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Guatemala Child Sponsorship Program - EDUCATION
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The education system of Guatemala is fighting with
a lot of problems that are stretching to the whole range of educational
courses available. Nursery schools that are used as preparation
for the elementary school, elementary schools, schools for professional
training as well as universities suffer -as long as they are in
the hands of the state- from severe lack of money, less qualified
teachers and inadequate and bad equipped training rooms. Private
schools that are providing the same educational offers like state
schools do not know these problems, but only the better-off middle
and upper class that are only accounting for a very small part of
the population are privileged to enter these schools.
The lack of money is the biggest problem
Schools that are lead by cooperative and not-for-profit
organisations, especially institutions for professional training,
as well suffer from extreme lack of money and demand a high potential
of idealism from their teachers, considering the fact that often
only a low or no salary is paid.
Mainly the indigenous population is affected by
the chronic under financing of the education system due to the fact
that often they cannot afford any visits to qualified private schools
and the necessary reformation of the system that would consider
the language and distinctive culture of the indigenous cannot be
financed at the moment.
Discrimination of the indigenous by the
current education system
Of course, the lack of money is not the only problem
that is provoking the terrible situation in the education sector.
Apart from the missing intention of the government to reform and
the bad training of teachers, the continuing discrimination of the
indigenous population is another factor for the situation mentioned
above. A lot of the indigenous parents do not see any reason in
the educational training of their children, because the curriculum
does not include lessons in the Mayan language or in their culture
and history. Therefore, they often do not take them to school, especially
during the period of harvest. High rates of drop-outs, non-moving-ups
and low figures in elementary qualifications are the result of this
fact.
At the moment, preventive measures like scholarships,
school dinner and shortening school grants are not financed.
Besides the improvement of the educational infrastructure,
an adaptation of the content of the curriculum to the needs of the
population in Guatemala as well as the improvement of the professional
training of teachers urgently is necessary to achieve a long-term
change in the education sector of Guatemala. At the moment, it is
possible to become a teacher right after passing the final exams
of 2nd secondary education.
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