Living in Peru : your everyday companion

According to 2007 national census data, the greatest reduction in Peru’s illiteracy rate was registered in the female population, especially in rural and extremely poor areas, said on Wednesday the education deputy minister Victor Raul Diaz Chavez.

Díaz Chávez noted that there has been a 7.7 percentage-point decline since 2003, when the illiteracy rate stood at 18.3 percent.

“These and other indicators encourage the Peruvian government to continue with our efforts to reduce the illiteracy rate among women who for centuries were denied the right to learn, read and write," he said.

Among the male population, the illiteracy rate dropped from 7.1 to 3.6 percent, a 3.5 percentage point drop, much lower than in women.

Last year, the National Program of Mobilization for Literacy (Pronama) helped over 500,000 women and this year it plans to increase this number with a focus on new districts across Peru.

News source: ANDINA

In his message to the nation from the Congress of the Republic, Peru’s President Alan García Perez announced there would be one million more Peruvians that are literate by November this year.

Highlighting some of his administration's achievements during the past twelve months, García said that the measures taken to fight illiteracy do reach the poorest and excluded groups.

In addition, the Head of State said that in the past two years more than 78,000 houses had been built in Peru.

Similarly, the number of households with electricity has risen from 74 to 78%, providing electricity to an additional 808,000 Peruvians.

García also noted that 872,000 Peruvians now have potable water in their homes.

The Peruvian leader highlighted the achievements of a government-run program “Juntos” which now helps 400,000 families across the country (In 2006, "Juntos" only reached 57,000 households).

The goal for the coming months is to assist an additional 600,000 rural poor families.

On the other hand, he pointed out that over 50,000 property deeds were handed over and the number of Peruvians with telephones tripled to 18 million.

News source: ANDINA

Living in Peru
Israel J. Ruiz

Based on information taken from the national census carried out in October 2007, the number of illiterate people in Peru has decreased 5.7 percentage points, said Renan Quispe, the head of country's national statistics institute (INEI).

When compared to the national census in 1993, when it was reported that 12.8 percent of the Andean country was illiterate, a 5.7 percentage point drop was registered in 2007.

According to statistics, the country's illiteracy rate is now at 7.1 percent.

When comparing 1993 and 2007 census results, reports showed there was a greater decline in the number of illiterate women than illiterate men.

While the amount of illiterate women in Peru was registered at 18.3 percent in 1993, it dropped to 10.6 percent in 2007. In the case of men, it declined from 7.1 percent in 1993 to 3.6 percent in 2007.

Furthermore, it was reported that the greatest drop in the country's illiteracy was seen in Peru's rural areas, where illiteracy decreased over 10 percentage points to 19.7 percent.

It was also reported that the number of people that were studying in Peru had increased.

Statistics show that over 8 million people in the Andean country have attended school while more than 5 million Peruvians over the age of 15 are attending higher learning institutions.

Living in Peru
Israel J. Ruiz

Peruvian students came home from the 49th edition of the International Math Olympics in Spain with one gold medal, three silver ones and a bronze medal.

Of the 104 countries that attended the event, which was held in Madrid, Peru was ranked 19th.

16-year-old Fernando Augusto Manrique Montañéz, a native of Huancayo, Junin, was the member of the six-person Peruvian team that honored the country with a gold medal.

Manrique's effort and his gold medal helped in placing Peru among the top three country's in America. First and second place went to the U.S. and Brazil.

His teammates at the competition were Ricardo Jesús Ramos, César Augusto Cuenca, Amilcar Enrique Vélez, Tomás Larico, and Iván Muñoz.

To win the five medals, the Peruvian team competed against the top six hundred students from 104 countries.

The trip to Spain so that the Peruvian team could compete was made possible by LAN airlines.

Living in Peru
Israel J. Ruiz

Hugo Neira, the director of Peru's national library expressed he was concerned about the country's educational situation and asked the National Association of Municipalities (AMPE) to encourage municipalities to build more libraries in their jurisdictions.

At AMPE's annual assembly, Neira stated that according to recent studies carried out by international organizations, 47 percent of the Andean country's students do not comprehend what they read.

"This means something is wrong with schools, teachers, society and parents," said the head of Peru's National Library.

He affirmed that the national library was not the ministry of reading and explained that for the country to have more libraries municipal authorities and regional governments would have to organize themselves.

"We are not made to be in charge of municipal libraries, we are a governing body that can give advice and send personnel to municipalities to train them, but libraries are the ones that have to create and administer," said Neira.

He pointed out that Juan Manuel Guillen, the governor of Arequipa was having a municipal library constructed. Furthermore, Neira explained that it would be run by the regional government.

Neira asked governors to not only build schools but to also focus on the construction of simple public libraries that could be used by communities.

Living in Peru
Israel J. Ruiz

Student protests and even violent confrontations with Peru's national police have not managed to stop the Municipality of Lima from using property that belongs to a university to build a new road.

