Julia Wilkins, MS
Robert Gamble, Ph.D.
This paper examines the disparities between public and private education in Lima, Peru. The comparison is based on the Ministry of Education’s recently incepted technology program, Project Huascarán, which is the government’s attempt to narrow the gap between public and private education. The authors visited six elementary and high schools in metropolitan Lima, which were targeted by Project Huascarán, and interviewed administrators for the project from the Peruvian Ministry of Education. It was concluded that despite the government’s attempt to narrow the gap between rich and poor through technology, there are still gaping discrepancies in basic resources between public and private education.
Introduction
The educational system in Peru is similar to most developed nations in the Western Hemisphere in that parents have the choice of sending their children to either fee paying private schools or government funded public schools. Quite noticeable however, is the difference in the quality of education between the public and private schools in Peru. Public schools have drastically fewer funds available per child than do their private counterparts. This was evident in our visits to schools in and around Lima, the country’s capital.
The government is acutely aware of this discrepancy and has initiated a technology program, Project Huascarán, through the Ministry of Education, to rectify the problem. The authors focus on two schools to highlight the vast difference between the public and private school systems in Lima: The Intercontinental School of Lima, a privately funded coeducational k-12 school in a suburb of Lima, and the Escuela Publica de Lima, a typical public boys k-12 school located in northern Lima. It is worth noting that all public schools in Lima are single-sex.
Project Huascarán
In trying to narrow the gap between rich and poor and provide all students in Peru with skills necessary for an increasingly technologically advanced society, the government launched Project Huascarán in 2001, a fusion of three existing programs. The first program, Infoscuela, was established in 1995 to introduce robotics programs that provide mechanical skills, to primary school students. In 1996, Edured was established in urban secondary schools to introduce the Internet and e-mail use to students. In 2000, Educación Adistacea installed computers in rural schools with no electricity and enabled them to access the Internet via satellite solar panels. The fusion of these three projects resulted in the ambitious new program, Project Huascarán. The aim of this project is to provide 690 schools throughout Peru with Internet access by the end of 2003. As a result of the previous programs’ progress, between 400 and 500 schools currently have Internet access. The overall goal of Project Huascarán is to reach 5,000 schools nationwide within the next 5 years. In selecting schools, no differentiation is made regarding the location of the school. Rural and urban schools, and schools from rich and poor areas are targeted equally. Schools with less than 100 students will receive 5 new computers, and schools with up to 500 students will receive 20 computers, all of which will be loaded with Windows operating systems.
The number one priority for the project managers of Project Huascarán is on teacher training. One teacher from each school is trained in educational uses of the Internet and these teachers in turn train the other teachers within their schools. The first schools to receive computers as part of Project Huascarán are those where teachers already received training through one of the previously established programs.
Project Huascarán aims to expose students to educationally useful programs and provide skills they need to be technologically savvy. It is anticipated that computer use will be incorporated into content areas and that each student will have access to computers for two hours per week, shared with one other student. Due to the relatively small numbers of computers that will be available in each school and the inability to provide computers for individual classrooms, it is considered unfeasible to establish computers as a separate subject requiring a specialist technology teacher. Because of the newness of Internet access in public schools, there is currently no government regulation regarding sites that can be accessed by students. However, project managers are expecting regulations to follow shortly after the program makes headway.
Despite the government’s well-intentioned efforts at narrowing the gap between rich and poor, many students who attend public schools do not have computers at home. In order to become computer proficient, they are therefore solely dependent on computer use at school. Most private schools have had computers with internet access for years, and many students attending these schools have computers at home, which puts students in private schools at a distinct advantage above their public school counterparts.
Comparing School Facilities
The Intercontinental School of Lima, which extends from pre-school to twelfth grade, is the most expensive private school in Lima. However, the $8,000 yearly tuition is a bargain when compared to similar private schools in North America. The school has abundant resources and is situated on a large, beautifully landscaped, twenty-four acre campus, overlooking the foothills of the Andes, in a wealthy suburb of Lima.
