Over the past 20 years a movement committed to ensuring that all children have the opportunity to an excellent education has been spreading around the world. This movement is not demanding more public funding or fighting for radical curriculum changes, but is focused on a particular player in the educational maelstrom: the teacher. Such a concept first emerged in the US as Teach for America and was soon transported to the UK as Teach First.

Photo by Rosalie Smith

Through these organisations thousands of university graduates have spent two years teaching in some of their country’s most disadvantaged schools. In 2006, Teach for America and Teach First collaborated to found Teach for All, an organisation which would help social entrepreneurs around the world apply the model in their respective countries. The model has now spread to South America, with successful programmes up and running in Chile and Peru – and this month the programme hits Argentina.

Enseñá por Argentina (Teach First Argentina) follows the Teach for All model and is dedicated to addressing educational disadvantage in Argentina. Supported and funded by Teach for All and with backing from Argentine businesses, the programme is open to applicants from May this year and the first teachers will go into schools in March 2011. The objective of Enseñá por Argentina is that “one day all children in Argentina will receive a quality education”.

Spurred on by the success of the programme around the world, and especially in Chile and Peru, the young, ambitious and passionate team of five don’t just want to raise awareness of problems in the Argentine educational system, but participate in making change happen. Oscar Ghillione, executive director of Enseñá por Argentina tells me, “We want to create social change – a movement of leaders who understand the education issues and problems in Argentina.”

Traditional Educational Issues

And the problems are there. According to research done by the International Programme for Evaluation of Students (PISA), Argentine secondary schools suffer from a 50% drop-out rate and out of 57 countries that PISA rated, Argentina was in the bottom 25% in  academic achievement for mathematics, languages and science. Oscar tells me: “There are lots of organisations and public policies working to improve teaching, but more can be done and we think we have a method that can support all the other ways.”

Photo by Rosalie Smith

Directors of the Enseñá por Argentina, Oscar and Mariela

The basic premise of the programme is that they will select and train some of the best university graduates in Argentina and send them to teach in some of the most vulnerable schools in Buenos Aires (the programme hopes to expand to other areas once it is established). The Enseñá por Argentina participants will undergo a six week intensive training course and will then be placed in schools where there is a teacher deficit and frequently where the school and pupils are struggling because of poverty and other social problems. The participants will then seek to change the dynamics of the classroom by motivating and inspiring the young people.

Traditionally teachers in Argentina undergo four years of training before they take up teaching positions. Unlike the UK programme, where the Teach First participants are following a very similar path to traditional teacher training, the Argentine programme is a break from the norm. The Enseñá por Argentina team insist that only the very best graduates will be selected for the programme and participants will be coached and mentored throughout the two years to ensure that their standard of teaching is excellent.

Gabriel Solari, deputy headmaster of St. Xaviers’s College tells me, “I don’t think it matters that the participants have not completed the four years at teacher training college. The most important thing for a teacher to have is passion and commitment. Knowledge of the subject is necessary, but the ability to bring it alive and relate it to real life is how you get children interested in learning. If the Enseñá por Argentina teachers can do this, then the programme is a good thing.”

Breaking the Cycle

Enseñá por Argentina believes that there is a systemic problem with education in this country. Young people from low socioeconomic backgrounds go to schools where, often due to location, fewer teachers want to work and those that do, don’t stay long. The high turnover of staff is disruptive to pupils which further de-motivates them to learn. They lack access to information about education and the world of work and many leave school early. Due to a lack of education or qualifications, they may find difficulties in getting work and the cycle begins again. Enseñá por Argentina believes that teachers are a key factor in breaking this cycle. By placing talented and passionate graduates with students who are in desperate need of attention and support, it is hoped they can inspire and motivate young people to realise their potential and succeed at school.

Not all the participants will go on to become teachers for life, but Oscar and his colleagues hope that whatever career path they choose, they will continue to be advocates for educational reform. In the UK, 55% of Teach First participants remain in teaching and two thirds of those who move into other sectors continue to stay involved with the Teach First mission through pupil mentoring and other school support positions. The vision of Enseñá por Argentina is similar to the UK experience: whatever field of work they choose, they hope that their alumni will continue to fight for a quality education for all.

Photo by Beatrice Murch

Student studies in her classroom in La Matanza

The Key Stakeholders

The Teach First model believes that education is an issue for lots of different groups in society: businesses, the public, the government and educational organisations. If young people are not receiving the best education then everyone will suffer in some way. Mariela Zoppi, director of admissions and communications at Enseñá por Argentina said, “Our biggest challenge at the moment is communicating the message to all the different stakeholders. In order for the programme to be a success we need the universities on board to help form the two-year programme for the students; we need the schools on board to take the students into their classrooms; we need the support of the government and then finally we need students to apply to take part.”

The other critical stakeholder is business. Enseñá por Argentina needs financial backing, but they also want to engage with businesses who understand the importance of reforming education and want to actively get involved. Tomás Recart, chief executive, Enseña Chile explains, “Obviously we need businesses to provide us with financial support, but we also want them to go out into the schools and talk to the kids. One chief executive told me that standing up and talking to a classroom of kids was the hardest thing he’s ever done. He said that if his company’s financial support resulted in one more committed teacher in Chile then he’d be happy.

