Today was an outstanding day! We started off by visiting the Department of Education in Medellin and meeting with the Education Secretary. He explained honestly about the trouble Colombian education was experiencing. Education is the main focus of the government at present as they know that is the only way out of the poverty that many of the municipalities are in. The problem is attributed to corruption, violence and the quality of the education that students are receiving. Some things they are considering to relieve this pressure are firstly to renovate all schools including teacher quality to bring them up to private school standards. Only 32 teachers out of 18,000 have a Masters Degree. There is no incentive for them to study at this level. Secondly, to organize an academic Olympics for each grade and have the winning students appear on TV to bring publicity to education. They also win prizes like computers or scholarships. Thirdly, they get grants from the private sector and forge bonds to improve schools.
This brings us to Benedikta School where such an alliance has been made with a private Montessori School and a private University. They have been working together for five years now to train teachers and share ideas to improve this school. They also focus on nutrition, training single moms, and hygene The school ranges from preschool to high school with each grade sharing times they are in school. We all found the students very warm and friendly to us and with all of the teachers. The principal knew the students and they loved him. Everyone was excited for our visit and we certainly were! Students attending this school live locally and many have homes without electric or water. We got to visit this area with two of the students as tour guides. They have actually built an escalator up part of the hill to the homes to make them more accessible. Stage three is in progress and that is to build a road up to the escalator where a bus can link from the cable cars that take people to other districts at a cheap rate to the bus then up to their home in the hillside. I hope you enjoy the video I have supplied on our experience.
The wee ones.
One of the classrooms with about 40 students. They were learning English.
Here are some of the photos and the link to my video when we walked up to the escalator that connects the local people to their homes in the hills.
The orange is the housed escalator
One of the many locally painted murals to brighten their lives and tell a story.
I am at the top of the escalator with a view of numerous hillside houses behind me. Many are virtual slums. These homes are where the students live from the school above.
Here is the video link from the top of the hill.
I will upload this later as it is too slow on this internet.
This brings us to Benedikta School where such an alliance has been made with a private Montessori School and a private University. They have been working together for five years now to train teachers and share ideas to improve this school. They also focus on nutrition, training single moms, and hygene The school ranges from preschool to high school with each grade sharing times they are in school. We all found the students very warm and friendly to us and with all of the teachers. The principal knew the students and they loved him. Everyone was excited for our visit and we certainly were! Students attending this school live locally and many have homes without electric or water. We got to visit this area with two of the students as tour guides. They have actually built an escalator up part of the hill to the homes to make them more accessible. Stage three is in progress and that is to build a road up to the escalator where a bus can link from the cable cars that take people to other districts at a cheap rate to the bus then up to their home in the hillside. I hope you enjoy the video I have supplied on our experience.
One of the classrooms with about 40 students. They were learning English.
Here are some of the photos and the link to my video when we walked up to the escalator that connects the local people to their homes in the hills.
Here is the video link from the top of the hill.
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