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10 April 2010
Escuela Proyecto La Esperanza - Nivel Basico is a secondary school (known as 'Basico' in Guatemala) dedicated to educating some of the poorest children in Jocotenango and the surrounding villages.
In 2005 EFTC initiated a scholarship programme for the children who graduated from our primary school 6th grade, this allowed them to enter the local state secondary schools.
As we have grown our Foundation, and attracted generous like minded supporters we have been able to protect the longevity and future of our first primary school through dedicated sponsorship. Although at this stage we did not have every child sponsored, we felt we had sufficient guaranteed annual income to realistically contemplate expanding our activities.
As fate often conspires, on our visit to Guatemala in June and July of 2006, we became aware of two important issues;
Firstly, the local education authority had decided to close one of the secondary schools in our area. This would have had the effect of making it very difficult for us to find places for our 2006 year 6 graduates.
Secondly, despite the many successes of our most able students, we were finding that some of our students were under performing. Our children come from a background of extreme poverty and live in houses not conducive to studying. The resultant lack of encouragement from home, together with the need to be more self motivated in the senior school environment, puts our children at an added disadvantage.
We tried to improve the situation by bringing the under performing students into our primary school for one to one help in the afternoons. However, we felt this was inadequate and not realistic as our entire sixth form wanted to continue their education, a further 16 students.
For the two reasons stated above, we decided to open our own secondary school. January 22nd 2007 was a very proud day for the foundation as we opened the doors to our second school, Escuela Proyecto La Esperanza – Nivel Basico.
Each class has 25 students and we currently have 4 classes; so there are now 100 students studying at Basico with us.
As well as the renovation of the property and employment of the teachers, we have supplied books, desks (both standard and technical), music and PE equipment and now have a fully equipped IT classroom.
As with the primary school we teach the full national curriculum and we also provide food on a daily basis to all of our students.
Staff
Jorge Castillo, who had been principal of our primary school since 2005, moved to the secondary school as director.
- Guatemala Coordinator: Sophie McKee
- Administrative Director: Jorge Mario Castillo Reguan
- Technical Director: Carmen Julieta Paredes Hernández
- Scholarship Coordinator: Claudia Elizabeth Flores Garcia
- Social Studies, Natural Science & Accounting: Helga Marissa Ovalle Von Quednow
- English, Domestic Studies, Human Development: Silda Ananda Solis de Arriaga
- Spanish language, Music, Domestic Studies: Cesia Eunice Martinez Valle
- Maths, IT, Natural Science: Julia Lourdes Valle Valle
- Math, IT, PE: Gustavo Adolfo Lopez
- Industrial Arts, Graphic Arts, Typing: German Eduardo Morales Mendez
- Cook: Mildred Galindo
- Cook: Marina Monroy
Routine
The school opens bright and early at 7.25 in the morning when children start arriving and getting ready for their morning classes.
As with senior schools in this country, specialist teachers are employed to teach the three years of students in each subject. There are twelve subjects as follows;
- Mathematics
- Spanish
- English
- Natural Science
- Home Studies
- Social Studies
- Accounting
- Music
- Technical Drawing
- PE
- Computer Studies
- Typing
As with the primary school we provide food on a daily basis to all of our students.
The school closes at 1.25pm. The children are given homework to do in the afternoons, however the majority of our secondary school children also have to work in order to contribute to the family income.