A Closer Look at Nicaraguan Eduaction


The educational system here is nothing like the States. Go figure, right? I find it quite sad, and sometimes frustrating. 

All of the kids in our project, except a handful attend one of the public schools in the area. Two out of this handful are privileged to attend private school, and for very few, our project is their only source of education.  

I have come to believe there is no average level of education depending on grade. For example, back home you are enrolled in Pre-K at age five or six, and typically eleven or twelve when entering sixth grade. Yes, I know we have struggling students, and this does not apply to all. But, from what I can tell, it is correct for a majority. 

Well, that is not the case here. Your education is quite dependent upon your parents. It depends when they decided to make you start school, and that's if they do. It's up to them if they decided it's more important for you to be working, either in the house or on the street, or to attend school. And once you're enrolled, it's up to them to get you there. Will they wake you up in the morning and walk you (a five year old) to school, or did they waste their night on alcohol, and didn't wake up themselves? Will they have too many things to get done in the house and don't want to take time to get you ready, and allow you to play in the street all day? All of these are very common things, especially in our neighborhood, that one child's education rides on.

Thus, there is a great difference in what each child is capable of, and what they know. For instance, in our project alone, we have seven year olds that do not know how to write or recognize letters of the alphabet. We help a twelve year old with simple one and two figure addition, who is at the second grade level. We have another twelve year old which last week I taught him how to do long division, because he is only in the third grade. Not to mention that a large majority of our younger kids do not know how to read yet, and several of our older kids struggle tremendously! Yet, on the other side of the scale, one of our six year olds can write in cursive, we have a ten year old about to complete fifth grade, and one of our students who is eleven can work long division problems quicker than I can! Basically, our students are all over the place.

So, what does a day at Project Allegro look like? For most of our kids, they attend school from 7am-12pm. After class, some will stop by their house to change out of their uniforms, while others walk straight to our project. Children start arriving around 12:15, and are served lunch. This varies everyday, but always includes rice, and is accompanied by either beans, soup, or spaghetti (noodles with ketchup and cream).

After lunch, our kids in the first class stay, while the others leave. As I said, ages vary, but I believe our youngest in this class is four and oldest twelve. Class is always opened with prayer and a few songs. The reinforcement taught is different for each student and varies from day to day. One day the focus may be math (simple addition, subtraction, and multiplication,) while the next may be learning letters and words. The Nican way of learning is copying from a white board into a notebook. Students do not have textbooks or additional helpful resources. After all work is completed students are released around 2:30. 

The second group typically arrives around 3, and when a majority are present, class starts with prayer. In this class we have kids from ages seven to fourteen. This class is quite different from the first. Most of these kids have homework from public school. The project is a place for them to receive help with homework from other students and the teacher. The kids who do not have homework learn new things they may not have the opportunity to in school, or are given work to improve skills such as reading or math. Once class is closed with prayer, students stick around and help clean up. 

So what is Proyecto Allegro doing in hopes of greatly benefiting its students? In the education realm of things, beyond teaching and helping with homework, we try to teach them the importance of being a good student. This may be correcting "ugly" behavior with others, teaching the significance of attending class and completing homework, or even being a personal cheerleader when a child does something good. I really enjoy this part! I love seeing the smiles when providing simple encouragement such as a high five or "good job!" We also teach our kids about Jesus through the Bible. Usually twice a week kids are taught a new Bible story or passage of scripture. 

Our education methods are by no means perfected. We are currently trying to improve them to make class more fun. I have started a jewelry class twice a week with about five girls from the second class, Tom teaches science experiments one day, and we have even started arts and crafts every Friday. We are also learning and researching new ways for the professor to teach so it's not just copy work. We plan to buy new materials and workbooks, both for Christian education and regular.

Changes are definitely on the horizon. But for right now, we just enjoy building relationships with the kids, providing a safe place for them, and hopefully teach them a little something too along the way.  

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