“We want to have a relationship with the business community, in the same way that we want to involve government, educational bodies and the public. We don’t want to be a movement in isolation. Enseñá por Argentina is not owned by just the government, or business, or the NGO itself: Everyone is involved.”

The visits from business into schools can provide kids who come from backgrounds where unemployment is the norm, to gain an insight into the world of work. It also means that businessmen aren’t just throwing money from their ivory towers, but are actively involved themselves in making change happen.

What’s in it for the Participants?

In the UK a significant benefit for participants is that they gain a formal teaching qualification at the end of the two years. This is something that is difficult to replicate in Argentina and Chile due to the structure of teacher training. However, Enseñá por Argentina participants can gain some credits towards a teaching qualification and the team are hoping that in the future the programme can build a closer link to the teaching courses the Argentine universities offer.

There are other benefits for participants. Mariela Zoppi says “the students will develop skills during the two year programme, which will be recognised internationally. The model of teaching and study that we are using is the same that is being implemented in 12 other countries around the world. They will become leading professionals who are able to meet the highest objectives in complex and adverse environments.

“This is an option for young professionals who want to get involved in the development of the country; seek to acquire one of the deepest personal and professional experiences; and to begin their careers in an original and more meaningful way.”

Enseñá por Argentina hopes that their teachers will not only leave with a vivid understanding of social reality which they will continue to nurture throughout their lives, but that they will learn leadership, interpersonal and professional skills that will help them to succeed in their chosen careers.

Will it work in South America?

The programmes in the UK and the US have been extremely successful, with Teach First being recognised as one of the UK’s top graduate recruitment programmes. Enseñá por Argentina is yet to send its students into schools, but the signs are good. So far the response from universities, schools and businesses has been very positive.

Photo by Rosalie Smith

In Chile one successful batch of graduates are already half way through the two-year programme. Many of the challenges that Enseña Chile faces are similar to the UK and US experience,  Tomás explains “Like in the UK and US the root of the education problem in Chile is bridging the gap between what we know and what we do in the classroom. Kids in Chile have bleak expectations and under-achieve. We believe that it doesn’t matter what socioeconomic background a kid comes from, they all have talents and can achieve.”

However, the programme in Chile faces greater hurdles than its UK and US counterparts. In Chile the education system still suffers from the effects of the military regimes of the 1970s when teachers’ wages were slashed. Combined with other cultural changes, teaching has become a less well-respected career. Tomás tells me that as a result “by 2015 it is reckoned that there will be a deficit of 20,000 teachers in Chile”.

When asked if Enseña Chile has been successful, Tomás replies, “Many of the schools and teachers were very sceptical when we first contacted them. In the past other programmes hadn’t met their expectations, but with us we don’t just talk results, we show them. And the  best way to demonstrate if our programme is working is the response of the kids. They have been incredibly positive towards our teachers.”

Added to this, last year, many of the teachers from Enseña Chile won awards for ‘best teacher’ in their area.

A Future Impact

Enseñá por Argentina hopes to have 1,000 applicants for the 25-30 places they want to run in March next year. They will only take the very best applicants and are adamant that this isn’t an easy programme to get onto. This is emphasised by the experience of the team in Chile. Tomás tells me, “we listen to the pupils in the schools. If they tell us that an Enseña Chile teacher isn’t teaching well then we review their place on the programme. The children are the most important thing. We can’t put the learning of the kids in danger.”

When asked what he hopes the programme in Argentina will achieve, Oscar adds: “In the short term I hope we have an immediate impact on the children our students work with. In the long term we want to contribute towards a better Argentina.

For more information or to apply for Enseñá por Argentina visit www.ensenaporargentina.org

Information about Teach for All and the programmes around the world can be found at www.teachforallnetwork.org

Photo by Beatrice Murch

As Nietzsche knew, “education decreases daily because of the raising haste.” Maya Frost also asked herself how to get her four daughters out of the US’ schooling system and within one month they decided to sell all their belongings and move abroad.

The family took this step four years ago and it was the beginning of six extravagant stories, guiding them to countless different countries all over the world and leading their lives down impressive paths. Maya, her husband Tom and their youngest daughter Talya settled in Buenos Aires two years ago and Maya has now published ‘The New Global Student’, a book about the indispensable position of internationality in education today and the possibility of avoiding paying thousands of dollars for US’ schools just by thinking outside the box. A story about personal growth, an alternative way of life and one’s own stupidity.

The lives of Frost’s daughters sounds a bit like a couple of Do It Yourself fairytales. They travelled through different continents, participated in a plethora of activities and, along the way, got fluent in a couple of languages. Adding that all this happened while avoiding the nightmare SAT, getting an even better but more stress-free global education and saving money by being out on the road, this book is a handbook for students and their parents.

“People have got the idea that education is what you get when you go to school but it’s much more than that. Education in the US isn’t very practical but it’s fancy to go to school. Students in the States are so competitive and stressed by that. If you put people under pressure to get As, it reduces their joy in learning.” Therefore, learning need not share the connotations of a puritanical sense of duty that studying tends to evoke. According to Maya, the only thing you have to do is go global.

