A Discussion with Ada del Carmen Monje de Afaro, Teacher, Nueva Trinidad, El Salvador
With: Ada del Carmen Monje de Afaro Berkley Center Profile
July 27, 2011
Tell me about your experience as a teacher and community member. How did you arrive at your present career?
I was born in Las Vegas. My family moved to Guatemala during the war, but we moved back after the peace accords were signed. At that time, a cousin of mine was working as a popular teacher. She told me that another teacher was needed and asked me if I’d be interested in the position. I was 17 years old and had only gotten up to sixth grade. At first I was incredulous. “How can I teach if I know so little?” I asked her. “I don’t know anything either,” she said. The community got together and held an assembly to discuss whether they would accept me. Because I had advanced more academically than most, they did.
When I first started working, it was strange. Many of the students were the same age, or even older, than me because they were going back to school after abandoning their studies during the war. Fortunately, however, I was trained well. Every 15 days, all of the popular teachers from the municipalities of Nueva Trinidad and Arcatao got together to participate in workshops and to plan lessons. We wrote our curriculums together. We created all of our materials ourselves. This was great. We were able to talk about what worked and didn’t work in the classroom. We adapted our lessons to the reality around us. Later, we began a formal training process. Because we only had a limited education ourselves, we had to keep studying to progress through the official school system. We studied until we could take an exam to pass from ninth grade to high school. From there, we continued with high school in Arcatao, the center of the neighboring municipality. After we passed more exams to get our high school diplomas, we entered into University of El Salvador’s teacher formation process. Fortunately, we didn’t have to go to San Salvador, where the university is located for this, but were able to study in Guadija, a nearby town. We negotiated with the university to get professors to come to us, rather than the other way around. After three years, we graduated.
We already had a world of experience behind us. We were working, but we weren’t being paid because we weren’t official, state-sponsored teachers. We received a small incentive, almost nothing, from the parish. We also got food and scholarships for travel and materials from the dioceses of Chaletenango. We used whatever materials we could find. In this way, we were able to survive.
Our school consisted of a friend’s house. One group of students worked in one little room and another worked in the other little room. There was no electricity, so we had to open the windows to let in light or use candles. It was hard, but much less so than what my colleagues had gone through as popular teachers during the war. Unlike them, for example, we at least had basic materials like paper and pencils.
I finally graduated from university and got my teaching license in 1999. In 2000, the Ministry of Education began absorbing popular teachers into the state education system. They gave official positions to a small group at first. In Las Vegas, specifically, they only approved a position for one professor. There were two teachers, however, another woman and myself, who were working in the community. We decided that whoever got it would share her salary with the other who didn’t. It ended up that my colleague won. She entered in September of 2000 and shared her earnings with me until I was given a position in December.
Describe to me the state of education in your community, Las Vegas, from your point of view. What are the positive aspects? What are the challenges?
There are very few students in Las Vegas and only two teachers. The school consists of preschool through sixth grade. I currently teach preschool and sixth grade in the same room. Sixth grade begins at 7:30 a.m. and goes to 11:45 a.m., and preschool begins at 8:00 a.m. and goes to 11:30 p.m. It’s difficult to manage. I give the sixth graders work to do while I deal with the preschoolers and then give the preschoolers a project while I work with the sixth graders. Obviously, I can’t give the appropriate amount of attention to each student. Their learning suffers. This cannot change, however, because the Ministry of Education refuses to open another teaching position here. It requires a certain amount of students to warrant paying another salary.
School attendance is generally good here. Many students continue their education beyond sixth grade, despite the fact that they have to go elsewhere to do so. We’ve had two students graduate from university. We’ve seen that there are now slightly more professionals in the community or that, at the very least, our youth are experiencing personal growth through their studies.
These successes, though, are few compared to the number of challenges we face. We’re really lacking in technology, for example. Our students know nothing about computers, because we don’t have any. We also need more support from families. We need them to understand that they must support their children in schoolwork.
Perhaps the biggest obstacle to educational progress, however, is the economic situation of the region. Poverty is rampant, and jobs are few. Many people don’t have the resources to pursue higher education or, if they get a degree, they are unable to find work. My family, fortunately, is an exception. My brothers immigrated to the United States and sent back money that allowed my sister to get a technical degree in medicine.
In your experience, what has been the role of the Church and the parish in education in this community?
I know that the parish has projects that directly support education in this area, but I have yet to experience any. They provide scholarships, for example, but no one from Las Vegas has received one.
Nevertheless, they have other development projects that indirectly assist the school. Their potable water initiative, for instance, has been particularly important. In Las Vegas, water is hard to come by. Some families lose their supply completely during the dry season. The parish addressed this, working with the mayor’s office and the Association of Communities for the Development of Chalatenango to put in pipes and tanks to ensure that everyone has access to water, the school included.
How has your experience of popular education impacted you? Has your time as a popular teacher impacted your views on education and your current teaching methods?
Popular education is characterized by the fact that it is realistic. School material is adapted to the reality of the surrounding environment. I’ve always tried to do this. Why talk to students about a traffic light, for example, if a traffic light never existed here?
Now, I can do this with somewhat less fear than before. Under this government, unlike before, we’re relatively free to express our opinions.
What’s the future of education here? What’s your vision of an ideal future?
The future is uncertain. Every year, the school size gets smaller. This hurts the students that remain, because it means we have to further integrate grades. It puts my position as a teacher in jeopardy.
All of the schools in the region are in this situation. I’m not sure what we can do. At the very least, it would help if the Ministry of Education gave us material that were geared toward integrated classrooms. Instead of the current curriculums, we need something that prepares teachers to deal with multiple grades simultaneously.