I was able to spend some time with Guillermo Arturo Contreras Gil, the administrative coordinator (Director) of the high school academic unit with communitarian interaction (UABIC –the school featured in many of my posts). We met in his office which is sparsely decorated save a Rutgers pennant that he received from a few students that volunteered in the area some years back.
Gil has been director of the school for three years. He started his teaching career at UADY Public High School #1 and we began the conversation with a brief discussion on his experiences as a teacher in High School #1 and the differences between UABIC and the other two public high schools. He says:
Before teaching here, I taught classes in high school #1 and also in the psychology faculty and I noticed that the study plan was different, completely different for example there were some subjects, it caught my attention that they were very short, in the area of social sciences for example, in a semester, in first year, the student would take 3 very short subjects, I think around 60 hours per subject, and I also noticed that the students did social-communitarian activities, they spent a lot of time at school, for example in high school #1 they left at 1 pm.
As I was telling you, it’s the study plan, a very different study plan, I feel fortunate because I had the experience to be a teacher in high school #1 with a study plan that even now is becoming obsolete and it was a very different thing, it’s simple things like classrooms and groups, for example I was a teacher for the first years in high school #1 and I remember the groups were of about 50 students, 50 students in a group, in a classroom, in classrooms with different sizes, it was very difficult to do team work, it was hard now and then to get the attention of every student, here in the academic unit I found classrooms with 30 students at most, with a different formation, a different structure, the students lined up in the classroom edges, with classrooms with cannons, I mean multimedia projectors with the possibility to have sound, speakers, but fundamentally the study plan, completely different. Even when the same subjects were given, let’s say at least the thematic axes, social sciences, natural sciences and math, were very similar thematic axes, the management of those, the way we taught the class to the students was very different.
To start with, us as professors in the unit, had a training when joining in, in which they explained to us the competences approach, in which the student is not expected to be a person who absorbs knowledge and more knowledge, but that he/she also develops skills for life, solves problems in daily situations, so I think that was, something essential regarding the incorporation here to the academic unit.
Likewise, to tell you about the issue that for example in high school #1, it can be seen in 2 ways, positive or negative, because in that high school we were given teaching freedom, which means they handed you your book, “this is your psychology book, now teach” you had some structure on what subjects the students had to see, but you had the freedom to decide how would you do this, either with a dynamic activity, with a lecture or with a research. So in some way, like I’m telling you, this can be positive or negative, because if the teacher is creative, critical and invites the student to a deep reflection on things, then said teacher would achieve awesome results.
But if the teacher didn’t put enthusiasm into it, didn’t make an effort, didn’t prepare his lessons, well, the level of learning or performance of the student would become uneven.
Here in the academic unit it could also be seen as something positive- negative, but as a teacher you already have a didactical sequence, that is your guide to implement lessons, so in some way it ensures that the first year students, for example, performs the same activities and assignments and hypothetically comes to the same results.
This is hypothetical because there’s also the teacher, the student, environmental conditions, and there are also the socioeconomic conditions, but we are heading on the way to homologue education, I repeat, this could be seen as a negative or a positive thing.
So basically that is, the way to teach, the study plans which are different, I would even dare to say the professor’s view towards the students I also different.
I want to tell you, the 3 high schools, high school # 1,2 and the unit are in the process of incorporating to the national bachelor degree system, so they ask us , as teachers, to take a certificate in teaching competences, which talks about this new, well not so new, but the process to incorporate the teachers to this same line is what is new, in which where you get accreditation as a teacher who has already knowledge, skills in teaching, in competences and on the other hand, this certificate comes with a signature in which the approach focused on the teaching, where the teacher has to be the good one, the wise, the smart and literate and the student has to learn from him, to an approach based on the student developing abilities for learning, so it seems like nothing but this twist gives a lot of dynamism and differentiates traditional education from, let us say, education for world citizenship.