Examples of its success are the book’s stories of people who go abroad and make a living out of their passion. One of them is the outdoor fanatic Ryan Hastreiter. His profession led him to kayaking through Uganda’s rivers for a couple of years and later become a member of Nike’s global retail projects division, settled somewhere between China and the US. Responsible for his transcontinental lifestyle was naturally his “global campus”, as he calls it.

Maya’s reason to come to Argentina wasn’t that deliberate, it was more a personal favour. “Our daughter Talya had that crazy year in Mexico and at the end of it we just asked her where she wanted to go to. She picked Buenos Aires. We had never been here before but it seems like we will stay … Argentina is not as stressed as the US and Argentines are not so competitive with each other. The students here work for themselves and don’t have the idea of being the best in class or in their group. A lot of our stress in the US is created by being so competitive.”

courtesy of Maya Frost

While her own kids are already part of the global working market, in the book she’s sharing her experience about alternative and cheap schooling all over the world. “It’s very important to be open-minded because so many things change every day. People think that they can’t pay for college so how to imagine going abroad for a year? Reality is that there are cheaper options for studying, including various stays abroad. We saved so much money because our daughters studied in so many different countries, just by avoiding to pay US’ colleges for all of them.”

Their fluency in several languages is thereby just a positive side effect. The main advantage the parents see in their stays is the personal growth. ”If you know that you took the hardest step in your life when you were 15, than you can do everything. If you didn’t take any steps until you are 30, it’s quite harder to trust that much in yourself,” says Tom as proud father of four independent young women aged between 18 and 23.

Nonetheless, it’s never too late to go abroad. A perfect example is that of Tom’s own mother. After living in her house in the US since the 1960s, she decided a couple of months ago to move and is now making a new life in Hawaii, a place where she knew no one. She’s 72.

“As an expat you feel so stupid so many times and you make so many mistakes. Tom and I met each other when we lived in Japan. We were the only foreigners in this tiny town and we often didn’t know how to behave. That’s how we started out life together and after living many years in the US, we somehow got back to that state of life where we’re just two idiots who make mistakes every day. I think it makes you less curious and feel happier to be alive.

“We think a lot about what our lives would be like if we still lived in Oregon. I can’t imagine that. A suburb doesn’t give you any creative input. I would have never written that book and now I have started working on my first novel. That wouldn’t have happened in Oregon. We would probably have worked harder and have a bigger house but we wouldn’t be so happy by living normally. People always forget about what is important in life.”

Argentine society is well known for its job-related calmness, and whereas many of the country’s populace see this as partially responsible for its economical malfunction, Maya sees an advantage in it. “People here have been down so many times that they are relaxed their expectations. They know that things can change tomorrow, they might lose their jobs and the economy might break down again. It makes them focus more on important things.”

‘The New Global Student’ is therefore not just a guide through the labyrinth of US’ educational system, but also a motivating narrative of a exemplary expat-life. “There are so many people who would be so much happier and I think for a lot of them money is just an excuse because they’re scared. I live my dream and everybody else could do that as well.”

‘The New Global Student: Skip The SAT, Save Thousands of Tuition and Get a Truly International Education’ was published in May through Three Rivers Press. The printed book isn’t available in Argentina, but you can get the Kindle-version or ebook at every online bookselling shop.

Photo by Beatrice Murch

Argentina is currently wrenched by a security crisis that provoked 50,000 people to march the streets of Buenos Aires protesting for their safety last month. All sectors of society have witnessed an increase in violent crime. It now seems logical to ask where the causes of this problem lie.

Doctor Claudio Stampalija, the director of the Centre of Studies for the Prevention of Crime at the University of Belgrano (CEPREDE), believes that the problem must be tackled at its grass roots: young people.

He has stated that Argentina now faces “a structural delinquency” among adolescents, which is very difficult to eradicate. His shocking finding that 80-95% of young people who have broken the law once will do so again supports his claim.

It is clear that violent means, for increasing numbers of youths, have become the norm in achieving certain ends. Minors (people under the age of 21) now commit 55-70% of all crime that occurs in Argentina. There is a tendency towards the younger end of the spectrum, with 14-16 year olds being the worst offenders.

Dr Stampalija, a criminologist and expert on youth crime, has carried out various research projects into the phenomenon and links growing aggression and violence to teenagers who are not cared for and lack a decent education, which he considers a basic human right.

Photo by Beatrice Murch

“Education is important for young people. It allows them to choose.” He adds that while education might not put a child from a marginalised area with economic problems, a dysfunctional home and abusive parents in the same position as a child who doesn’t face these problems, “it can give them more opportunities”.

It is therefore worrying that just 48.5% of young Argentines finish secondary school. This is despite a modification in education law in 2007 which made their attendance obligatory. The findings are even more disturbing given that Argentina has one of the best developed education systems in Latin America, and its neighbour Chile sees 95% of pupils completing their secondary education.

Last year CEPREDE asked secondary school teachers in the public and private sectors whether aggression in the classroom had increased in the last ten years. Ninety-nine per cent of teachers in the capital and greater Buenos Aires said ‘yes’, with 88% saying that they had observed more violent behaviour amongst their pupils.

