You Mean You Have to Attend School to Learn??

One of my biggest, constant frustrations of living here and working with kids is the public school education system (or lack there of.)  It is a rare occasion that all of our school-aged kids go to school all five days in a week.  There are no substitutes in this country; in fact, the regular teachers do not even always receive their pay.  Therefore, if a teacher cannot make it, then the students do not have class.

We see overcrowding so bad it makes elementary schools who complain about the overcrowding problems in the States look as if they have empty class rooms.  At our kids school there are between 40-50 in each grade, and only one class per grade.  The children are not allowed to think for themselves.  They spend pretty much all of their time from kindergarten to sixth grade doing meaningless copy work.  For example, I went to see how much homework Maryuri had, and it was 8 pages of copying one word on each page.  They do not learn to come up with their own sentences.  Most 5th and 6th graders cannot even write a simple paragraph with 3 or 4 basic sentences.  In history and in science, the tests are only questions from a guide that a teacher gives them, and the tests are usually in the exact order and format of that from the guide.

One day, I gave a ride to town to the 4th grade teacher.  She is thought to be one of the best teachers at the school.  I was talking to her about a book that I was required to read in Costa Rica.  It was about 120 pages and on a 3rd or 4th grade reading level.  I was asking if she had ever read it.  Her response was astonishing: "A 100 page book, and you think that is 4th grade level.  I don't even know if I would be able to read that."  This same teacher incorrectly taught the kids Roman Numerals and marked incorrect several of their multiplication problems that were in fact correct.

I started writing this because I found out that once again the school for tomorrow is canceled.  My frustration is huge.  Education is one key step to breaking the cycle of poverty.  Our kids miss school almost as frequently as they attend, and when they are there, they are hardly learning anything.  I wish the teachers, school boards, and government of our country realized that one of the key ways to break the continuous cycle of poverty is through education the next generation, and doing it well.  Please pray for a large change in the education of this country so that children CAN learn and CAN one day obtain good jobs.  It is an injustice for the education of an entire country to be so BAD.