Despite the fact that the mayor of Lima explained that an agreement had been made between the University of San Marcos and the municipality in 1991, the dean of the university, professors and hundreds of students continue to protest the work being done around and now on university grounds.

Up until recently, municipal construction workers were only working on a bypass next to the university.

Early Monday morning, professors, students and even the dean of South America's oldest university were shocked to find that one of the campus' walls had been torn down.

The wall, which surrounds the university campus, was demolished by the municipality at dawn - many hours before professors or students arrived to the campus.

According to municipal authorities, the wall was torn down at 3 a.m. in the presence of government lawyers to make sure a crime was not being committed.

It was announced that the destruction of the wall was a part of the construction of the new bypass to be located at the intersection of Universitaria and Venezuela avenues.

Representatives from the Municipality of Lima assured that an agreement had already been established between the government and the university.

University representatives do not agree, however, according to authorities at San Marcos, the municipality was still negotiating with the university and had not told them of the demolition of one of their walls.

Municipal authorities have assured that a new wall will be built in approximately 20 days.

Living in Peru
Israel J. Ruiz

Peru's Minister of Education, Jose Antonio Chang and the executive president of Peru’s Geophysical Institute, Ronald Woodman inaugurated a modern planetarium in Lima on Thursday.

The new National Peruvian-Japanese Planetarium, which has been named the Mutsumi Ishitsuka Planetarium, is located in Ate-Vitarte, one of Lima's easternmost districts.

Its dome is made of carbon fiber and has an enormous screen on which representations of the heavens will be projected for tens of thousands of school students every year.

It has been estimated that the new planetarium will be visited by at least 60,000 school students per year.

With the help of the Japanese government, a device that cost more than $500,000 to purchase will produce an accurate representation of the entire night and images of deep space for the country's children.

More information on the new planetarium can be requested at secdir@axil.igp.gob.pe.

Living in Peru
Israel J. Ruiz

As a part of the 2008 National Formation and Training Program (PRONAFCAP), six private universities in Peru have agreed to train 9,445 of the Andean country's teachers, announced the nation's vice-minister of education, Idel Vexler.

He explained that the group of teachers would be divided into two groups and would study one semester at the university each.

The program, which the government has invested over 18 million soles in, will begin in approximately 15 days, said Vexler.

Vexler explained that the Universidad Católica San Pablo in Arequipa was among the most cooperative universities in the program. He stated that the university would train almost 1,753 teachers in Arequipa and offer them additional hours for academic specialties.

Furthermore, the university is offering scholarships for the top teachers in the training program.

Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú will be responsible for training 1,881 teachers from Breña and Comas. It was noted that the university would also offer additional benefits for the teachers such as three extra conferences and two scholarships.

Cayetano Heredia University will be responsible for helping over 2,000 teachers while the University of Piura helps another 952.

Peruana Unión University, which is to train 1,894 teachers and Antenor Orrego de la Libertad University (651 teachers) will also provide conferences and scholarships for Peruvian teachers.

PRONAFCAP's goal is to help 74,589 teachers across the country improve their quality of teaching.

Living in Peru
Israel J. Ruiz

Over 8,000 teachers that failed an academic exam in March were given another opportunity to teach for the country's public schools on Sunday June 1.

When only 151 out of over 180,000 teachers in Peru passed the exam in March, the government announced that all those that had failed with scores between 11 and 13.9 would be allowed to retake the exam.

A minimum of 14 points out of 20 were required to pass the test and proceed to the next stage of the new selection process the ministry of education has established in the Andean country.

The ministry of education announced on Wednesday that 3,337 teachers, less than 50 percent of those that took the exam for the second time, passed the test taken on June 1.

It was reported that a total of 8,153 teachers took the exam.

59 percent of this group will not be allowed to proceed to the following stage of the selection process because they scored less than 14 points on the test.

The Minister of Education Jose Antonio Chang stated that the highest score, a 17.6, was obtained by Luis Enrique Alarcon, a teacher in Lima.

He stated that another exam would be held in January to cover the teaching positions that still needed to be filled.

Before the second exam, the Vice Minister of education Idel Vexler stated, "The test has been improved and I hope that with the experience from the previous exam teachers will show what they know and do well".

Living in Peru
Israel J. Ruiz

After only 151 out of over 180,000 teachers in Peru passed an academic exam in March, the government deiced to give teachers that failed another chance.

On Sunday June 1, approximately 8,600 teachers aspiring to teach in Peruvian public schools will have another opportunity to pass the new ministry of education requirement.

Not all teachers that failed will have a chance to retake the exam, however.

Teachers were required to get 14 points out of 20 on their exam in March. Only those that failed with scores between 11 and 13.9 will be given another try.

Teacher that got scores below 11 will not be given another chance for now.

This test will be "more rigorous than the first," said Idel Vexler, the Vice Minister of Education.

He explained that the exam would once again be designed by ESAN, Peru's top postgraduate business school.

"Everything is ready. The test has been improved and I hope that with the experience from the previous exam teachers will show what they know and do well to reach 14 (points)," said Vexler.