We talked a bit about the community and the students attending UABIC:
The academic unit is created here, in this city area, in the south area because the Universidad autonoma considers, well not only them, that based on socioeconomic and sociodemographic studies, this is a vulnerable zone, it’s a zone in where if well there are schools of middle higher education, probably they aren’t able to provide the coverage and on the other hand is important to mention that the unit has a totally different spirit, we truly believe, and I’m not telling you as a coordinator, I’m telling you this as a teacher that is now a coordinator, but that also knowing the study plans and the students, I am convinced of this.
We firmly believe in a social change, on education as an agent of change, and we not only believe this, we practice it and we don’t only practice it, but even graduated students, even the people, the neighbors, we’ve noticed a positive change, the simple fact that the school is here is already making a change, but if on top of that, the students go out, meaning they graduate from high school here and go for a degree, we are closing the gap that exists, so I think that’s the characteristic regarding the population, it’s students who aren’t charged the tuition, meaning they are being given free education, we are fulfilling with this right that is offered in Mexico about education for everyone, we are also giving, bringing them closer to getting scholarships so they can have maintenance, plus we manage with the government of the state, programs that can give, for example personal computers, while they ae studying they have said computers, we also take them and bring to them cultural events, sport and artistic.
So the student of the unit is benefitted by all these benefits, not only for the high school education with trained teachers which are on the same line, let’s say, of work, with innovative study plans, but on top of that we give them, let me tell you, they get dental attention, psychological, nutritional, they are given nurse care and all these benefits don’t exist in other places, only here in the unit or in private paid schools.
That is the thing, so for us, it is a reason to be proud because we are giving the student population, that we pick a priori, we select them due to having a vulnerable socioeconomic situation, we give them all the conditions, quality teachers, quality facilities, quality services, all free to take them , we believe this will take them to success, when they graduate, I think so.
There are so many obstacles for the students. So many, for example, things so, first the fundamental, we are aware of the challenge from the beginning, because we take in students that we know will have economic difficulties that could stop their staying, sometimes some students can’t afford to come here, to pay their buses fares, it is that complicated, we are talking about a bus that is 7 pesos one way and 7 the other, so both ways are 14 pesos, so for those 14 pesos they may stop attending school, so it’s very sad for us because we make a great effort but we also recognize, we are aware that the families’ economy , we can’t change that from the school , the students that graduate will be able to achieve this, when they incorporate themselves in the work field and they perceive earnings for their families, but in the meantime we can’t change that.
To start with, the socioeconomic situation, there are students who come here without having eaten breakfast, there are some who don’t have money to buy food here, some can’t buy books, we don’t ask for basic books, we ask of them to photocopy of materials I know it’s not the proper thing to do, because we are using photocopies of books from different authors but otherwise the kids could not have access to this, it’s not possible, here in Mexico a book, a textbook can cost between 300 and 500 pesos, and if they can’t afford the bus to come to school, certainly they can’t afford such a book, a book multiplied by 10 programs they see in the first year, so it’s very complicated. But well the socioeconomic challenge is here, the main obstacle.
Another obstacle is that sadly, education in Mexico is characterized by certain limitations on the basic levels, for example, we consider, it’s an opinion, I’m not funding this in a particular research, for example the students do very bad regarding the usage of the English language, from secondary to high school, so we ask them to have 3 years of English, it becomes complicated, we get students who from the very beginning will have trouble with this subject, actually and being based on evidence, one of the most failed subjects from last semester, which was first year, was English. Followed strangely by some subjects of social and natural sciences, but it’s to be noted that a subject such as English would be a reason for student’s failure, which leaves us with the conclusion that probably in secondary and elementary school they didn’t get enough formation.
In some way, also the area, like I was telling you a while ago, it is of a certain margination, not only social, I’m sorry, I meant not only economical but also social, if you take a look around the school there aren’t malls, there are many small stores so that limits the access to certain products and services, to be able to get them you must go downtown and then come back, so we are isolated in some way.
