Ley de obligatureidad

If there is one thing I have learned from being here in Nicaragua is that I take a lot of things for granted. I never knew how lucky I was to have a plate of food on my table everyday or even to have the money to buy food when I was hungry. Although food is very important there is something else that I have taken for granted and that is my education.

I could remember waking up everyday hating and wishing that I didn’t have to go to school. Always complaining to my mother and telling her ¨why do I have to go. I don’t need to learn. When am I ever going to use division or science? ¨ I could even remember skipping class my last year of high school. I´m not going to need gym or biology, why should I have to waste my time! That was my way of think.

Now I’m here in a country where there are 15 year old in 3 grade who done even know how to multiply and who aren’t really obligated to go to school. Most of them don’t know how to even spell their own names. It’s sad but the only thing that I could think of is that I had all these privileges and didn’t even know it or didn’t even enjoy it. I always complained about how I needed to learn and here there are these kids that want to learn but cant because they’re stuck in a class room with 49 other kids and can’t get the attention that they need and deserve.

Not only are these classes overcrowded but the president wants to make it mandatory for all children to go to school. Which is very good but there is nothing backing this up. When I say backing this up I mean they are not making the effort of educating more people or helping people on becoming teachers. They are also not building more schools. It is not a complete package.

I believe that if the government wanted this to work they have to build more schools. Educate and give better salaries to the teachers here in Nicaragua because they live off of about 100 dollars a month and also give more money to boost the education system as a whole because from what I have seen the education here in Nicaragua is not that important. This is probably why we see 6 and 8 year old kids out on the streets at 8 o´clock a night selling cigarettes when they should be home sleeping or studying.

I see that it’s a good thing that they want to pass laws to make kids good to schools. This might help with the literacy problem that there is here in Nicaragua. In order to do this you have to have a package deal. You just can’t make a law and assume that everyone can obey it especially when there financially unable to.