Crisis of Values

Iliana Gonzalez, who has been a secondary school teacher for over a decade, has seen an increase in the number of pupils dropping out of secondary education. She blames this on “a growing crisis of values”, but does not link school abandonment explicitly to an increase in youth violence.

Photo by Beatrice Murch

In her opinion the core problem is that young people don’t value themselves. “They don’t see themselves in the future, growing up. If they don’t value their own lives how can they value anyone else’s? How can they value the work of a teacher at school?”

This crisis of values is evident in the responses of some young offenders when asked about their life aspirations. One 16-year-old in a detention centre for robbing an elderly lady at knifepoint replied: “What am I going to hope for? I want to live today, now and leave here to carry on stealing.”

The juvenile repeat offence statistics provoked a strongly negative reaction online. However, the situation cannot be blamed wholly on youths. Dr Stampalija agrees that the problem is cultural. “It’s a problem with our institutional culture,” he explains, adding young people don’t respect the government, the police or the law because they set bad examples.

Gonzalez says that when she asks her students if they will carry on studying at university, the majority reply: ‘“For what? I want money.’ They see examples of corruption every day. It’s habitual in the country and nothing happens.” She even suggests that the public’s lack of education and inability to adopt critical positions benefits the government.

While this may be true, the government cannot shoulder all the blame. The Ministry of Education aims to support students via a pack of programmes that include grants, provision of resources and educative tourism.

Eugenio Porone, the coordinator of grants at the Ministry of Education, explains that some pupils are given $900 a year to encourage them to stay in school. Often the grants are symbolic as well as financially beneficial. “After all the problems the recipient may have had with other institutions the grants show them that someone really cares about them.”

Photo by Beatrice Murch

There is now a grant programme for young people who are having problems with the law, whether that may be as a result of another family member’s actions or their own. Porone acknowledges that the majority of these financial incentives are directed at children who are already in secondary school and are organised via the school’s head teacher, but emphasises that some are targeted at young people outside of the system too.

Porone and Claudio Cincotta, the coordinator of the ministry’s educative tourism programme, agree that blame must be shared. They point out that while the need for compulsory secondary education has been accepted by society in theory, many people – especially teachers – are still becoming accustomed to the all the practical changes this implies.

Breakdown in Communication

It is evident that the lack of coordination and communication between all parties involved in young people’s education lies at the core of the issue.

Parents’ evenings, for example, have become a thing of the past. Gonzalez admits very few attend meetings with their child’s teacher, and this situation is worst in the public sector. CEPREDE’s research confirms that communication between parents and teachers has almost ceased to exist. In the capital 51% of teachers said they had experienced aggressiveness or violence from a parent. Forty-three per cent of parents said they involved themselves in questions relating to their children’s education “sporadically”.

The research also betrays a lack of interaction between young people and their own parents. Approximately 70% of pupils in the capital and the province said they had been involved in violent episodes with their classmates. While just over 30% of parents knew, or admitted to their children being involved in such incidents at school.

This breakdown in communication reflects many parents’ gruelling work schedule; to maintain a dignified lifestyle, or even to afford private school fees. In her position as a teacher, Gonzalez has seen many pupils decide they don’t want to continue studying. Their parents have accepted this and simply told them to look for work. She says: “For me the pupil is very alone in this decision when it should be everyone’s responsibility.”

Many teachers in Argentina, she says, work in several schools simultaneously to earn a decent wage. It is a challenge to motivate students when there is little time to prepare lessons and build up close relationships, especially as many classes contain more than 40 students.

Photo by Beatrice Murch

The Role of the School

Many students are left with little stability, made worse by the government’s constant curriculum reforms. Gonzalez highlights changes that have been made to the content of the language and literature curriculum she teaches. “Now everything has to relate to society and its problems, with the aim of forming citizens. This demonstrates that there is a problem.” She argues that the production of respectful, rounded citizens must be more natural than that. “Society isn’t doing this now so school is needed to fill this role.”

The opportunities an education affords someone from a disadvantaged background and the importance it plays in developing well-balanced adults are widely acknowledged. However, the justice of lumbering schools with the responsibility to alleviate a societal meltdown that has been going on for many years is questionable.

Stampalija agrees that while an education is an invaluable training and socialising tool, educators cannot resolve all the problems in students’ conduct. It can only highlight behavioural issues so that the family can continue its crucial role in the formation of young people.

He maintains that the key is to prevent young people starting down the path of crime in the first place. This work must begin when people are very young. “In our country the mentality – and I’ve been fighting for this for over 20 years – of prevention is not developed. Everything starts and ends with: we’re going to name three more judges… put three more policemen on the street and send one more person to prison.” He says this mentality of trying to resolve today in time for tomorrow does not work.

Stampalija and Gonzalez both implore the government for greater investment. The former emphasises the importance of courses for teachers about how to manage anger, aggression and violence, while Gonzalez thinks that teachers simply shouldn’t have to put up with aggressive behaviour in the classroom.