That’s the complicated thing, however, I repeat to you, there is a government project from the state and it’s not new, but it’s also adding up with services, coming soon we will have a maternal and child hospital nearby, a housing complex Is being built, we have on one side of the school the metropolitan ecological park, on the behind we have the south sport unit, that is financed with government’s money, with resources both federal and state and the idea is that the area is not so “isolated” anymore, we are bringing the services to the students. However to this day is is isolated, even for eating options, there aren’t many restaurants, for example. Those are the 3 obstacles, which I consider most relevant.
I wanted to know a bit about the success rate - are students graduating and attending the UADY University or the technical schools.
Well, that is what we want, but it’s not a rule, those who move onto university are the ones who pass the admission tests, commonly, in the last 2 years, approximately a 30% of graduated students from here, enter some faculty of the Universidad Autónoma and another percentage is incorporated to some other schools, for example, the Technological Institute of Yucatán, the UTM ( Universidad tecnológica metropolitan) even to the navy university, all options which aren’t costly, they can be afforded and have also quality to them.
We can’t really say but it’s not a matter only of the academic unit, unfortunately and it has a lot to do with not saturating the work market, there are many aspiring from the whole state, wishing to get into the university, the coverage that can be, it’s not enough, from all the people wanting to get in, I don’t know, 10,000 students only, approximately 3,000-4,000 make it, so there is a high percentage of students who are left out, among them our corresponding percentage of the statistics, we add up without meaning to, to the state statistics.
But our expectation, our interest, where we want to lead our students is that they do enter university
The importance of including parents in the education process...
Totally, we have, in this school year 2015-2016, we have been working with special tenacity so that the parents become involved, now we are summoning them , actually today we will have a meeting of family parents, we will be delivering partial grades, and in each delivery meeting, we don’t only give them the paper and say goodbye, we talk to them about the importance of motivating the students, about important dates and events, we comment situations that suddenly happen with their kids, the counseling area we have here in the school is in charge of calling the parents, to make an appointment with them when we notice some situation with the students, whether academic or emotional. Even when they miss school, we keep a registry of the student’s assistance and when we see that a student has got more than 12 nonattendances on the week, we call the parents, ask if the kid is ok, give them a close follow up and we consider fundamental, we can’t make this virtuous circle if we do not involve the parents.
We offer them, actually we have a monthly talk directed to the parents, with subjects related to the age group of the kids, things like: effective communication, sexual diversity, gender equity, strategies to motivate the students to keep moving forward, these are subjects, we bring experts in the matter so they talk to the parents to promote this with the kids.
Which are your future plans for the school?
On a short and medium term, plans for the future, well in a very near future, one of the goals that we set from the beginning of this school year, is to significantly raise the scholar retention, in few words that the student doesn’t drop school.
And for that I already told you about the actions that we are taking, but especially on this school year that we are implementing a new study plan, we have noticed that we are making it. To begin with the failure, this semester more than 50% of the students didn’t fail any subject, that could not seem so important, but compared with the results of past year, it’s dramatically different, but besides that we have been implementing the actions that go along with the study plan so that the student who owes a subject can accredit them and we have had very good results, we are on the second regularization period and it’s been pretty successful so we are having a, how to say it?, a very personalized approach of the students to the point that in each progress cut we check again which students owe which subjects and offer them tutorship, personalized accompaniment so that they quickly accredit the subject and can continue with what is being called, the regular semester.
So that is in the short term, I think we will make it happen, it goes hand in hand with the enlargement of the facilities, because we will have more students, we will need more classrooms, so we have been working on some infrastructure projects to raise our capacity to take students in,, we have other projects, for example we have a water purifier plant, but it’s in disuse right now, it takes, now the problem we have, one of the obstacles not for the students but for the school is that we don’t have so many resources, so this purifier plant could provide safe water for our students, free water, but it’s in disuse now.
