many words, at least as how we’ve defined it. Our vision for this advocacy project with SKIP involves treating quality education as a right for all of these children. Even though public education is provided, it’s often not free, as the children have to buy uniforms or specific supplies for the classroom in order to attend. Also, the education is not of a high quality, as the teachers often are not competent in their subject matter and are only in the profession for the steady salary.

SKIP has been an advocate for the education of Trujillo over the past few years and increasingly provided more support to them and their families. Now other groups in the area are expressing interest as well, including other educational organizations, religious groups, health groups, and the mayor’s office. In planning our advocacy project, we hope to organize this new group to help put pressure on and change the current education system.

In addition, SKIP will be evaluating whether it is better to open their own school as competition and an alternative for the public schools, or whether they should continue to work with these schools to change. It seems that all the volunteers and staff are excited about the advocacy project, and they are constantly full of new ideas to help these students obtain a better education.

On my way to the SKIP educational complex on my first day (offices, classrooms, and a recreational area), I was told more about El Porvenir, the area in where it is located and where the kids live. One of the volunteers said that earlier that morning, two taxis refused to take her to the area because the roads aren’t paved and not many people are waiting for taxis to return to the main city. And another volunteer said that earlier, she saw a stray dog with a human femur in its mouth from the graveyard. I began to feel a little nervous— not because I was worried for my safety, but just how hard it would be to understand these children’s lives and if they would care at all about an education. There was no need to worry, however— from the moment I arrived, I was greeted by smiling faces, kisses on the cheek, and questions about my name, age, family, favorite food, etc. When they realized I was from the US, they immediately started practicing their English with me and asking me how to say certain words.

One of the girls showed me her notebook, where she would ask different questions to members of her class, like “How many siblings do you have?” or “Have you ever kissed anyone?” One of them said, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Everyone named a profession—doctor, lawyer, professor, and working in business, to name a few. Even though I came here because of my belief in the right of education for all, it became clear to me just how important it is that the education system works for these students to help them attain their goals. And even their dreams change, their education will help them to continue to be content, curious, and knowledgeable of their options and the world around them.

JESSICA:

07/02/07

First impressions

Posted by jessica in the blog "2007 Fellow: Jessica Boccardo" @ 10:15:22 pm

Trujillo introduced me with the Peru of contradictions, the Sierra and the Coast, those 500 years of new history on top of what was thought to be old but is now, it always was, everywhere and present.

The Central Market dispaying lucuma, an ancient fruit unique to Peruvian soil, names like Rupa-Rupa reminding everyone quechua is still a living language and stories about playful gnomos who tie horses' hair into knots that nobody can untide but go away on their own after some years, are just some of the myriad of reminders of the strong grasp of their past.

It is especially here in El Porvenir, the neighbourhood where SKIP works, that I stop myself to think more and more about these and other contradictions, on how it can be that parents have to pay for public schools, that we have been trying to go teach English for the last week to a school but most of the times we have just encountered an empty classroom( "the teacher did not come today") or a closed School's entrance door ( "Huelga de Hambre" and other manifestations).

I believe that most unjustices are inherited from the past. No memory for indigenous people, no second thought for the poor. But it is in today that things show all of their absurdity. "A laptop for every child", that is what the Peruvian government is thinking of introducing as a national public policy this year. But where is the money that should be going to these public schools and that would allow the rest of the kids in El Porvenir that SKIP cannot help (around 2000) to go to school?

I just wonder. And think more and more about these and other contradictions.

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Posted by jessica in the blog "2007 Fellow: Jessica Boccardo" @ 02:38:42 pm

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06/26/07

Posted by jessica in the blog "2007 Fellow: Jessica Boccardo" @ 08:12:40 pm

When I arrive to Trujillo this morning, I did not know exactly what to expect.

I knew about SKIP, about this NGO that made a commitment to get a good education to a large (always larger) number of low-income kids in Peru. As an Advocacy Project Fellow I was given a certain idea of what I needed to achieve during my stay here. I had, however, to be here, in El Porvenir, the neighborhood where SKIP's office is located (some classrooms and a small playground) to understand why it is that SKIP needs us and all that we can do to help.

