Peru: Working Towards Inclusive Education

I want to tell you a story. It is about long journeys and unfamiliar lands; it is also about a commitment made by teachers, local authorities and institutions to work to improve the education of many children and teenagers in a region of Peru. But, let's let the characters tell their own story, writes Oihane de Gana.

"I feel great. I could have left at any time over the last eight years, but here I am working", says Percy Quiñonez smiling.

Percy is a secondary school teacher and the director of Fidel Pereira high school, situated in the indigenous community of Nueva Luz, in Bajo Urubamba, where the foothills of the Andes meet the Cuzco rainforest.
  
He is also the secretary of the Cuzco Association of Bilingual Teachers of the Amazon (Asociación de Profesores Bilingües Amazónicos del Cusco - APROBIAC), which provides a network for teachers working in indigenous communities and lobbies the regional government to ensure that "in every educational community where there is a school, there must be a bilingual teacher that speaks the language and shares the culture of the community, because teachers from the sierra sometimes do not adapt and want to return to Cuzco (the city) leaving these children and teenagers without a teacher".

"I am not from Bajo Urubamba, but now I feel as though I belong in Bajo Urubamba because I grew up here. I have dedicated my life to the place" shares Abraham Mentiani, a committed primary school teacher in Nueva Luz, where he himself studied as a child and where he has worked for 22 years.

"It is very hard to get to this area.  It is an inhospitable place, very difficult to travel around in", says José Antonio Vargas, a teacher in the indigenous community of Campo Verde who is also the head of his community.

Percy, Abraham and José are three of the teachers that we met on a warm afternoon in June in the indigenous community of Miaria.  A group of us from Pukllasunchis, the school where I work as a development worker, and others from the Cusco Regional Education Network were visiting the community.

We arrived with a group of more than 60 teachers from 40 schools spread out over the 19 indigenous communities in the area, to work on developing local educational projects, taking into account the educational needs and demands in the area in general, and of each community individually.

Our intention is that these projects turn into permanent education policies that will be consistent despite changes that might occur in the local authorities.

It hasn't been easy. We have travelled from the city of Cuzco by bus and boat, descending from an altitude of 3,600m to just 200m, to arrive in Miaria. In total, we have travelled for four whole days. "So long as there is transportation" emphasises Percy, because if you don't have your own contracted bus and boat, the journey can take a few days more.

Percy explains that because this is a remote area, it is barely included in national education strategies. "Our government do not really know this area" he adds, "we are lacking in infrastructure, educational resources, technical resources and training to be able to better develop our skills as teachers".

"However", Percy continues,  "that isn't to say that we teachers have lost enthusiasm for what we do, we have enormous potential here".  Percy is talking about young teachers who identify with their culture and who are bilingual, and that "continue to persevere year after year, teaching our people and passing on a little of their culture and the educational curriculum". 

And because of all this, our three teachers believe there is a need for true decentralisation of education in the area, "because it deserves it, because of where it is" emphasises Percy.
It is important to know how to set up a local education project that takes into account the expectations of students, parents and teachers and provides the education they want (for example, a bilingual education that respects and promotes their culture).

Our three teachers recognise that, often, though they lack tools they have "plenty of interest, plenty of desire to learn" because education needs real change. And the whole educational community should take part in that change.

Teachers play an important role in this entire process, "[as educators], we have to give advice, we have to participate in the community meetings", Percy tells us. "We are in the process of this [setting up a local education project].  There are teachers committed to it and we have set up a committee where we are raising our needs and discussing our potential".

Part of this potential for Percy is the strong cultural identity of his people, which is used as a drive for development. This, combined with the steadfast commitment of these three teachers and their colleagues, will ensure that project will truly bring about real change for all the children in the area.