By Carmen Hurtado Mena
Education is not only essential to groom the personality of any individual,
but a prerequisite for the socio-economic development of a country. From this perspective,
governments play the most important role after parents’ efforts to provide
children with an upright and worthy education. In recent times the teaching of
English has gained significance in the curricula in our educational system. We
may wonder if we are on the right track.
In our country, President Ollanta Humala Tasso has outlined a plan in
which a bilingual education scheme attempts to improve EFL teaching and the educational
system at all levels in both public schools and the Peruvian armed forces. He maintains:
“We need competent and skillful people. This is a task to be worked together by
the central government, private institutions, and the mass communication media.
We need schools to assume the challenge of innovation;” which reflects the
shifts made so far in the school curricula.
It is known that the Administration has made substantial investments in
teacher training, as well as dished out scholarships to educators for studying
abroad, something which has led a number of English teachers to close ranks
around this initiative. However, greater requirements lie ahead in order to accomplish
his goal. To just add up more classroom hours to teach subject matters such as
Math, Science, P.E, and Language Arts in public schools starting next year will
not guarantee success in this expedition. We know that without competent
teachers we will not be able to either upgrade the educational system or
improve the quality of schooling. In
this regard, the series of educational reforms announced in the public sector
have not yet made any substantial impact, and it might be argued that the
executive has found in teaching EFL a good argument to persuade the public that
the educational service in fact works.
Some questions then come up: What has triggered the quick growth of EFL-teaching
at private schools in our country? What is the point of urging all kids to
learn English? Are most private schools offering brilliant EFL teaching in comparison
to public schools? What distinguishes public schools in our country? Is it the number
of students and infrastructure, or the instruction? Beside public schools there
are private, self-financed day schools, cooperatively managed; schools operated
by the Catholic Church, and schools run by other religious organizations.
The rich assorted population of our country showcases a wide-ranging
group of people. The 20th century has been characterized by
immigration, which has made investors to attain an increased interest in our
country. English has become the key language of investors, and people see an
opportunity to get job openings. In addition, the tuition free and compulsory public
basic education system comprises pre-school, primary, and secondary levels. The
question is, then, has the last variant in the curricula been made properly, or
should it have been organized training teachers as a first s
tep? Will we really
have the eligible qualified teachers to cope with the government expectations and
demands by the 2017?
How is English being taught in your
school?
Is there any data that shows the
achievements in learning English at schools in the last decades?
References:
https://ei.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/files/latin-america-research/English%20in%20Peru.pdfhttp://wenr.wes.org/2015/04/education-in-peru/
Bio Data
Carmen Hurtado, graduated in the
educational field; she holds a Bachelor’s degree in Educational Science, and
the title of Lic. en Educación by Universidad Nacional de Educación. She has
also finished her master’s studies in Teaching English as a Foreign Language at
Universidad de Piura, and taken some specializations in the EFL and Spanish
fields. She has taught English and Spanish for over 20 years. She currently
works teaching fully online courses. A lecturer in the late Annual Congresses
at CIDUP, she works as a Pedagogical Teacher Trainer and is a member of the
Research Area at Universidad del Pacifico Language Center.
