Transforming Education
writer: ryan richards
photographer: john abernathy
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Jorge Chojolán introduces the new preschool/kindergarten teacher to a classroom of students at the Miguel Angel Asturias Academy. |
Jorge Chojolán was born a poor, indigenous Mayan in Guatemala’s deeply racist society. His situation suggested that Jorge would complete few, if any, years of formal schooling and passively accept the constraints of his stratified society. However, through his perseverance, Jorge earned a university degree and continued on to found the Miguel Angel Asturias Academy (the Academy), a rapidly growing nonprofit educational institution in Guatemala’s second largest city, Quetzaltenango.
Named after the Nobel Prize winning Guatemalan author, the Miguel Angel Asturias Academy offers solid academics and innovative teaching methods to 200 students from pre-school through 12th grade. Many are among Guatemala’s most vulnerable children: girls, the indigenous and the poor.
Jorge’s efforts to address the country’s educational disparities have earned him national and international recognition. He is the first Guatemalan elected to the prestigious Ashoka Fellowship, distinguishing him as “a leading social entrepreneur ... an extraordinary individual with unprecedented ideas for change in his community.” |
Cindy and Luis, students at the Academy, play on the roof of their home. |
Academy students Hector (left) and Byron (right) walk to the orphanage where they live. |
When Jorge was in elementary school he needed money
for a notebook to do his math homework. "Though the
notebook only cost a quarter, my mother did not have
the money for it," Jorge explains, "so we waited for my
father to come home to ask him." That night Jorge's
father arrived home intoxicated. He became violent
when Jorge asked him for money and chased the boy out
of the house.
"I was sad and angry, and wandered the city streets for a while," remembers Jorge. While he |
Adella (right) receives a full scholarship to attend the academy. |
| was sitting on a curb, a stranger approached and asked why he was crying. After
some coaxing, Jorge says, he explained what had happened.
“Then the man placed his hand on my shoulder, led me to
a store, and bought me the notebook I needed for school,”
he remembers. When Jorge offered to repay the money, the
stranger refused, suggesting instead that he help someone
in the future with a similar gift. “From that day on,” Jorge
says, “I have thought about returning the notebook.” |
Jorge presents scholarship opportunities for the Academy to public school students. |
Jorge spent much of his young adult life looking for
ways to return the favor. At the time Guatemala was
embroiled in a 36-year civil war. His involvement in
student movements for government reforms forced him
into exile twice. "Those were hard times," Jorge recalls.
"Good friends of mine were killed." He considered
joining the armed struggle against Guatemala's military
dictatorship. Instead he chose to become a teacher
because he believes that the real hope for improving
Guatemala lies with its children. "Teach the children.
They are the ones who will learn, and if they learn well
it will change all our lives," Jorge says.
After over a decade of teaching, Jorge opened the
Academy in a small house a few miles from the
neighborhood where he grew up. Financial support was
given by an American couple who had taken Spanish
lessons from Jorge, and was supplemented by his own
limited resources. "The battles we faced early on were
enormous," says Jorge. |
"Officials in the Ministry of Education put up barriers at every turn, seeking bribes, and our landlord more than doubled the rent in the first year after discovering that the project was receiving international backing. But many parents and teachers were committed to the work and we persevered."
Guatemala's educational needs are complex. A 2004 UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) report ranked Guatemala's educational system last in Latin America. According to a 2003 United Nations Development Program report, only eight out of 10 Guatemalan children attend elementary school, and all but three drop out before the end of sixth grade. The public school system suffers from corruption,
underfunding and a general lack of
accountability. Guatemala's private
schools, seen by some as a solution
to the country's education problems,
are too expensive for the country's
poor majority.
Jorge believes that the Academy
offers a model for reforming
Guatemala's educational system.
Tuition is approximately $18 USD
per month - one-quarter of the cost
of private schools.
The Academy’s robust scholarship program supports children who otherwise may not have access to education beyond elementary school. Jorge says he started the Academy to serve "those failed by the existing public and private school systems."
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After finishing elementary school, Gloria and Noelia were told that the
local middle school simply did not have room for them. The girls' mother
was unsure what to do. "As a single mother with a small tortilla shop,
private schools were not an option," she says. She was contemplating
having her daughters work in the store full time when she heard about
the scholarships at the Academy. "It was a gift from God to receive the
scholarships," she says.
Cindy and her mother in the kitchen of their home. Cindy receives a full
scholarship to attend the academy. |
A preschool student plays with clay at the Academy
Academy students proudly show off their artwork. |
Access is not the only barrier that Guatemalan children
encounter in attaining a good education. Many schools
use antiquated government curriculum and teaching
methods. "This is part of the legacy of the Guatemalan
Civil War," Jorge says. "It was important for the
government to instill in pupils a military-like discipline
and acceptance of the status quo."
In contrast to public schools, the Academy couples
strong academic fundamentals with training in
leadership and human rights issues. The Academy
students often sit around tables, working in groups,
unlike the rigid rows of desks in most Guatemalan
schools. Teachers use theater, art and chess in the
classroom. "We want our students to be able to know
and think critically about the world they live in, and
most importantly, propose solutions and act upon the
problems facing their communities," Jorge explains.
Lessons are organized around monthly themes such as
gender, ecology, human rights and independence. "We
use the mandated government curriculum as a point of
departure," says Jorge. "Instead of just teaching ratios in
math class, during gender month, we have the children
find the ratio of male to female students in the school.
This leads to a discussion of why, even in our own
community, parents are more likely to educate their
sons than their daughters." The process of bringing core
curriculum to life and making it relevant to students'
experiences helps them to retain the academic material. |
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