Over half the students attending this school are native Peruvians, while the other half are children of diplomats and non-citizens temporarily living in Lima. Unlike many private schools, which are often single-sex, The Intercontinental School is co-educational. The Board of Directors is comprised primarily of prominent citizens, parents, and alumni. The board hires the principals, legislates policies, and works closely with the superintendent in administrative decisions.
The campus is divided into two, with the elementary school in one campus and the middle and senior schools in another. The elementary campus has a large soccer field and an attractively maintained playground with swings, climbing areas, and large sand areas. There is also a small outdoor snack bar where students and staff can purchase light food and drinks. The middle/senior school campus has a professional style baseball field, track and soccer field, modern gymnasium, and a state of the art library, which is comparable in size to a city branch library. This site also boasts a well-equipped art studio, music room and amphitheater. Both campuses have large, well-equipped computer labs. The school has a strong after-school sports program and students participate in many inter-scholastic competitions with local private schools. Students also take regular field trips to sites of historical, archeological, and cultural interest.
The Escuela Publica de Lima contrasts sharply with The Intercontinental School. Escuela Publica de Lima is a typical public school in a low-income neighborhood in Lima. The student body comprises approximately 3,000 male students in elementary and high school, most of who are from low-income backgrounds. In addition to blue-collar occupations, many parents work in professional fields with low paying wages. As is the case with all public schools in Lima, students pay for their own textbooks and parents are required to pay $10 per family towards a general school fund. For many families, these costs present a financial burden.
The school is arranged in a square formation around a playground, representative of the Spanish colonial style of a central plaza surrounded by buildings. Students use this playground at recess time, as well as on weekends. Although physical education is provided as a subject, there are no organized school sponsored team sports. Students therefore establish their own teams and use the school grounds for this purpose on Saturdays. In addition, school facilities are open to the community for various functions on weekends.
The classrooms in this school are bare and blatantly lacking in basic supplies. Walls are crumbling and devoid of decorations, desks are old and rickety, and the atmosphere dark and drab.
Comparing Administration and Teaching Staff
The Escuela Publica de Lima is split into primary (K-6) and secondary (1-5) divisions. One principal presides over the entire school. Due to the school’s size and large number of students, the principal’s role is limited to administrative tasks. The vice principal takes primary responsibility for teacher and student contact, and also carries out classroom observations. Principals are expected to work on weekends with no extra pay and despite their great workload are paid only slightly more than classroom teachers who earn between $80-$150 per month (U.S.).
In contrast, The Intercontinental School is divided into three subdivisions: early childhood/elementary school, middle school, and high school, with three separate principals for each, as well as an on-site superintendent. Principals enjoy large offices, reasonable working hours, and good wages.
Whereas The Escuela Publica de Lima has 30-35 students per class, The Intercontinental School has smaller classes of 20. Many of the elementary classes in The Intercontinental School also have teacher-aides, creating a much lower teacher-student ratio than at the Escuela Publica de Lima. In addition to classroom aides, The Intercontinental School also provides full-time psychologists, counselors, nurses, teaching assistants, and specialists for teaching music, art, English as a second language, and students with learning differences. For students whose first language is Spanish, pullout ESL classes are provided, and push-in consultant teacher services are provided for students with disabilities. No such services are provided for students at the Escuela Publica de Lima. There are no classroom aides, no music or art teachers, and no provisions for students with learning differences or cognitive disabilities. With the exception of the technology teacher, students have no contact with staff other than their one classroom teacher in the elementary classes, and their subject area teachers in the high school.
Comparing Technology
At The Intercontinental School, each campus has its own computer lab with approximately 40 new iMac computers with full Internet access. Technology is widely incorporated at all levels of instruction. In addition to the computer labs, each classroom, from kindergarten up, is equipped with a minimum of two new iMac computers with Internet access. Students also have regular use of the libraries, which have several Internet accessible computers.
