A visit that ended totally different than expected
Seven weeks ago the Diospi-Suyana-School was granted special permission to start rotating teaching. Mind you, as a pilot-project as one of 2,453 schools of the state. Now the first official hygiene check was due. Director Magistra Loudrdes del Carmen Vigil Mamani, to whom all educational institutions in Apurímac report, personally headed the commission. In the area of the public education it embodies the highest authority and is only accountable to the Ministry of Education in Lima. It goes without saying that our team of teachers was apprehensive regarding this visit: would our colegio fulfil all the governmental rules and requirements? Might there be gaps in our security concept?
The visit was the first opportunity for the politician to get to know our school project. What was remarkable was that after a few minutes she focussed all of her attention on the school’s innovative vision. Suddenly we were only talking about our paedagogical principles, contents and programmes.
There was so much to see and so much to talk about that the planned inspection turned into a three-hour-visit. Just before departing the Director expressed highest praise and appreciation and invited head of school Christian Bigalke to give a presentation on Diospi Suyana’s school project in the regional capital Abancay: “Everything we have achieved and all of our successes are due to God’s blessing!” was Christian Bigalke’s resumé.
As far as we know the Diospi-Suyana-School is the only school in Peru that teaches fully hybrid, i.e. that all lessons can be attended in person in the classroom or at home, the pupils being connected via the internet using their smartphones.
To date only 3% of the schools in the country have reopened, an educational disaster to put it mildly. Peru is one of the few countries worldwide that still keeps its schools shut. The already poor level of learning of the 8 million pupils will suffer even more. One also estimates that from the national body of pupils 0.7mio teenagers have already dropped out of school or are in danger of doing so.
Please join us in praying for Peru’s children and youth. That they could all head back to school asap would be the best for us all.
