La Mala Education

Education is very much on the agenda at the moment. Teachers have been on strike and there is an election next month. As I understand it, the teachers are angry because of a reneged agreement for pay increases dating back more than a decade. To be fair, education is pretty much on the agenda all year round. If the teachers aren't on strike, the students are. That's right, the students!! Striking is popular here. It generally consists of making a whole load of noise and breaking stuff.


If you work for a language school here in Santiago, quite often the students are there at their employers' behest. That's right, their bosses pay for them to be taught English. Sweet. You would think!

Rather than seizing this golden opportunity to possess the two most important languages in the world and thus increasing their employability and promotion prospects, they see it as a chore. Chilean employees generally do what their boss says, but only by expending the minimum effort required. They transfer this trait to the classroom (and all facets of life to be frank.) That's why it is such a joy to get your own private students.

A Gringo sets himself up for brickbats when he criticises the standard of education in a second world country. One only has to walk around the comunas to see all the 'universities' on offer. Also, students in secondary schools encounter a huge variety of subjects before being released onto the unsuspecting world. The Chilean government offers scholarships to study English and to embark on further education abroad. There seems to be a great appetite for learning. Bus shelters, billboards, metro displays are inundated with adverts for universities. I'm not saying that the ubiquitous nature of such adverts suggests that everyone has the same opportunity to avail of them. They probably don't, but it's not totally out of reach.

People blame their social standing for the lack of opportunities and thus the quality of education available to them. This may be true. Social class in Chile is a big issue. People don't care what your qualifications are but rather about where you studied. For example the 'C' in my CELTA qualification stands for Cambridge, as in Cambridge University. Students are fascinated by this. I have never set foot on a single Cambridge University campus.

Many people here study at night university. It seems to be the way to go. Work during the day and go to school at night. I, myself am a product of a similar system. Going to university here is a time consuming process. Degrees here take longer to get than in the first world. There are a couple of reasons for this. Universities are privately owned and the bottom line is all important. Keeping your students for a couple of semesters longer fills the coffers. Also, Chileans are quite slow and über-lazy, they don't cachai too readily. You would then, expect graduates to be a little sharper having had this extra year. They're not.

The one paradox in the whole situation is the amount of tax levied on reading materials by the 'socialist' government. This is not an obstacle however. For a very reasonable fee you can completely disregard copyright law and have a book copied at a Max Huber.

So, there's lots of education and lots of students. Why then, do we not have a country full of whizz kids? The answer lies in the teaching methods employed all the way through to the tertiary level. Students are not taught in Chile, they are given information. It's a sad but very true fact of life here. For example if I write something on the board in class, it's immediately jotted down for fear of missing something vital that can learnt by rote. I learnt quickly not to write too much on the board.

This methodology does not allow children to experience any tacit learning. From the day you are born to your mid to late teens, a person acquires 95% of the life skills required to see out the final three quarters of their life. The three main players involved are the parents (or guardians), teachers and the individuals themselves.

You cannot sit a child down and teach them common sense. There are just too many permutations of the possible situations that could occur. As a parent, you guide them. You show them things that nobody else can or will. I remember my dad showing me how to change a tyre when I was eight. Obviously I wasn't strong enough to do it but as he did, I observed. 'If you ever remember one thing in life....', he started most of his 'grasshoppa' lessons with this phrase, '...remember to loosen the wheel nuts before you jack up the car.' He didn't just tell me this, he showed me why it was necessary. (Keeping the car on the ground stops the wheel from spinning.)
 Lesson learnt: think things through.

You cannot just sit a teenager down and take him through the steps of Pythagoras' theorem and leave it at that. You extract knowledge already known and build upon it. Perhaps a little refresher on the properties of a triangle is required, but overall you make it seem that the kid has done it himself.
Lesson learnt: use what you have to get more.

This latter example is just not used in schools here.


As TEFL teachers we try to use the communicative method. We try to encourage our students to constantly produce language. We move onto the next grammar point by building upon knowledge already acquired. We constantly recycle grammar and vocabulary. We test, teach, test. We pull out the pieces of the jigsaw from our students' head and throw a couple more in. Sometimes they can fit them in, sometimes you need to turn the pieces the right way for them and sometimes you just go and stick that last bloody piece in for them.

This method of teaching is a revelation to the students. Uninitiated students expect you to come to class, draw a line down the middle of the board and use one side for English and one side for Spanish. I exaggerate to make a point. Students are fully aware that the translation method is not used by English language schools here but this is how they were taught English at school.

There is a distinct lack of logic and 'thinking outside the box' mentality in the classroom. That, along with the dreaded fear of making a mistake in front of your peers, impedes their learning process. These flaws are conceived in early childhood. This lack of logic is nurtured in the classroom and it blossoms in adult life in the real world. The by-products of this are a lack of consideration and basic tasks taking an age.


So, while I understand the reasons why Chileans are pretty stoopid, it doesn't alleviate the frustration I feel when they walk seven abreast at a snails pace or when they put the single box of matches I've just bought into a bag at the supermarket.