The Escuela Publica de Lima does not have nearly the number of computers The Intercontinental School has, but, compared to other public schools in Lima, it is a showpiece. The Escuela Publica de Lima received 16 computers for their computer lab as part of Project Huascarán. Two teachers from the school were trained in computer use, and they in turn, provided training for other teachers. This took place on Saturdays and teachers paid $5.00 (U.S.) to attend. However, many teachers who would have liked to receive training could not participate because of conflicts with their weekend jobs, which are necessary to supplement their low teacher salaries.
Project Huscarán also provided one yearlong on-site trainer who works with students in the computer lab. Students complete classroom assignments in the lab with the assistance of the classroom teacher, the computer teacher, and the Huascarán trainer. Students receive two hours of computer class a week, one hour in the computer lab and one hour in the classroom. According to the computer teacher, none of the students in the school had had previous computer experience and it was anticipated that most students in the school will not have computers in their homes in the near future due to the prohibitive costs involved. Despite the best intentions of Project Huscarán, two hours of computer use a week is unlikely to provide students the skills they need to compete against their private school counterparts who have computers integrated at all levels of their lives.
Escuela Publica de Lima is not wired for the internet. Although Project Huscarán pays for wiring the participating school, each school needs to make its own payments for Internet access. At present, internet access in Lima is only available on an hourly rate, and Escuela Publica de Lima does not, at this time, have adequate funds for this service.
Admission to University
Students can graduate from The Intercontinental School of Lima with the International Baccalaureate diploma, as well as the American high school diploma. Ninety nine percent of students go on to attend college, many in prestigious American universities. These diploma options provide considerable more opportunities to students than those available to Peruvians in public schools.
Peru has no state or national exams to graduate from high school. The Ministry of Education provides curricular guidelines to schools, but individual teachers in each school write their own exams. The application procedure to university involves taking an entrance exam across all subject areas, the results of which are the sole determiner of acceptance. The advantages of such a system is that students can not be discriminated against based on their high school, and poor scores in high school can not jeopardize their chances of being admitted to university. Also, all students in public schools take prescribed courses without the option of electives, theoretically placing everyone on an equal playing ground when taking cross-disciplinary university entrance exams.
However, the education provided in private schools far exceeds that of state-run schools. This better equips students from private schools to pass the very stringent university entrance exams. Also, students from private schools typically take preparatory courses for university before applying. This costly measure is not an option available to poorer Peruvians. It is worth noting that for every 5,000 positions available in one of Lima’s five public universities, there are 60,000 applicants. While private universities provide an alternative to public post-secondary institutions, this is a costly option only available to those with independent means of supporting themselves. As it is, most students work during the five years it takes to complete a degree, in addition to attending university full-time.
Summary
The difference between public and private education in Lima, Peru, is glaringly apparent. While private schools have the advantages of plush facilities, an abundance of educational resources, and aesthetically pleasing surroundings, public schools have few resources necessary to provide an adequate education. The classrooms are sparse and drab, and school amenities are seriously lacking. While teachers in private schools enjoy satisfying salaries, teachers’ salaries in public schools are not sufficient to survive on alone, resulting in many teachers leaving the profession.
In attempting to close the gap between rich and poor, the government launched Project Huscarán to provide students in public schools the technological skills they will need to compete in a global economy. Although this project is ambitious, it is clearly on its way to achieving its goal. Urban and rural schools alike have been provided with computers, computer trainers, and provisions for the training to be disseminated to teachers throughout the school. However, many practical considerations provide obstacles to the success of this program. Most teachers work on weekends and are therefore not able to participate in the weekend training. In addition, teachers must pay a fee to participate in the training. Also, the hours of computer use available for students is limited when compared to their private school counterparts who have computers in classrooms, labs, and their own homes.
However, the most striking barrier to closing the gap between rich and poor is that aside from technology, the resources in public schools are woefully lacking. The computer labs in the public schools we visited seemed strangely out of place in their dilapidated surroundings, in the midst of classrooms lacking even basic teaching materials. While the Ministry of Education’s aim is clearly noble, the question remains as to whether technology alone can close the gap between Lima’s haves and have-nots.
Note: The names of schools in this article have been changed.