Photo by Beatrice Murch

Porone and Cincotta, from the Ministry of Education, argue that the government is already investing in the system. From 2007 onwards approximately 10,000 grants per year have been awarded to students in Buenos Aires province. Nevertheless, 50,000 students still drop out of school every year. Porone regrets that “for every one you save, you lose five others.”

When confronted with CEPREDE’s statistics they acknowledge that, while the ministry is working to improve the situation, it is still not sufficient.

All sectors recognise their share of the blame. The Ministry of Education and teachers, in particular, must now work closely together to overcome this seemingly interminable problem.

Perhaps their most important task is to alert parents to their role in their child’s education. This could be through extra-curricular activities, parent’s evenings, or just taking an interest in their child’s day at school.

If this effort continues and all available expertise is taken on board, hopefully universal secondary education will become the norm and youth violence will be curtailed. However, sparking such great cultural changes will require patience and a lot of hard work.

 

Photo by Johanna Westling

Pretend to be a balloon flying away and watching the world from above, a tortoise going to hospital or a widow whose husband has just fallen off a roller coaster and act all these situations in Spanish only! Every Monday evening actors Lucia Ortigueira and Fernando Ferrer open the doors of a small theatre in Abasto to foreigners wanting to practise their Spanish in an amusing way.

During the two-hour course, students get to learn some basic improvisation techniques and act the part of whoever they want in the most strangest situations encouraged by different instructions every time. “Imagine you are a statue,” said Lucia in my first class. So I became a frozen monkey. “When I clap my hands, make it come to life,” she then added. I was only too glad to make funny noises and scratch my armpits in front of the other students I’d never met before. The next exercise got me and a partner to listen to a recording of the sea and act the situation that would happen after. That’s how I found myself lying on a beach looking for Mr Perfect. He actually came along, we chatted for a bit, but I ended up not liking his car.

Practising Spanish and learning basic drama tricks aren’t the only advantages this course offers. It also allows the participants to enlarge their vocabulary. Indeed, in their daily life in Buenos Aires they only rarely get the opportunity to talk about peeing on their seat at school or running off with another guy on their wedding day…well, not that often anyway.

 

Photo by Johanna Westling

Group sizes vary between three and ten people, depending on who is around. They are aged between 20 and 50 years old and are mostly language students or volunteer workers. “In three years, we have seen around 90 foreigners come and go,” says Lucia. “Two of them have been attending the classes from the beginning, but because people are rarely here for a long period of time, we can’t afford to put on a play, that’s why we concentrate on improvisation games.” Once a month, students also get to go and see a play.

Fernando and Lucia are both professional actors in their early 30s. Fernando is also a theatre and film director. “We met when I was in a play he was directing,” adds Lucia, mother of a child of 18 months. They then set up this class together. “It’s a good tool to complement Spanish lessons,” she concludes. “Improvisation is also a way to throw yourself in the deep end, speak no matter what and get the best out of yourself.”

Practica español haciendo teatro: For more information visit www.peht.com.ar, or email info@peht.com.ar

Photo courtesy by IFAD, G Bizzarri

 

A survey recently published by Unicef stated that 9.2% of children in Argentina are born to an illiterate or severely undereducated mother. The findings, from their annual study ‘The State of the World’s Children’, seem shocking for a country which supposedly has the highest literacy rate in the continent.

However, although Argentina’s literacy rate is higher than its Latin American neighbours’, many of the figures fail to reflect the true range and depth of the problem. Figures are often heavily based on results in Buenos Aires, a city that prides itself on its academic heritage. The capital is home to some of the best universities and the biggest names in Latin American literature. Book shops populate the streets and indeed The Buenos Aires International Book Fair is the largest Spanish-speaking fair in the world, as well as one of the most important cultural and editorial events in Latin America.

But things are very different outside of the capital.

The areas of highest illiteracy are found among the indigenous communities. This part of the population is rarely fairly represented in surveys due to their isolation geographically as well as, rather ironically, culturally. Many of these communities retain their own indigenous languages and as such Guaraní and Toba. Though some of these indigenous languages are dying out, perhaps also as a result of illiteracy. Without the ability to read and write a language it is difficult to preserve it.

Photo courtesy by IFAD, G Bizzarri

 

It is no coincidence that Bolivia, the South American country with the highest illiteracy rate, is also the South American country with the highest indigenous population (70%). Similarly the illiteracy rate in Northeast Argentina, where there are many indigenous communities, is twice the average for the rest of Argentina.

There is a lot of stigma attached to the problem. Many are afraid to admit that they are illiterate. It is likely that they have been cheated precisely because they do not know how to read or write – perhaps because they have admitted to having problems or also because they haven’t and as result have blindly signed away their rights. Therefore it is hard to go by what the statistics say.

Furthermore, the term ‘illiterate’ has wide interpretations. Many people can be classed as functionally illiterate: they technically know how to read and write. They are able to write their own name and read numbers and thus pass themselves as ‘literate’ though in reality are unable to perform other basic tasks using language.

A Cuban literacy project ‘Yo sí puedo!’ identified this key issue and established a teaching method whereby students learn to read by creating an association between letters and numbers. The project realised that even illiterate people work with numbers every day, for example, selling or buying products in the market. Thus, the classes develop from the familiar (numbers) to the unfamiliar (letters).

