End of Semester

There are two semesters in the Nicaraguan school year and semester one is coming to a close. The exams have been taken, the children have had parties and the teachers are looking forward to a short break.

From the side of La Esperanza it’s been a fully packed and successful time. The four primary school teams have continued in their tutoring of pre-school, 1st and 2nd grades, the health team have been busy with community care and organising the dental and optical programmes and the English team battled daily trying to improve standards past “wassup man”!

Perhaps the biggest success in my opinion of the past year has been the High School team. Education is free to all Nicaraguans until the end of primary school, when many then leave the system through economic necessity. Through an international sponsorship programme we send 50 or so students to high school. Sponsors cover the educational costs (approx. $180 per annum if anyone is interested) of the students and La Esperanza provides a team of volunteers who provide additional coaching sessions in the afternoons after school. It has been a struggle motivating teenage students to come a study after school hours but pleasingly after much effort the study sessions are filling up.

All of the schools where we work belong to the ministry of education and have a full Nicaraguan staff. As anywhere some teachers are good and some are past hope (but what can you expect when the monthly salary for a teacher is $100, low even for Nica levels). Whatever their status all have been working through a period of change this past semester. In October 2006 Nicaragua voted the FSLN back into power and since coming to government it has started introducing promising changes to the education system. Modernising a highly antiquated approach is going to take plenty of time but I wish them much luck as it’s well overdue and most welcome.