We have to invest a certain amount of money to reactive this equipment. Because, you know, we spend a lot of money, we try to provide free water for the students, but it’s unsustainable now, we can’t ,we spend more money on that than in other things which are of higher priority, so if that gets reactivated, we have all the equipment, it’s just to give it maintenance and to add an osmosis system so the water has a nice taste, because right now it tastes like tap water, I don’t know if you’ve tried the water here in Mexico, it’s not so safe, but well it has a not so nice taste, so with such equipment we could give free water to our students, the most important, safe water, we don’t want the students to get sick from drinking that water, we have gone a long way, we only need that little push. Excellent, thank you, I appreciate it a lot, it’d be so good.
Which are the most important matters in general education for you?
Well I think the main problem in general with education in Mexico is that, I don’t know if you have heard of the famous “ninis” “no work no study”, (Neither working Nor Studying- young adults in Mexico without work). The student unfortunately studies something, a career, finishes it and is found jobless, can’t find a job where he can use that which he studied. So that’s a severe problem in the country, what happens is we have lots of unemployed people, they are young, sadly, it’d be worse if there was a young person who didn’t study anything at all and is lazing around, but no!, he studied a career, he’s a lawyer, an engineer, but he doesn’t have where to do his job, so what happens is, they sign up for a master’s degree or a PhD or something similar because they will get a scholarship, which will be their income, but the same thing will happen once they finish their masters’ or PhD and they don’t have a job, so then we have doctors who are taxi drivers or teachers who, I don’t know, are practicing some craft, they are musicians, it’s not that it’s a bad thing to be a baker or a taxi driver, but this sensation lingers, that something is missing in Mexico
And the other thing, I feel it’s also very complicated is that the education is, until now, I don’t mean to say in every university in all of Mexico, but it kind of takes us to individualism, at the end you study your degree not to contribute to the society or your neighbours or your family, but to make something for yourself. So in this construction of an individualist society, we keep having social problems because, I don’t graduate, set up my business and help others, but I set up my business and get benefits only for myself, my personal benefit. That is something that I can tell you here in the unit, we try that the students study not only to improve their economic condition but also to be able to do things in their community and we see it when a former student is already at some faculty from the UADY and asks to do his social service here, and then he is supporting us with students, making projects, sociocomunitarian activities, so we notice that we are doing something different in them, we are making them more sensible.
So this is the twist, I repeat, it’s not like we are the only ones, surely there are other universities, other schools already adapting more humane and global models in some way, but we all must head in that direction, because we are on the same thing, there is a problem and you don’t help if it doesn’t involve you directly, so that’s a serious problem.
A Few final words...
Well no, I think in general, you’ve had the chance to be here, I thank you for taking interest in the school, I’m glad you were able to talk with the tutorship area, the psychologists we have here, I don’t know if you have noticed but they are very sensitive people, they aren’t here for the pay, not for the money, in fact we are all aware that we won’t get rich and we didn’t come here for that, I think the best that can happen to the human being is to find a job that makes him/her feel good and even better when it allows you to make other people feel good, so the tutors, for example, I consider they are very sensitive people, they are very attentive to the students, adding to previous questions, that is another characteristic of the academic unit, that we try to the reach of our possibilities to offer them a personalized accompaniment, it’s not that the other schools don’t want to, I mean high school #1 and #2, but it’s so many students, they have a registry of 3000 students approximately, it’s a lot and sometimes they can’t provide them with what we are providing to our kids, a 1-1 accompaniment.
On the other hand you already had the chance to meet the people who are in the socio- communitarian projects, so that is another fundamental characteristic of ours, we believe and we also tell this to our students, that the fact of doing these socio-communitarian activities it’s not only a matter of getting a grade in some subject but it really allows them to form a critical thinking on one side, a capacity to solve problems which is highly valuated in a global scale I think, the teamwork, the capacity of whenever you face a problem you won’t get paralyzed, but you will mobilize people and yourself with the resources at your reach and I think that’s fundamental, it’s education for life, it’s something we want to do, it’s not education for work or to earn money, education for life so in a given time you lose your job you will have the capacity to do other things that will allow you to support your family, that let you generate resources to feed yourself and to feed the ones that depend on you. That won’t come in a cereal box, you have to do it here and you have to do it starting on basic education and follow this alliance, elementary, secondary, high school, college, then the result will have to be a critical citizen, conscious, sensitive that is after what psychologists would call, self-realization, not only survival.
