Escuela Fiscal No 82, Ignacio Molina Andrade

Jimmy Burleson (a recent ETSU-SPED alumni who is volunteering at Colegio Americano for 6 weeks) and I visited Escuela 82, a public school in Bario Portelisa of Suburbio Oeste. Suburbio Oeste is one of the poorer sections of Guayaquil, Ecuador. We almost caused a stampede when we pulled out our cameras. I guess these kids don't see many cameras. The photo with Jimmy, me and the chiildren shows the only common area in the school. This is where the students go for recess and lunch. 

The school is a small 3-story building with no outside play area. The school has one classroom per grade, grades 1st through 7th basic (U.S. equivalent of grades kindergarten through 6th) with 32-50 students per class. The smallest class is 1st basic (kindergarten) with only 32 students. Some of the classrooms have very little room to move between the desks. Students in 4th basic (U.S. 3rd grade) have one textbook, about 1/2 inch thick that has both Spanish (language) and math. Flip the book and turn it upside down for each subject. I only saw a handful of story books in the whole school. There is no school library. Literacy is poor in Ecuador. Families don't know about bedtime stories for children. The only public library in Ecuador that has children's books is in Quito, the capitol. There is one public library in Guayaquil, but I'm told that it has government-type documents and records which you aren't allowed to check out. The director and curriculum director of Escuela 82 are participants in my course. I'd like to help them implement PALS (reading strategy) in their school, but I'm not sure where we will get the reading materials. Perhaps we could try it in the upper grades with discarded newspapers.

According to a law that was passed in 2009 (I think), public schools must include students with learning problems (actually, all schools are required, but only public schools are accountable at this time). Escuela 82 has a list of 10 students they have identified as having learning problems. Students were identified as having Down Syndrome, Asperger Syndrome, emotional/behavior disorder, ADHD, and intellectual functioning, vision, language, and learning problems. Students with more significant disabilities are supposed to receive some kind of education (not sure what), but not in the general classrooms or schools.