They say that Peru's Constitution guarantees free education for everyone but they also say that nobody really knows who is in charge of paying what. In the end, the public schools must do all there is in their power to get enough income. This leads them to charge a fee aside from another payment "almost compulsory" that parents must make to the Parents Association responsible for the school mainteinance. The sum of all this plus other small costs such as uniforms or school materials, create insurmountable obstacles for parents at the moment of deciding whether to send their kids to school or not.

Up to now, SKIP has gotten around 200 kids into public schools, providing the money to cover all of this costs. This is just a first step though. There are all other reasons behind the fact that a kid does not go to school : parents that don't know what is best for them, or don't find it convenient or unfeasible and teachers who don't know what is best or don't find it convenient or cannot do it....

SKIP had to face the problems of this kids' reality: many kids missed schhols or SKIP's tutorials because they were sick so SKIP started a health program that includes sporadic health exams and treatments. Moreover, another group of SKIP's volunteers has begun an alfabetization program for adults. Several meetings between parents and teachers have been organized as well since one of the main problems that this program encounters is teacher's reticence to change

And there are so many ideas, many more. SKIP is thinking of organizing teacher's trainings, expanding the help to more kids in the El Porvenir neighborhood...but resources are lacking. All of this is sustained just by the strength and good-will of volunteers of different parts of the world: Spain, England, USA and others from Peru.

Let's see what comes out of this experience...

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06/25/07

Primer dia en Trujillo

Posted by jessica in the blog "2007 Fellow: Jessica Boccardo" @ 20:26:37

Cuando llegue a Trujillo hoy a la manana, no sabia bien que esperar.

Sabia de SKIP, de esta ONG que se propuso tratar que mas y mas chicos sin recursos reciban una buena educacion. Como una Fellow de Advocacy Project me habian dado una cierta idea de lo que esperaban de mi en este tiempo. Sin embargo, necesite estar aca, en El Porvenir, el barrio donde esta ubicada la oficina de SKIP( unas aulas y un jardin con hamacas y otros juegos) para entender porque SKIP nos necesita y que podemos hacer para ayudarlos.

Dicen que la Constitucion aca en Peru garantiza la educacion gratis para todos pero tambien dicen que nadie sabe a quien le toca pagar. Al final los colegios publicos deben rebuscarselas para tener un cierto ingreso. Esto implica que deben cobrar una cierta cuota a los padres, ademas de otro pago "casi obligatorio" a una Asociacion de Padres que es la que se encarga del mantenimiento de las escuelas. La suma de esto, mas pequenos costos como los uniformes o los utiles, crean obstaculos impresionantes para los padres que deben decidir si mandar a los chicos al colegio o no. SKIP, hasta el momento, se ocupa de mandar cerca de 200 chicos a escuelas publicas, consiguiendo el dinero para pagar todos estos costos.

Pero este es solo un primer paso porque estan todas las demas razones por las que un nino no va al colegio:los padres no saben, no les conviene, no pueden y los profesores no saben, no les conviene, no pueden... SKIP se encontro con que muchos chicos faltaban porque estaban enfermos entonces comenzo un programa de salud, que incluye un chequeo de salud esporadico. Ademas otro grupo de voluntarios de SKIP organizo un programa de Alfabetizacion de adultos y ya se hicieron un par de reuniones entre padres y maestros porque uno de los mayores problemas que encuentra este programa es la reticencia de los maestros.
Y hay tantas ideas, mas, muchas mas. Se esta pensando en organizar entrenamientos de maestros, expandir la ayuda a mas chicos del Barrio de El Porvenir... Pero faltan los recursos. Todo esto esta sostenido solo por las fuerzas y ganas de voluntarios de distintas partes: Espana, Inglaterra, Estados Unidos y muchos de Peru.

Veamos que sale de esto.