Gil has been director of the school for three years. He started his teaching career at UADY Public High School #1 and we began the conversation with a brief discussion on his experiences as a teacher in High School #1 and the differences between UABIC and the other two public high schools. He says:
Before teaching here, I taught classes in high school #1 and also in the psychology faculty and I noticed that the study plan was different, completely different for example there were some subjects, it caught my attention that they were very short, in the area of social sciences for example, in a semester, in first year, the student would take 3 very short subjects, I think around 60 hours per subject, and I also noticed that the students did social-communitarian activities, they spent a lot of time at school, for example in high school #1 they left at 1 pm.
As I was telling you, it’s the study plan, a very different study plan, I feel fortunate because I had the experience to be a teacher in high school #1 with a study plan that even now is becoming obsolete and it was a very different thing, it’s simple things like classrooms and groups, for example I was a teacher for the first years in high school #1 and I remember the groups were of about 50 students, 50 students in a group, in a classroom, in classrooms with different sizes, it was very difficult to do team work, it was hard now and then to get the attention of every student, here in the academic unit I found classrooms with 30 students at most, with a different formation, a different structure, the students lined up in the classroom edges, with classrooms with cannons, I mean multimedia projectors with the possibility to have sound, speakers, but fundamentally the study plan, completely different. Even when the same subjects were given, let’s say at least the thematic axes, social sciences, natural sciences and math, were very similar thematic axes, the management of those, the way we taught the class to the students was very different.
To start with, us as professors in the unit, had a training when joining in, in which they explained to us the competences approach, in which the student is not expected to be a person who absorbs knowledge and more knowledge, but that he/she also develops skills for life, solves problems in daily situations, so I think that was, something essential regarding the incorporation here to the academic unit.
Likewise, to tell you about the issue that for example in high school #1, it can be seen in 2 ways, positive or negative, because in that high school we were given teaching freedom, which means they handed you your book, “this is your psychology book, now teach” you had some structure on what subjects the students had to see, but you had the freedom to decide how would you do this, either with a dynamic activity, with a lecture or with a research. So in some way, like I’m telling you, this can be positive or negative, because if the teacher is creative, critical and invites the student to a deep reflection on things, then said teacher would achieve awesome results.
But if the teacher didn’t put enthusiasm into it, didn’t make an effort, didn’t prepare his lessons, well, the level of learning or performance of the student would become uneven.
Here in the academic unit it could also be seen as something positive- negative, but as a teacher you already have a didactical sequence, that is your guide to implement lessons, so in some way it ensures that the first year students, for example, performs the same activities and assignments and hypothetically comes to the same results.
This is hypothetical because there’s also the teacher, the student, environmental conditions, and there are also the socioeconomic conditions, but we are heading on the way to homologue education, I repeat, this could be seen as a negative or a positive thing.
So basically that is, the way to teach, the study plans which are different, I would even dare to say the professor’s view towards the students I also different.
I want to tell you, the 3 high schools, high school # 1,2 and the unit are in the process of incorporating to the national bachelor degree system, so they ask us , as teachers, to take a certificate in teaching competences, which talks about this new, well not so new, but the process to incorporate the teachers to this same line is what is new, in which where you get accreditation as a teacher who has already knowledge, skills in teaching, in competences and on the other hand, this certificate comes with a signature in which the approach focused on the teaching, where the teacher has to be the good one, the wise, the smart and literate and the student has to learn from him, to an approach based on the student developing abilities for learning, so it seems like nothing but this twist gives a lot of dynamism and differentiates traditional education from, let us say, education for world citizenship.
We talked a bit about the community and the students attending UABIC:
The academic unit is created here, in this city area, in the south area because the Universidad autonoma considers, well not only them, that based on socioeconomic and sociodemographic studies, this is a vulnerable zone, it’s a zone in where if well there are schools of middle higher education, probably they aren’t able to provide the coverage and on the other hand is important to mention that the unit has a totally different spirit, we truly believe, and I’m not telling you as a coordinator, I’m telling you this as a teacher that is now a coordinator, but that also knowing the study plans and the students, I am convinced of this.
