100% Over 4%.

This post will hopefully be brief. I only like sharing positive stories, and simply put - complaining is neither upbeat nor constructive. Furthermore, exactly who among my snow-battered-Massachussets/New England family and friends clicked on my page today truly wanting to read about my frustrations with basic education in the Caribbean? Anyone? As I thought. 

And so: this is a post that I barely want to share, and one that no one really wants to be reading. Wow, haha - solid intro! Now, let’s get this going. 

I’m not going to talk about how kids attend public school for less than 4 hours a day, nor how even in class, lecturing/copying/repetition are most often the teaching methodologies of choice. I’m also not going to mention the fact that most classes are dismissed early, nor how if it is raining, few students attend at all. Bueno. But I am going to talk about the 4% for Education teacher strikes. 

The elementary and high school teachers have been having on-again, off-again strikes in town since the end of November/beginning of December. (Strikes or huelgas, happen often here, and are especially common in education and transportation professions). These most recent strikes conducted by teachers have been in an effort to attain the full 4% of the DR’s national budget to support public education as the General Education Law states. In more detail, this means that Dominican teachers and supporters are requesting improvements to health care insurance for teachers as well as the school breakfast program for students. 

Signs outside my host siblings’ closed elementary school in early December:

"Without health, there's no education."

"Health insurance for the teachers."

"We want breakfast."

All public school teachers deserve government support, and the Dominican education system deserves (at the very least) the full 4% of the GDP that the law specifies. 

But to be plain - I’m completely, 100% over it. The 4% strikes have been going on for a few months, and even though educators are publicly demonstrating for important causes, I feel like nothing is really happening. Students are going to school inconsistently, which is only slightly better than not going to school at all. My host siblings and the kids in the barrio haven’t had school once in the past two weeks, and have yet to have a full week of class since the start of 2011. This is the general pattern of 4% strikes (as seen on my level):

1. Teachers in government-funded schools* go on strike nationwide. 
2. All the public schools are closed for however many days. 
3. Everyone in the barrio wears the color yellow to support this movement and the teachers. 
4. Students can’t have class for however long the teachers are on strike. 
5. Eventually, school resumes for a few days. 
6. Repeat.

* for the most part, strikes are limited to public schools and do not include private colegios.

Now, more importantly, here’s what Dominicans have said about it:

“This is how it is in poor neighborhoods. The teachers don’t like to work.” - my dona

“How are we going to pass if we haven’t learned anything?” - 14 year old from my youth group, in reference to moving on to the next grade and passing the national exams at the end of the school year.

The 4% strikes haven’t applied to my school, since it is a semi-private school, so teachers and students have been present each day. Usually after school ends, I go over my host family’s house to visit, ask the kids if they’ve gone/are going to school today, and then they tell me no they haven't gone/aren't going because there's another strike. The kids that I know who are affected by the strikes actually want to be going to school. I feel bad, because they’re missing out on so much class time, so in the afternoons I bring games for my host siblings and try to make it educational. Fun, but not the same as structured classroom learning, which is what every single student affected by the 4% strikes is missing out on more and more each day. 

Host sister practices writing numbers while her brother plays Garage Band:

Wrote her own name! 

And then I leave the room for 10 minutes and wind up with pictures like this:

Haha!

cuidense amores. siguen la lucha. ...aka, BYE ALL - take care! <3

XO