Problem

Children of poor neighborhoods that do go to school, receive their ‘education’ from state schools.  These schools have far too few teachers and virtually no education materials. Books are simply not used and children must pay even for pencils, while chaos usually reigns inside their schools and class rooms.

On top of this, education is conducted in a brutal and condescending manner, a condition that is ‘enjoyed’ at home as well.  The result of this social phenomenon is that , from an early age on, the people of Iquitos have a very low self-esteem.

Objective

The objective is to improve the quality and relevance of education, whereby fewer children fail. Specifically El Manguaré will focus on education in the 1st and 2nd grade or class of primary school (in The Netherlands Group 3 and 4). The children of these grades will achieve a better basic understanding of reading, writing and arithmetic, increasing their self-confidence and forming a good basis to understand and follow other courses as well. 

Actions

Improve the learning situation for the children of these grades by implementing the following conditions in their education:

• Clear rules and agreements for the students within their classroom.
• Solid basic knowledge in the areas of language and math achieved by providing educational support and teaching material. Children and teachers are given courses to properly use these materials.
• Increase of the self-esteem and self-confidence of students. This is achieved by training and motivating teachers to behave in a positive manner towards their pupils so they are motivated to learn.
• Special individual attention to children who have learning difficulties and/or external factors that set them behind the rest of their classmates. Transfer knowledge to the instructor about how they can work with these pupils within the class.

Duration and Transfer

The program for the improving the quality of education lasts two years per school.

Within these two years, El Manguaré  ensures that the knowledge transfer sufficient so that the school is an independent expert. After which, we visit the schools four times a year for evaluation.