The ‘Yo sí puedo!’ scheme has been hugely successful, with Cuba now boasting a 98% literacy rate, one of the highest in the world. The project has since been adopted by a number of Latin American countries including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Venezuela and Mexico.

Photo courtesy by IFAD, G Bizzarri

 

In Argentina the scheme is implemented by a group of regional organisations that together are called UMMEP – the acronym in Spanish for ‘A better world is possible’. The project was borne out of their work in the grassroots organisations, where they noticed illiteracy problems in indigenous communities, or in very poor areas of greater Buenos Aires. Now the programme is being applied in 12 provinces by volunteer workers for more than 2,100 people in each.

The UNMEP organisers note that the problem is not just one of illiteracy, but one of injustice that affects of all of society. They believe that reading and writing is much more than a question of literacy or illiteracy, black or white; it is being able to express what you think, what you feel. “It is about truly participating and solving problems of everyday life without having to depend on someone to read your prescription or accompany you to fill out an application, or constantly worrying because you’re not sure what you’re signing with your thumbprint; it is a qualitative leap into life, and thus into society,” they say.

This message is echoed by other literacy organisations whose larger aim is to give people confidence and independence. The mission of Fundación Leer, an Argentine programme that promotes the importance of reading, is ‘to generate a positive and lasting impact in one’s personal development to enable a full immersion in to society’.

Photo courtesy by IFAD, G Bizzarri

 

While much has been done to promote child literacy in Argentina, as it has across the world, only recently have organisations begun to highlight the importance of adult literacy. Aside from the direct benefits of educating the older population, for many it is the key to improving children’s education. When a parent cannot read or write the chances of their child being able to read and write are reduced. Similarly, in a family where the parents have received only primary education before starting work, the cycle is likely to repeat itself with the children.

A recent study led by UBA’s Department of Education has highlighted the state of teenage and adult education beyond school. Their findings concentrate on the results of the two censuses is 1991 and 2001, between which there have been no significant changes in the level of ‘educational poverty’ or, as they have described it, the level of ‘education at risk’ – which signifies the risk people face of becoming marginalised from life – social, political, and economic – as a result of poor education or illiteracy.

The analysis deals with the Argentine population aged 15 or over that went to school once but who no longer go. Within this demographic, more than 14m people in Argentina are considered to be below the level of ‘risk’ – a number that has hardly changed in the decade between the two censuses (and very little since the one in 1981 too). Dr María Teresa Sirvent, who led the investigation, describes the group as illiterates, not in the purest meaning (that makes up a minor percent of the population), but in a wider sense.

She explains that to be literate is to acquire all the basic instruments of reading and writing – the elements necessary to be able to direct yourself in the real world. According to their study, 93% of poor youths are not armed with the necessary knowledge to fight for a future of better wellbeing. There is a situation where a large number of the population has been ‘left half way down the path of education’, thus leading to difficulties in the real world.

Photo courtesy by IFAD, G Bizzarri

 

Fidel Castro, in a speech about education, pointed out that someone who has only the most basic ability to read and write will not be able to fully understand economic notions and as such is unable to completely control their finances.

The UBA study highlights the deficiency of the education system and in particular the disintegration of the education of adults. The worst educated groups are 15-19 year olds and 60-64 year olds, which presents a double priority: the education of the new generation whilst enriching the older generation.

However, getting adults to go back to school proves challenging. The fear and shame many feel is difficult to overcome and in the past there has been little in the way of support but things have begun to change. UARTE’s Rural Literacy Programme has been targeting the older population with considerable success. One particular member, Francisca, 82, from Jujuy, described the experience as a blindfold falling from her eyes, and went on to say that there is no greater poverty than not knowing how to read and write.

This is certainly true if Unicef’s survey is anything to go by. María Carmen Morasso, a Unicef Health Official, explained that the mother’s education can even affect the risk of infant mortality. The study shows that the regions with the lowest education levels are also those with the highest infant mortality rate.

This fact is particularly alarming when considered alongside UBA’s research that shows some regions’ education levels have worsened. Although recent years have seen the establishment of educational initiatives as well as increased vigilance surrounding the issue, such as the UN’s Literacy Decade 2003-12, only time will tell if these programmes have produced any lasting results.

In Juan Balza’s photo montage ‘Pintado’, the canvas is like an eye. The image looks out at the artist as he goes about the act of painting. Juan himself appears several times over: clutching a paint palette, looking intently at the canvas (or out at us), and reaching forward decisively as if about to make a brush stroke.

Courtesy of Juan Balza

Pintado, Juan Balza

Further down the gallery wall, what first seem to be abstract paintings are actually Iván Enquin’s ensembles of hundreds of tiny fragments of newspaper and magazine pages. Words and graphics, detached from their context, form a poetry of the ephemeral, the everyday.

These are just two examples of the personal visions of the young graduates of a unique art school, ProyectArte, whose gallery space ‘Galería Prima’ opened on 25th July in Villa Crespo.

The school, founded by Argentine/US brothers Fernando and Sebastián Cwilich, is distinct from others in that they recruit students from very different backgrounds, offering them classes taught by the best artists in the country. Their students range from residents of deprived neighbourhoods such as La Boca, to those from rich suburbs like San Isidro.

