Schooling in Chajul: National Struggles, Community Voices Lindsey Musen Kate Percuoco February 2010 This report was requested by Limitless Horizons Ixil. © 2010 Lindsey Musen and Kate Percuoco. Please contact the authors at [email protected] with questions or for permission to reproduce. [SCHOOLING IN CHAJUL] February 2010 TABLE OF CONTENTS Purpose 1 Chajul and the Ixil Region 2 Methodology 2 Education in Guatemala 3 Enrollment & Demographics 3 History of Education Policy 4 Current Education Policy 6 Gender 7 Poverty 9 Language and Culture 11 Academic Barriers 12 Education in Chajul 13 Funding 15 Politics 16 Enrollment and Class Size 17 Attendance, Grade Repetition, & Dropout 18 Gender 19 Facilities and Supplies 19 Materials 20 Technology 21 Curriculum & Instruction 21 Teachers 24 Family 25 Health 25 Outlying Communities 26 Social Services in Chajul 27 Strengths and Opportunities 29 Educational Needs 29 Models of Education Programming 30 Recommendations 34 Limitations 39 Authors and Acknowledgements 39 References 40 Appendix A: Limitless Horizons Ixil 43 PURPOSE This study was requested by Limitless Horizons Ixil1 (LHI), a non-governmental organization (NGO) operating in San Gaspar Chajul in the western highlands of Guatemala. The research is meant to illuminate the challenges faced by students, teachers, and educational leaders in the community, so that LHI 1 For more information about LHI, please visit http://www.limitlesshorizonsixil.org. 1 [SCHOOLING IN CHAJUL] February 2010 and other organizations in Chajul can focus their resources towards the greatest needs, while integrating community members into the process. CHAJUL AND THE IXIL REGION San Gaspar Chajul is isolated by beautiful mountains and has maintained its rich Ixil Mayan traditions and language. Having been at the heart of the 36-year civil war, Chajul experiences post-war challenges such as emotional trauma, land displacement, and fragmented families. Additionally, unemployment is high, large families live in one-room adobe houses with open cooking fires, opportunities for women are scarce, and family- and gender-based violence are common. The county has a corn-based agricultural economy in which adults struggle daily to feed their families and the average income is $1 to $3 per day. Sixty-four percent of the population is under 16 years old. Less than one percent of children graduate from high school (5% from middle school, 22% from primary school) as they are forced to leave school at a young age to help support the family household. Chajul further suffers from common preventable health concerns, such as respiratory illness, intestinal disease, tuberculosis, malnutrition, and death during childbirth. Eighty percent of the Chajul population lives in poverty.2 Chajul and neighboring counties Nebaj and Cotzal make up the Ixil region and are home to 2.2% of the Guatemalan population.3 All three counties, which are part of the Department of el Quiché, have a municipal core and outlying communities. Nebaj is more developed than the other two, and is now accessible by a 45-minute micro-bus ride on a paved road from municipal Chajul. The regional population dropped significantly as a result of the war. The municipal core of Chajul is home to approximately 20,000 people, mostly children. The remaining 25,000 live in outlying communities. Limitless Horizons Ixil currently works primarily in the municipal core of Chajul, although some programs include families from the surrounding communities as well. The focus of this report is on the municipal core of Chajul except where indicated. METHODOLOGY The trust built between LHI and the community helped the authors gain access to information otherwise inaccessible to researchers. Research was conducted through interviews, focus groups, classroom observations, and an extensive literature review on education in Guatemala and educational trends around the world. Interviews were conducted in August 2008, January 2009, and July 2009, and included conversations with teachers, school directors, students, community leaders, and parents. Interviews were conducted primarily in the workplace of the interviewee. Classroom observations were used to understand pedagogical practices as well as classroom resource needs. August 2008 data collection was part of a community needs assessment for Limitless Horizons Ixil. This data was collected by LHI Executive Director Katie Morrow, Board Member Lindsey Musen, former staff member Gaspar Caba Asicona, and volunteer Colleen Buyers. The January 2009 interviews were conducted by Molly Robbins, former LHI staff member and current board member. These interviews collected data from secondary school directors in Chajul regarding enrollment, attendance, school histories, and teachers. In July 2009, the authors of this report spent 5 weeks in Chajul hearing the voices of teachers and school directors. The authors also conducted classroom observations and spoke with LHI staff members. Finally, the authors researched other educational organizations to learn about best practices and common challenges. Besides the literature review, we: interviewed 9 school directors and 1 school secretary (2009), 2 Data source for entire paragraph: Plan Municipal del Desarrollo, 2002. 