We firmly believe in a social change, on education as an agent of change, and we not only believe this, we practice it and we don’t only practice it, but even graduated students, even the people, the neighbors, we’ve noticed a positive change, the simple fact that the school is here is already making a change, but if on top of that, the students go out, meaning they graduate from high school here and go for a degree, we are closing the gap that exists, so I think that’s the characteristic regarding the population, it’s students who aren’t charged the tuition, meaning they are being given free education, we are fulfilling with this right that is offered in Mexico about education for everyone, we are also giving, bringing them closer to getting scholarships so they can have maintenance, plus we manage with the government of the state, programs that can give, for example personal computers, while they ae studying they have said computers, we also take them and bring to them cultural events, sport and artistic.
So the student of the unit is benefitted by all these benefits, not only for the high school education with trained teachers which are on the same line, let’s say, of work, with innovative study plans, but on top of that we give them, let me tell you, they get dental attention, psychological, nutritional, they are given nurse care and all these benefits don’t exist in other places, only here in the unit or in private paid schools.
That is the thing, so for us, it is a reason to be proud because we are giving the student population, that we pick a priori, we select them due to having a vulnerable socioeconomic situation, we give them all the conditions, quality teachers, quality facilities, quality services, all free to take them , we believe this will take them to success, when they graduate, I think so.
There are so many obstacles for the students. So many, for example, things so, first the fundamental, we are aware of the challenge from the beginning, because we take in students that we know will have economic difficulties that could stop their staying, sometimes some students can’t afford to come here, to pay their buses fares, it is that complicated, we are talking about a bus that is 7 pesos one way and 7 the other, so both ways are 14 pesos, so for those 14 pesos they may stop attending school, so it’s very sad for us because we make a great effort but we also recognize, we are aware that the families’ economy , we can’t change that from the school , the students that graduate will be able to achieve this, when they incorporate themselves in the work field and they perceive earnings for their families, but in the meantime we can’t change that.
To start with, the socioeconomic situation, there are students who come here without having eaten breakfast, there are some who don’t have money to buy food here, some can’t buy books, we don’t ask for basic books, we ask of them to photocopy of materials I know it’s not the proper thing to do, because we are using photocopies of books from different authors but otherwise the kids could not have access to this, it’s not possible, here in Mexico a book, a textbook can cost between 300 and 500 pesos, and if they can’t afford the bus to come to school, certainly they can’t afford such a book, a book multiplied by 10 programs they see in the first year, so it’s very complicated. But well the socioeconomic challenge is here, the main obstacle.
Another obstacle is that sadly, education in Mexico is characterized by certain limitations on the basic levels, for example, we consider, it’s an opinion, I’m not funding this in a particular research, for example the students do very bad regarding the usage of the English language, from secondary to high school, so we ask them to have 3 years of English, it becomes complicated, we get students who from the very beginning will have trouble with this subject, actually and being based on evidence, one of the most failed subjects from last semester, which was first year, was English. Followed strangely by some subjects of social and natural sciences, but it’s to be noted that a subject such as English would be a reason for student’s failure, which leaves us with the conclusion that probably in secondary and elementary school they didn’t get enough formation.
In some way, also the area, like I was telling you a while ago, it is of a certain margination, not only social, I’m sorry, I meant not only economical but also social, if you take a look around the school there aren’t malls, there are many small stores so that limits the access to certain products and services, to be able to get them you must go downtown and then come back, so we are isolated in some way.
That’s the complicated thing, however, I repeat to you, there is a government project from the state and it’s not new, but it’s also adding up with services, coming soon we will have a maternal and child hospital nearby, a housing complex Is being built, we have on one side of the school the metropolitan ecological park, on the behind we have the south sport unit, that is financed with government’s money, with resources both federal and state and the idea is that the area is not so “isolated” anymore, we are bringing the services to the students. However to this day is is isolated, even for eating options, there aren’t many restaurants, for example. Those are the 3 obstacles, which I consider most relevant.