“These kids would never have the opportunity to work alongside each other if it wasn’t for this project,” says Fernando. “Both the impoverished and the more privileged stand to benefit hugely from this interaction.”

He sees an emphasis on diversity as something that might be advantageous not only for the students themselves, but potentially for art in this country as a whole. “Often Argentine art looks like a bad copy of European art,” he says. “The vast majority of artists in this country are very privileged and perhaps this is why their work sometimes says little about what’s actually going on in Argentina.”

One of the main benefits of this venture is that the students express their different points of view through art. “Although we teach them technique in painting and drawing, we try to do so in a way that does not crush their stories,” says Fernando.

The classes take place in a large warehouse space at the back of the gallery. When I visit there is an evaluation of the students’ work. Everyone looks on respectfully as each youngster presents their art to the group. The teachers encourage the students to be innovative and to nurture the realisation of each individual’s ideas: “With time you are going to do great things,” artist and tutor Jorge Perrín tells a student.

The work demonstrates experimentation with different media and imagery, and the effort towards creating a personal vision. One student renders abstract shapes from thousands of tiny biro marks. One depicts stick-people within a matrix of grids and lines, while another paints landscapes inspired by factories from Argentina’s industrial past. The subject matter of the students’ work ranges from formal, painterly concerns to architecture, the human body, and socio-economic themes, in particular, economic crisis.

ProyectArte itself was conceived at a time of social crisis in Argentina, after the economic crash of 2001/2. “One of my young cousins showed great enthusiasm for art at this time,” Fernando, explains. “Yet like many youngsters, she lacked the resources to pursue her interests. Art materials were incredibly expensive here, and no one had the money to buy them.” In response, Fernando, who lives between New York and Buenos Aires, began shipping art materials from the US.

Like his cousin, Fernando had originally wanted to study arts but like so many people opted for an economically safer route, choosing journalism. His freelance journalism work was to fund the fledgling project before he and his team began to procure funds from high profile sponsors. “After a while, wanting to make the project more sustainable, we rented a space, got in touch with other artists, and began organising classes,” he continues.

Courtesy of Valeria Diaz

Hacia Adentro, Valeria Diaz

Ironically, as the course got under way, Fernando’s cousin, the catalyst for the project, became its first dropout. Yet by that time ProyectArte had discovered its calling and was already up and running.

Fernando describes Argentina at the time of starting the project as chaotic: “The streets were a mess,” he says. “Many kids saw this as a refuge and sometimes spent ten hours a day here. The first group saw themselves as mini-pioneers among the chaos.”

“The original group had a special chemistry, maybe because everyone was starting together,” says Juan Balza, one of the first students.

The success of this initial phase gave the organisers the encouragement to continue driving the project forward: “We realised we had something special with this group…” Fernando says, “…so we wanted to carry on with the heterogeneous classes.”

He describes how the camaraderie that grew from this class went beyond a shared enthusiasm for art: “At one point a student was struggling with his studies and looked as though he might drop out of high school, but the group dynamic was such that the others gave the student support classes to help him to finish.”

As I visit, ProyectArte are recruiting for their fourth class. A steady stream of prospective students arrives to drop off examples of their work in response to posters that have been put all over the city. Some come from hours away to seek the privilege of studying here. Fernando says that this competitive element means they only attract the most motivated young artists.

ProyectArte take both artistic ability and background into account when recruiting, bearing in mind that many of its students wouldn’t be able to study art at all were they not given the opportunity by ProyectArte. “This means that if two kids are at the same level, we will be inclined to favour the one from the poorest background.”

Juan, one of the school’s biggest success stories, is one of those from the more impoverished families, in La Boca. “The tutors from ProyectArte opened my mind,” he says. “At the school they have taught me that the concept of the artwork is the most important thing, and should lead the medium. I spent a lot of time perfecting my technique in painting, but when my tutor, Eduardo Medici, asked me ‘why painting, why not photography?’ I realised I had to work with whatever medium and technique that suited my ideas best.”

He describes how ProyectArte takes a much more rounded approach than most art schools, which are very academic and traditional, saying: “here the academic and the contemporary can integrate.”

Courtesy of Juan Balza

Ameas Tardes de Concordancia, Juan Balza

The project, as well as encouraging students to produce good art, stresses the importance of things surrounding an artist’s career, such as presenting yourself well and staying informed about the context in which you work: “They tell us to go to all the exhibitions, to read and educate ourselves properly about art. This is our defence against the hype that surrounds the art world,” says Juan.

Juan was one of four ProyectArte students who achieved the honour of showing their work in New York’s Chelsea Art Museum in 2005. What’s more, the exhibition was being shown in the same gallery as a retrospective of Spanish painting master, Francisco Goya, who, Fernando points out, has symbolic significance to their project, being himself from a humble background. His talent was discovered as he scrawled on stone walls in 18th century Madrid.

As well as launching his own artistic career, Juan now works as assistant to Pérez Celis, an important Argentine artist who has exhibited in the US, Canada, Europe and Japan. He also remains with ProyectArte working as a teaching assistant, and has been developing a new offshoot with some fellow students, called Proyectar.

