SchoolsEstela RomeroDecember 30, 2020"Progressing in school lessosn

"Progressing in school lessons, beyond challenge for teachers and students"

SchoolsEstela RomeroDecember 30, 2020"Progressing in school lessosn

THE VISIT

Even though there has been no real breakout of the pandemics at the villages surrounding the monarchs overwintering areas, our schools have been kept officially closed since March with now a possible return to schools officially postponed from January to March 2021. This implies a prolonged and challenging time to come for our local students and teachers. “There have been three only possibilities for our students living and attending school at the towns and villages around the Monarch Sanctuaries to attend their school lessons: 1)- THROUGH INTERNET CONNECTION.- Getting internet connection either at home (a very minor student population in Angangueo town or Ocampo town or San José town around Sanctuaries where internet connection is available with an only fair quality capacity, since optic fibers is not yet part of its technology) or at a public internet café (over half of the student population in these towns make use of it paying half a dollar per hour-time use); 2)- PAYING FOR DATA CONNECTION AVAILABILITY.- This is only possible at areas around Sanctuaries where data connection is reached, not everywhere; El Rosario Sanctuary and Cerro Pelón Sanctuary surrounding villages are the most successful with this service. Sierra Chincua surrounding villages have real problems with data connection; data connection means, on the other side, --when possible--, paying 1-2 dollars of data credit per smart phone, per child in a family with generally 2 or more children attending distance-education at home; a 1-2 dollar data credit needed every day for each smart phone at home seriously threatens local families’ financial situation. 3)- WAITING FOR THE WEEKLY- BYWEEKLY TEACHER-STUDENT MEETING AT THE SCHOOL’S FACILITIES.- There being no possibility of the two former communication avenues for attending their lessons, many kindergarten, elementary, middle and high school students wait for their physical meeting with their teachers at the school facilities themselves to get brief explanation on how to solve a few lessons for the next 1-2 weeks until they see again (each principal and teachers at each school decide their meeting calendar a month); this last way imposes big pressure on parents who are hardly able to support their children when in trouble not able to solve a lesson clearly.

QUITTING THE SCHOOL YEAR.- “We have cases of parents (and their children) definitely unable to follow either of the latter ways to attend their school classes, having decided to cancel this school year, which for many others doing their best, has not been a bad decision seen the effectiveness in progress and learning in the students themselves, in spite of all of our efforts to keep them encouraged.” Teacher Alicia explained, “We teachers and parents and students think, on the other side, that this should be an imminent sign for a change over the mid-term future, in our education system, which shall indeed include digital technology as a mandatory aspect, seen the demands of modern communications nowadays for our young generations.”

The last photos in this blog show a few of the children from surrounding villages able to come to Angangueo town to print homework or lessons or, on the other side, how they attend their weekly or biweekly meetings with their parents as supporters, to their school facilities to get counseling from their own teachers, having no means to connect through digital technology options..