I wanted to know a bit about the success rate - are students graduating and attending the UADY University or the technical schools.
Well, that is what we want, but it’s not a rule, those who move onto university are the ones who pass the admission tests, commonly, in the last 2 years, approximately a 30% of graduated students from here, enter some faculty of the Universidad Autónoma and another percentage is incorporated to some other schools, for example, the Technological Institute of Yucatán, the UTM ( Universidad tecnológica metropolitan) even to the navy university, all options which aren’t costly, they can be afforded and have also quality to them.
We can’t really say but it’s not a matter only of the academic unit, unfortunately and it has a lot to do with not saturating the work market, there are many aspiring from the whole state, wishing to get into the university, the coverage that can be, it’s not enough, from all the people wanting to get in, I don’t know, 10,000 students only, approximately 3,000-4,000 make it, so there is a high percentage of students who are left out, among them our corresponding percentage of the statistics, we add up without meaning to, to the state statistics.
But our expectation, our interest, where we want to lead our students is that they do enter university
The importance of including parents in the education process...
Totally, we have, in this school year 2015-2016, we have been working with special tenacity so that the parents become involved, now we are summoning them , actually today we will have a meeting of family parents, we will be delivering partial grades, and in each delivery meeting, we don’t only give them the paper and say goodbye, we talk to them about the importance of motivating the students, about important dates and events, we comment situations that suddenly happen with their kids, the counseling area we have here in the school is in charge of calling the parents, to make an appointment with them when we notice some situation with the students, whether academic or emotional. Even when they miss school, we keep a registry of the student’s assistance and when we see that a student has got more than 12 nonattendances on the week, we call the parents, ask if the kid is ok, give them a close follow up and we consider fundamental, we can’t make this virtuous circle if we do not involve the parents.
We offer them, actually we have a monthly talk directed to the parents, with subjects related to the age group of the kids, things like: effective communication, sexual diversity, gender equity, strategies to motivate the students to keep moving forward, these are subjects, we bring experts in the matter so they talk to the parents to promote this with the kids.
Which are your future plans for the school?
On a short and medium term, plans for the future, well in a very near future, one of the goals that we set from the beginning of this school year, is to significantly raise the scholar retention, in few words that the student doesn’t drop school.
And for that I already told you about the actions that we are taking, but especially on this school year that we are implementing a new study plan, we have noticed that we are making it. To begin with the failure, this semester more than 50% of the students didn’t fail any subject, that could not seem so important, but compared with the results of past year, it’s dramatically different, but besides that we have been implementing the actions that go along with the study plan so that the student who owes a subject can accredit them and we have had very good results, we are on the second regularization period and it’s been pretty successful so we are having a, how to say it?, a very personalized approach of the students to the point that in each progress cut we check again which students owe which subjects and offer them tutorship, personalized accompaniment so that they quickly accredit the subject and can continue with what is being called, the regular semester.
So that is in the short term, I think we will make it happen, it goes hand in hand with the enlargement of the facilities, because we will have more students, we will need more classrooms, so we have been working on some infrastructure projects to raise our capacity to take students in,, we have other projects, for example we have a water purifier plant, but it’s in disuse right now, it takes, now the problem we have, one of the obstacles not for the students but for the school is that we don’t have so many resources, so this purifier plant could provide safe water for our students, free water, but it’s in disuse now.
We have to invest a certain amount of money to reactive this equipment. Because, you know, we spend a lot of money, we try to provide free water for the students, but it’s unsustainable now, we can’t ,we spend more money on that than in other things which are of higher priority, so if that gets reactivated, we have all the equipment, it’s just to give it maintenance and to add an osmosis system so the water has a nice taste, because right now it tastes like tap water, I don’t know if you’ve tried the water here in Mexico, it’s not so safe, but well it has a not so nice taste, so with such equipment we could give free water to our students, the most important, safe water, we don’t want the students to get sick from drinking that water, we have gone a long way, we only need that little push. Excellent, thank you, I appreciate it a lot, it’d be so good.
