Stay in School

Primary school is kindergarten to 6^th grade. High school is split up into two sections: years 1-3 and years 4-6. In years 4-6 the students are required to pick a specialty. I have met students who are focusing in everything from mechanics to accounting. All the schools in Panama are painted blue and white so you can easily find them. In many schools there are not enough students nor teachers to allow for a full classroom with one grade. Therefore multi-grade classrooms are popular. For example a teacher will have 1^st and 5^th graders in their class and will lecture to one grade while the other grade is doing an activity. The other week in training I taught in a class that had 3 grades!

Critical thinking is not a popular teaching technique. Teachers emphasize on repetition and having the students copy material from the board. MEDUCA, Panama’s department of education, recently enforced that teachers no longer teach this way. However this change is leaving teachers frustrated because MEDUCA is not providing guidance with interactive teaching methods and teachers are not trained to teach any other way! On a brighter note, teachers have been very welcoming to Peace Corps volunteers in the recent months because volunteers have helped teachers in using different styles and also incorporating environmental education in the curriculum. MEDUCA provides school supplies to poorer families. Children receives books, backpacks, uniforms, and notebooks. MEDUCA also supplies the cafeteria with food and will also work with the department of health in providing vitamins and medicine.

In regards to teachers, they have a challenging ladder to climb. After a new teacher graduates they need to earn points to earn a “say” in where they would like a permanent job. A new teacher earns points by teaching in a community for a year, usually far from home and chosen by MEDUCA. The following years they will work in different communities until they have enough points to apply for a place closer to home or where they want to live. Sometimes teachers will travel 3 hours a day before and after class, and in many cases I have seen teachers living in their teaching communities for the week but then will visit home/family on the weekends. Since many teachers do not live in the communities where they teach, they do not know their students on a personal level, will leave as early as possible on Friday and come as late as possible on Monday, or go home immediately after school. In what I have seen and heard from other volunteers, teachers are not the most prepared and this scenario also limits the possibilities for tutoring or after school activities. To make matters worse, if a teacher is sick or has meeting they simply won’t show up and there are no substitutes. In this case students will go home for the day, and some students have traveled an hour to get to school. This system is also hard on the community because students and parents are adapting to new teachers all the time, this is especially true in indigenous communities that are isolated and many educated teachers do not want to permanently work.

In experiencing a school system different from the United States, I am grateful to have received the education I did but will now pause to criticize it. I always had things to complain about when I was in school but now I have been exposed and realize the importance of education in a developing nation.