EDUCATION IN THE ANDES

In the past two decades ex presidents Alberto Fujimori and Alan Garcia have created more public schools through the country. Asphalt roads have also been implemented replacing the old dirt roads making it easier for the children to go and attend classes at school. And in some schools they even have cereal and milk for the children as their first meal of the day.

As the education is centralized in Lima, most of the schools of the cities of the Andes are far disadvantage when it comes to budgets that can pay and support the children through the grades. The further away you are from a city the less structured and consistent is the education. In some far remote places villages don’t even get a teacher five days a week.

During my visit to Cusco in the year 2004 I traveled to the village of Pacopata, a very remote village 8 hours away from the city of Cusco. We traveled through the highlands, up and down mountains and as we got closer to the village we couldn’t find the dirt tracks to get to it. Pacopata is a small village of 50 families with almost 250 inhabitants. We brought bread and fruit for the children and they were very happy to see us as we entered their classroom. The temperature was 40 degrees Fahrenheit, it was sad to see that several windows were broken and the village didn’t have the money to provide a safe haven for their children.

Pacopata is 3 hours away from Araypallpa, even though closer to Cusco, it is also far behind when it comes to education. The further you go into the highlands the harder it is to find a good and adventurous teacher. The villagers from Pacopata mentioned that their old teacher was fired because he missed class at least 2 days a week due to alcohol related problems.

A Pacopata 3rd grade student, if able to go to school in Cusco would probably be transferred to 1st grade due to his lack of preparation. It is common for remote villages to have unqualified teachers. Teachers are either under paid or not paid at all. It is common schools in remote villages function more as a daycare than academic institution.

In the Andes it is very common for the children to go through grades 1 to 4 and sometimes up to 6th grade. Bigger cities like Cusco will provide education up to 12th grade.

The Children of The Andes have beautiful souls; they are playful, joyful, innocent and always smiling. You can see Mother Nature shining through their eyes. These children are not polluted with excessive media and advertising. They are all essence, down to earth children cradled by mother earth instead of strong developed personalities like the children of the big cities influenced by the media.

Nature children have come to this world to shine their essence, to blossom and are in deep need of being taught the right things through an educational system, like Waldorf that allows them to nurture their self esteem as one of the basic needs for successful development.