Tuesday, March 9, 2010
3:41 AM | 
Posted by
FUSION
Hm… Want to know what caused the problem of education in Central America? Well, I think you would think that it is a matter of poor life conditions. In reality, it is true. Because of the huge gap between rich and poor, unemployment or underemployment of young people, easy access to fire weapons, and lack of ethical and critical thinking people in Central America make crimes very easily. Guatemala, the country where I was grown up, is a country of that had over 50 years of civil war history. Because of that long period of civil war, many people and especially the government have spent the country’s budget in weapons and power. Also they obligated children who were suffering from hunger and lack of education to fight with fire weapons. Beginning from this huge period of civil war, the overall quality of education in Central America began to decrease rapidly. Hence, nowadays many adults who were children in the period of civil war are gangs, beggers, thiefs, or kidnappers because the only thing they could learn was fighting with real life threatening weapons rather than reading or writing. Education was fundamental for all these people, but most of them had no single opportunity to attend a class or school.
Although the overall quality and program of education in Central America have been improving since then, it is not sufficient yet. Compared to the developed countries the access of educational programs and quality in Central America fall much more behind, so these improvements must be even more intensified. The main programs that faculty and professors must focus on, is those that is designed to prevent high dropout rates. Since many are living in a low salary environment, the probability that a student must work to earn some living expenses leaving the school behind is very high. Most of the Hispanic families in Central America are very unsecure in their own welfare. Research shows that enrollment to the public or private schools in Central America decreases as age group goes up. This means that people from 16 years old have very low chance to get a proper education than younger people. This research result is clearly showing the affects of the civil war. We can see that it is getting better and better in terms of educational system in Guatemala as younger people are receiving proper education frequently. However, this fact is only for urban areas, especially major cities. Still, many of the poorest areas do not even have school. Every child that is born in these areas starts to work at age 5 to 7.
Let me give you a real life example of children working in so earlier ages. In Atitlan, the most beautiful and biggest lake in Central America, there is a little village just in below the volcano of water. When I went there for customer service I saw children of age 6 who were traveling with the tourists. These children were the guides. They were holding the rope that was in the neck of the horses and on those horses, the tourists were sitting. These children walk all they way to the top of the volcano holding the rope still. It was just amazing and sad for me. I also have walked all the way up to the volcano, but it takes 6 hours to go up and down. Can you imagine? They are only 6 or 7 years old, and they carry the horses with them to the top of the volcano and come down again. Nevertheless, the most shocking thing was that after their guide is finished, they only receive 3 dollars from the tourists, and still they say “Gracias, Gracias, muchas Gracias.” I almost cried. But I had to admit that this was real life for them.
The main difference between these young individuals and I was the quality of education. I thought that the education is the main thing that makes an individual successful and wealthy. However, I realized that when I was 6 or 7 years old, I could not even think of doing such work. They were 10 years more advanced than me. Their harsh life made them powerful and willing to live with full potential. I was able to imagine that if I were just thrown into the street with nothing in that age, I would probably sit and cry until I faint of hunger, but if they were thrown into the street, they would immediately find a way to survive and earn money.
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About Me
- FUSION
- I am a Korean, but grown up in Guatemala; therefore, I have seen important and sometimes harsh educational issues on various ethnical groups. I think it is very important for everyone to learn and think more about how different learning methods and problems affects society and economy as a whole.
EDU