Proyectar is further proof that ProyectArte has taken on a life of its own. The idea, true to the project’s original spirit of bringing artistic opportunities to all, is to deliver workshops to younger children in elementary schools in impoverished areas. Fernando shows me a video of one such workshop, where the kids are given materials to make slide transparencies.

Using simple materials they must construct three different frames which tell a story. The kids respond with glee to the magic of seeing their images projected onto the big screen. Most of their images talk of the usual things that children think about – castles, space ships and football – yet other stories are more revealing of personal concerns and the social climate in which they live.

One group of boys, for instance, describes a prostitute getting ready to go out and look for work on the streets of Constitución district. Another girl describes a love story which ends in divorce: “I’ll never see your face again,” she says, looking away from the camera in a moment of thought.

Even for those who may never pursue a career in the field, an encounter with art can provide a channel through which to express important narratives that might not have any other outlet. The elementary school children appeared to gain confidence from seeing a personal project though, and sharing it with the outside world.

While graduates such as Juan and his contemporaries take forward their personal ideas, their involvement in Proyectar shows they have not forgotten that their own success, like that of the art school and gallery, depends on group unity and the sharing of a collective vision. The simple impetus for ProyectArte seems fresh in their minds as they take it forward into new territory: that art is an important means of expression, and as such it cannot purely remain a luxury for the privileged few.

For more information, email galeriaprima@proyectarte.org or telephone 4899-0444. Alternatively, visit www.proyectarte.org. To see more of Juan Balza’s work, visit www.juanbalza.com.ar

 

Photo by Israel Nieves

 

Six years ago, Martín Rosenthal went on an assignment to take pictures of a soup kitchen in the ‘Cuidad Oculta’, one of the largest shantytowns in Buenos Aires.

Whilst in the barrio he was inundated with questions from young people wanting to learn more about photography. Martín, who had already done workshops with various communities in South America, was inspired by the young people enough to start the ph15 project.

Since then, there have been workshops every Saturday morning, run by Martín and co-directed by Moira Rubio, with the help of volunteers, in the community centre on the edge of the shanty.

The name of the project arises from ‘ph’ for photography, and ‘15’ for the official name of the barrio, which is called Villa 15. The name ‘Ciudad Oculta’, or the ‘Hidden City’, derives from the government’s decision in 1978 to build a wall around the villa in anticipation of the upcoming World Cup being hosted in Buenos Aires, so visiting journalists and tourists would not see the impoverished reality of life in the capital.

The project is very well run, as the students testify. Marcela, 20, who has only been involved in ph15 a few months, says she finds it refreshing being involved in a project that actually takes the participants seriously, and doesn’t patronise or make presumptions about them just because of their underprivileged backgrounds.

Eugenio, 26, and Angel, 21, who have been involved in ph15 for four-and-a-half and five years respectively, agree. It is their respect for Martín and the other volunteers as photographers, combined with their understanding that all the staff are giving up their time on a weekly basis to help them, that makes it such a success and keeps students hooked for as long as them.

 

Photo by Paula Danese

 

And a success it is – what started with just a few students and very little money is now a thriving, respected photography course, incorporating two years of work with film cameras, learning the art of expression and the scientific technique behind photography, with additional third and fourth years covering digital photography, and finally video film clip making.

Each week students are given the roll of film and are told to take photos during the course of the week, sometimes with specific themes as part of a larger project. The photographs are then developed by Martín and his team, and brought back to the community centre to be viewed and discussed by the students. It is a very democratic process, and everyone’s voice is heard in the critiquing of the photographs, including the photographers themselves who spend time explaining what they were trying to achieve in each print. The students are given tips and advice on how certain pictures could be improved by adjusting the angle slightly or by getting a bit closer to the subject. It is admirably fair and open, with participants being judged on their photographs and nothing else.

All of the students are serious about their future in photography and the impact the course has had on their lives, as Matías, 21, testifies. He works full-time Monday to Friday, long days which involve an hour-long commute to work each way, but since starting ph15 18 months ago, he is positive about the future and a way out of his low-paid job. Many of the participants – who must be between 11 and 25 to enrol – have children, and most work full-time in low-income, unskilled jobs to make ends meet.

 

Photo by Angel Alfonso

 

However the students are trusted by the coordinators of ph15, and given their own cameras – albeit fairly basic plastic affairs – upon enrolling, which they are allowed to keep if they successfully complete the programme.

And many have.

It is partially the mutual respect and trust that has enabled the project to achieve so much recognition in its short life, and ph15 exhibitions have taken place at various locations around Buenos Aires and overseas, including Spain and the US. The project has also been lucky enough to welcome photographers from outside Argentina into the barrio to do workshops with the students. The participants have even been visited by photography greats like Martin Parr.

A year ago a book was produced by ph15, simply entitled ‘ph15: fotografías por chicos de la cuidad oculta’ which is a compilation of the young photographers’ work, and is widely available around Buenos Aires.

With the help of the dedicated volunteers, combined with the passion the students have to complete the course, the future looks bright for ph15. And deservedly so.

 

For more information visit the project’s website at www.ph15.org.ar

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