SITUATING OURSELVES

I have been teaching English as a second language in a public school for students from 8th basic courses in Guayaquil- Ecuador.  This group of students belongs to a low economical situation, also called “poor people”, who do not have for buying materials and uniforms.

Public Education in Ecuador has been evaluated by the Government in order to improve its quality.   Education has suffered important changes to guarantee its quality, it is in permanent evaluation. Mr Correa, the President gave this community called “Balerio Estacio” the opportunity to obtain free education, and then he ordered to build a modern High school in this location.

Actually English is one of the subjects that is in a process of transformation. English teachers have been ordered not to ask for books or any kind of material, we are teaching according to the curriculum of the previous academic year, which is not good for the students, because they have to copy every day the class in their notebooks and they have problems to write correctly and on time, considering that a class lasts only 40 minutes.

Another important aspect to consider is the lack of economical resources thus is not possible to improve the quality of English classes because we cannot access to technology.In order to make students listen or sing, I have to buy speakers, which are used with batteries.  It important to mention that there is not electricity.  To help students learn English is big challenge to a teacher. Every day I try to accomplish a lesson plan, but it is impossible because sometimes I need to repeat the previous class. 

  In addition to this problem, not all the students have a knowledge of Basic English, so they need to take additional classes, but most of them cannot because they do not have money to buy food and they have come back immediately.

I make my own didactic material like charts and make students prepare their presentations tasks on their notebooks, also they have to sing songs and play games to learn vocabulary.

In spite of all of these situations, students need to go on. It is necessary to make arrangements to help them to succeed the school year. It would be appropriated to consider this in the new curriculum. 

RocioNaranjo.