When we arrive at a village school to
deliver donated items there is usually a simple ceremonial welcome. Today is
the first time we were met by a marching band. The kids played well for primary
school kids. 
We delivered two storage shelves, a gas
stove and tank asked for during our first
visit by the director Patricia Gil and the other teacher Presentacion
Bernilla. At that time they also asked for sport uniforms for the 24 students
but we declined that request based on the kids having formal school uniforms.
After taking a closer look at the uniforms today we think maybe we were wrong.
Probably 90% of those uniforms were second hand; are faded and threadbare and
won’t last much longer. Oh well.
We took the opportunity to ask Patricia and
Presentacion what they knew about the QaliWarma stove program. Both are aware
of the program and had gone to Tucumè authorities several months ago to ask for
a stove but were told they would not get one. They were not told why. To their
knowledge (and ours) no schools in the Tucumè District have gotten stoves. They
were surprised to learn that the kinder in Las Canteras in the Patapo District had
one.
Our thanks to Chris R., the Alice Cool Foundation, Clif Brown and others for aiding the people of Las Salinas.
could you explain what a pronoei is? It appears to be a pre-school.
ReplyDeleteHi Clif...thanks for the question.
DeletePronoei is an acronym for Programa no escolarizado de Educación Inicial which translates to Unschooled program Initial Education. The ‘unschooled’ part basically means it is not a national school.
A pronoei is a classroom in a district-built or private building. Its purpose is to provide schooling to 3 – 5 year olds where no kinder is within a reasonable walking distance. Graduates go on to primary school the same as those who attended a kinder. Unlike kinder teachers Pronoei teachers are not required to have a university degree and thus are paid much less than their kinder counterparts. Other than the teachers pay, pronoeis are not supported by government. In theory the village is responsible for equipping the classroom.
Ok. I saw a picture of one where the kids were holding up the letters of the word but I couldn't make out what each stood for.
ReplyDeleteIn your travels, do you concentrate on the pronoei's or take them under review along with the other schools?
We don’t focus on any one type of school. What happens is that we receive a phone call or email from a school director saying that their school needs help and asking us to visit. The majority of requests are from national primary schools, grades 1 through 6. The second group is national kinder schools ages 3 to 5. Third is the pronoeis. We have never received a request to visit from a secondary school (grades 7 through 12).
DeleteMost of our activities involve pronoeis simply because they aren’t government sponsored and are usually poorly equipped. Also, we like working with the 3 to 5 age group because we believe that with a proper learning environment, good study habits and attending school regularly becomes a habit.
As an aside, we can usually predict where and what type of schools will be contacting us. These school directors talk to each other, and if we help a pronoei, kinder or primary in a village, we know that we’ll be contacted by similar type schools from that area.