Which are the most important matters in general education for you?
Well I think the main problem in general with education in Mexico is that, I don’t know if you have heard of the famous “ninis” “no work no study”, (Neither working Nor Studying- young adults in Mexico without work). The student unfortunately studies something, a career, finishes it and is found jobless, can’t find a job where he can use that which he studied. So that’s a severe problem in the country, what happens is we have lots of unemployed people, they are young, sadly, it’d be worse if there was a young person who didn’t study anything at all and is lazing around, but no!, he studied a career, he’s a lawyer, an engineer, but he doesn’t have where to do his job, so what happens is, they sign up for a master’s degree or a PhD or something similar because they will get a scholarship, which will be their income, but the same thing will happen once they finish their masters’ or PhD and they don’t have a job, so then we have doctors who are taxi drivers or teachers who, I don’t know, are practicing some craft, they are musicians, it’s not that it’s a bad thing to be a baker or a taxi driver, but this sensation lingers, that something is missing in Mexico
And the other thing, I feel it’s also very complicated is that the education is, until now, I don’t mean to say in every university in all of Mexico, but it kind of takes us to individualism, at the end you study your degree not to contribute to the society or your neighbours or your family, but to make something for yourself. So in this construction of an individualist society, we keep having social problems because, I don’t graduate, set up my business and help others, but I set up my business and get benefits only for myself, my personal benefit. That is something that I can tell you here in the unit, we try that the students study not only to improve their economic condition but also to be able to do things in their community and we see it when a former student is already at some faculty from the UADY and asks to do his social service here, and then he is supporting us with students, making projects, sociocomunitarian activities, so we notice that we are doing something different in them, we are making them more sensible.
So this is the twist, I repeat, it’s not like we are the only ones, surely there are other universities, other schools already adapting more humane and global models in some way, but we all must head in that direction, because we are on the same thing, there is a problem and you don’t help if it doesn’t involve you directly, so that’s a serious problem.
A Few final words...
Well no, I think in general, you’ve had the chance to be here, I thank you for taking interest in the school, I’m glad you were able to talk with the tutorship area, the psychologists we have here, I don’t know if you have noticed but they are very sensitive people, they aren’t here for the pay, not for the money, in fact we are all aware that we won’t get rich and we didn’t come here for that, I think the best that can happen to the human being is to find a job that makes him/her feel good and even better when it allows you to make other people feel good, so the tutors, for example, I consider they are very sensitive people, they are very attentive to the students, adding to previous questions, that is another characteristic of the academic unit, that we try to the reach of our possibilities to offer them a personalized accompaniment, it’s not that the other schools don’t want to, I mean high school #1 and #2, but it’s so many students, they have a registry of 3000 students approximately, it’s a lot and sometimes they can’t provide them with what we are providing to our kids, a 1-1 accompaniment.
On the other hand you already had the chance to meet the people who are in the socio- communitarian projects, so that is another fundamental characteristic of ours, we believe and we also tell this to our students, that the fact of doing these socio-communitarian activities it’s not only a matter of getting a grade in some subject but it really allows them to form a critical thinking on one side, a capacity to solve problems which is highly valuated in a global scale I think, the teamwork, the capacity of whenever you face a problem you won’t get paralyzed, but you will mobilize people and yourself with the resources at your reach and I think that’s fundamental, it’s education for life, it’s something we want to do, it’s not education for work or to earn money, education for life so in a given time you lose your job you will have the capacity to do other things that will allow you to support your family, that let you generate resources to feed yourself and to feed the ones that depend on you. That won’t come in a cereal box, you have to do it here and you have to do it starting on basic education and follow this alliance, elementary, secondary, high school, college, then the result will have to be a critical citizen, conscious, sensitive that is after what psychologists would call, self-realization, not only survival.