Education in Peru

Today, I read an article in Peru's El Comercio newspaper that named the Top 10 Challenges to Sustainable in Development, as identified by a government-sponsored conference.  The list made some good points, mostly focused on business and trade.  But to me, there was a HUGE piece missing from the picture- education.

I've always known how important education is, but my life in Peru is teaching me this lesson in a whole new way.  The challenges of education here are so sad that it makes me want to work in the area of Peru's education policy after Peace Corps.  I'll attempt to paint a picture of the education system and opportunities here in Peru, from what I know or have observed.  As a disclaimer, I am not an expert in the educational system here so I hope I don't misrepresent any facts, and I don't intend to make any blanket statements about all schools in Peru- there are definitely schools that meet and surpass expectations, but unfortunately there are many schools that do not.

Grade school is divided into primaria (6 grades) and secundaria (5 grades).  In my town like many others, a student can either attended in the morning (8am-1pm) or the afternoon (1:30-6:30pm) so they are supposedly in school for 5 hours a day.  By the time a student finishes secundaria, they might be anywhere between 15 and 18 years old.  Just like in the States, families can choose from schools that are nacional (public) or particular (private).  In many of the public schools, especially in rural areas, the demonstrated learning is tragically low.  Part of the problem is that teachers aren't paid enough, but I also don't think there are enough checks on teacher performance.  It's not uncommon for a teacher to simply not show up to class, and forget it when the school anniversary is going on- a public school in my town just had its 50th anniversary, and the way this educational institution celebrated was by replacing classes with cleaning competitions, soccer and volleyball tournaments, and simply canceling classes.  It seems like every time I go into a school, the students are on some sort of "break."  When teachers do teach, it is very based on rote memorization- the teacher writes something on the board, the students write it down, memorize it, and spit it back up on a test.  From what I have seen (and heard), there are hardly ever opportunities for critical thinking.  When I try to have students figure something out for themselves (what should you type into Google to find what you are looking for?) the teachers jump in and give them the answers.  Students are accustomed to copy-pasting entire research projects from the internet or books- and this habit continues all the way through university.  While I was visiting one of the best universities in Chiclayo, my professor friend explained that the flyer I was just handed was offering the services of a thesis "tutor," someone who will write your entire thesis for you.

Peruvian students aren't lazy, they just aren't taught how to learn or think creatively.  So they lean on the crutches of the internet and memorization to scrape by.  One thing I have been really impressed by is Peruvian students' public speaking ability- most presentations are purely memorized, but I've had a few opportunities to see students speak off-the-cuff in the Municipality, and they were incredibly articulate.  

The Peruvian youth seems to really want to be educated- a large proportion of the kids in Monsefú have parents who didn't graduate from secundaria (and sometimes primaria), and check out the results of this survey question I asked as part of my community diagnostic:

The survey was applied to 124 secondary students in my town, 81 of which attend public school and most of which were in their "senior" year.  The question asks "What level of education do you think you are going to complete?"

Almost all of the surveyed students said that they think they are going to an institute (like a 2-year technical college), university, or master's program.  And the free-response section regarding the motivations for their choice really pulls at your heart strings... all of these answers are from public school students:

(University): "Because I have the ability to make something of my life." (Female, 17 yrs.)

(Institute): "Because I want to study so that my parents feel proud of me and also because with a career I would be able to survive" (Male, 18 yrs.)

(Master's): "To be someone useful to society" (Male, 16 yrs.)

(University): "It's the thing I want most in life, and anything can be achieved with effort" (Female, 17 yrs.)

The other big theme in the answers was "because my parents can afford it."  And many of the kids who chose "institute" as their anticipated level of education said they would want to go to college if their parents could afford it (which they can't).  I hope that all of these kids reach their dreams of college and master's degrees, but sadly many of them will not.  In order to apply to universities in Peru, students have to take a standardized test, which almost all high schools leave them unprepared for.  So in order to study for the test, students have to pay to study in an academia for about 1-3 years.  This test is pretty much the only standard for acceptance into universities- the students with the highest scores get admitted.  Families with money again have the choice of nacional or particular, but the situation with the universities is different than the high schools- the public universities have a better reputation for preparing students for careers; although there are definitely some good private universities, there are also a lot of private universities that are just concerned with profit and not with education.  However, getting into a public university is close to impossible- for many programs of study, there are only 10-30 openings for thousands of applicants.  So between the difficulty of the entrance exam and the sparse openings, students trying to go to university might be delayed years and years before getting in to an acceptable program.  With this situation, it's easy to see why so many private universities are popping up, but there are still very few higher education opportunities for those who can't afford the private schools.  Oh, and then one more thing- if you do get into a national university, it might take you twice as long to graduate compared to a private university, because the poorly paid professors are so often on strike that full semesters of classes are lost.

So, that's what its like to be a young person who wants to pursue higher education in Peru.   Slowly, literacy rates and education are improving, but it needs to happen much faster.  I think the state needs to invest HEAVILY in education at all levels: measuring schools and teachers better, fixing either the standardized test or the high school curriculums to reduce the need for academias, providing better training for professors and incentives for high-performance, investing in the infrastructure and resources of the schools, and giving public universities the resources to accept more students.  

I can't believe that education wasn't considered one of the keys to sustainable growth by the government conference group.  The need for drastic measures is plainly apparent here in Monsefu, and I hope it is in Lima too.  Only by investing in education will Peru make successful business owners, policy-makers, scientists, and others that empower "sustainable development."