Current Educational Problems In Peru
The country of Peru is made up of roughly 31 million people, and approximately 8 million of those people are between the ages of 0-14. During this time period in a child's life, they should be developing their intellectual skills, as this is prime time for memory, motor, problem solving, and other important functional skills to develop. Some of these skills can develop on their own or by adaptation to environments and circumstances, but many require guidance. Educational systems are a way to provide this developmental guidance, through curriculum based learning, step in instructors, that can take over the role in helping to further intelligence, while other guardians are occupied with providing the financial aspects of a child's life, and the law requiring you to do so. Without education there is no guarantee children's minds will develop and learn the basic knowledge required to function in even the most underdeveloped societies.
The country of Peru is struggling to adequately provide the necessary means needed for their population of children to be educated in this way. The country only legally requires you to be enrolled in school from ages 6-11, or for 6 years, but pre-primary education (ages 3-5) and secondary education (ages 12-16) are offered. This results in many children only receiving the required time of six years as their complete education. By eleven years old, if that long, most will be pulled into the workforce to help provide for their families. 97% of kids in this 6-11 age range are enrolled in school, which is a largely increased number compared to what it was, but the numbers do not reveal the whole story. 34% of children from ages 5-17 are already working jobs, so many times children are enrolled in school but do not attend. Specifically, girls in Peru are subjected to an even smaller chance of receiving a quality education, as they are subjected to value in cultural norms, surpassing that of education. Girls may be expected to stay at home and take care of siblings while parents are at work, or might not be the first choice of which child to fund to go to school. This devastating choice that is often made in lesser developed areas, can result in girls never receiving a complete education, as only 36% will go on to ever complete secondary schooling. This can lead to girls marrying young, entering sex trafficking situations, or stuck performing chores and laborious jobs for the rest of their lives.
The law requiring kids to be in school for six years is not enforced, as the government realizes the economic challenges most of the country endures, and is allowing the country to slip lower intellectually. Those children, mostly living in rural areas, boy or girl, are not receiving the full, already limited, education in this crucial time in their lives. The effects of the limited education can be seen when tested to national standards or compared to other countries. In some areas of Peru, only 18% achieved satisfactory test scores, and were significantly low when compared to the United States. Peru consistently tested at least 100 points below an average United States average test score, in every subject, Mathematics, Science, and Reading. These inferior scores placed Peru at number 145 out of 173 countries. A country so low on the scale cannot be providing satisfactory education to the children living there. Granted there has been slight improvements in numbers for Peru, but that only shows how beneath they were to begin with.
Peru has an educational system in place, structured by policy, and has updated the General Law of Education to try and provide a better service to the country. This gives each child a right to a free education, but doesn't go much further in providing a worthy one. As there are many factors that go into receiving or providing an acceptable education, Peru clearly has disadvantages that inhibits the provision of giving a child the education they deserve.