3 Álvarez et al., 2007 2 [SCHOOLING IN CHAJUL] February 2010 hosted one focus group with 11 teachers at Nacional (2009), observed 20 teachers in 22 classrooms in 8 schools (2009), spoke with 18 teachers informally during classroom observations (2009), spoke with an employee of the medical clinic (2009), interviewed 3 local LHI staff and 3 foreign LHI staff living in Chajul (2009), spoke with LHI student and parent councils (2008), spoke with the mayor of Chajul (2008), interviewed a doctor at the medical clinic (2008), interviewed the four directors of Centro Estudiantil Amanecer (2008), interviewed the two directors of CONALFA (2008), and interviewed one director of Asociación Chajulense (2008). EDUCATION IN GUATEMALA The state of education in Chajul is shaped primarily by the national landscape of education in Guatemala. The challenges schools face in Chajul are representative of the challenges the country faces as a whole. Enrollment and Demographics In Guatemala, 53% of the population of 13 million people are under the age of 19.4 The people of Guatemala speak 24 languages;5 half of the population identifies as indigenous;6 and over half of the population lives in rural areas.7 Additionally, 56% of the population lives below the poverty line.8 Most of the cities in Guatemala are inhabited by ladinos,9 while the indigenous people live more in rural areas. ―Indigenous people… reside primarily in rural areas, and are politically underrepresented and very poor.‖10 In 1996, as the 36-year civil war came to a close, women made up just 27% of the labor force.11 Table 1: Net rates of schooling in Guatemala, 1995-200612 School Level U.S. Equivalent Grades Ages 1995 2003 2006 Párvulos* Preschool 2-5 Pre-primaria Kindergarten K 6 19.8% 44.2% 48% Primaria Elementary/Primary 1-6 7+ 69.2% 89.2% 94% Básico Middle School 7-9 20.3% 28.9% 36% Diversificado High School 10-12 11.3% 17.3% Universidad* College * Párvulos and Universidad were not included in the Lavarreda study. 4 Álvarez et al., 2007 5 Lavarreda et al., 2005 6 Tetzagüic & Grigsby, 2004 7 Lavarreda et al., 2005 8 Hallman et al., 2006 9 The term ‗ladino‘ is used to refer to Guatemalans of Spanish descent as opposed to indigenous Guatemalans. 10 Hallman et al., 2006 11 O‘Gara et al., 1999 12 Lavarreda et al., 2005; PREAL & CIEN, 2008 3 [SCHOOLING IN CHAJUL] February 2010 Literacy rates in Guatemala are far below average for Latin America. In 2000, 31% of the adult population was illiterate, with much higher numbers for poor (46%) and rural In 2005, the gap between the percentage adults (42%). Sixty-two percent of indigenous women are of urban and rural students reaching the 13 illiterate. The average educational attainment for adults in ‘satisfactory’ or ‘excellent’ levels on Guatemala was 4.3 years in 2004, which is the lowest in all of national sixth grade reading exams was 14 Central America. In Chajul, adults over 14 had an average 21 percentage points. of just 3.3 years of formal schooling in 2002.15 However, 19- Source: PREAL & CIEN, 2008 25 year olds have significantly more education than those over 40 in Guatemala,16 which matches a trend of increased enrollment. In the 1970s, only half of the population enrolled in primary schools. By 2006, this proportion had reached 94%.17 Table 2: Primary school enrollment rates 2000 Education in Guatemala is compulsory in All Male Female grades 1-9, but this law is not currently enforced. While Table 1 represents the great strides Guatemala Total Population 79% 81% 76% has made towards educating all children, Tables 2 Indigenous 75% 82% 67% and 3 shed light on the disparities that persist. The 75% 78% 72% Rural most disadvantaged children are the indigenous girls Extreme Poor 58% 65% 53% living in extreme poverty in rural areas. Source: ENCOVI 2000 (in World Bank, 2004) Instituto Nacional de Estadistica- 2000 Table 3: Secondary school enrollment rates 2000 All Male Female Non-indigenous 32% 32% 33% Indigenous 14% 18% 11% Urban 46% 48% 44% Rural 12% 14% 10% Non-poor 44% 44% 45% Poor 13% 16% 10% Extreme Poor 3% 3% 2% Source: ENCOVI 2000 (in World Bank, 2004) Instituto Nacional de Estadistica-2000 History of Education Policy The history of Guatemala shows a political shift from assimilation to multi-culturalism. However,