The results are in and it is not pretty! A countries future will depend on the education of future generations. Unfortunately, like many countries, Panama's public education system is controlled by unions and the result is a very poor performance from educators and students alike. This poll taken in Panama sheds light on how the general public feels about Panama's educational system and specifically what is holding it back.
Machine translated from La Prensa
Public education is in check
The low quality of education due to lack of vocation of educators, says 38.9% of those polled by Unimer.
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| factors. Poor preparation of teachers and outdated programs, two of the reasons why education is poor, according to respondents. LA PRENSA / Jihan Rodríguez1459271 |
URANIA CECILIA MOLINA
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58.4% of respondents in the latest survey conducted by Unimer for La Prensa believes that public education is deficient.
The perception of respondents to the survey is far from what the system reflect studies done, including who conducted members of the late National Council of Education, published in 2008 - which warned that 40% Panamanian students' primary for that date (2004-2007) did not master basic subjects such as Spanish, math and science.
The document prepared by the Council noted further that within the Ministry of Education (MEDUC) develop initiatives in the field of quality, but those efforts were "disjointed, without regulation and without a clear direction towards the goals of improving the quality of student learning. "
Subsequent studies have yielded the same conclusions.
The results of the consultation with 207 thousand Panamanians for Unimed, including the past 7 and 11 October, realize that 40.5% believe that public education is good or very good, while 25.5% say exactly Otherwise, which added to the 32.9% that qualify as regular shows that the majority of the population does not trust the quality of service you receive. 1.1% of respondents did not know or did not respond.
The consultation also revealed evidence that the group of 18 to 24 years there is a better concept of education provided in public schools, a perception that is also recorded in those groups with family incomes less than $ 541 a month and living in central provinces and rural areas.
As for the possible causes of the poor quality of education, 38.9% of respondents attributed it to question the lack of vocation of educators, followed by a poor educational background (32.2%), outdated programs (21.4% ), lack of students (14.9%), poor condition of infrastructure (9.3%) and lack of parental involvement (8.7%), among others (see table).
AFFECTS DECAY
The respondents placed the lack of parental involvement at number 6 of the 11 options given by the consultants.
In this regard, Alma Montenegro de Fletcher, who was part of the National Council of Education, said the crisis of education in Panama is linked to problems that start in the family structure due to the instability in children and young people created family disintegration.
Montenegro de Fletcher believes that the lack of vocation of teachers increases the problem. Ensures that for some 30 years teaching career has been chosen as a solution to guarantee pensions, resulting in teachers who have no love of teaching and "just want to get away."
These teachers, he stressed, are resisting the changes required to modernize and improve the system.
Toala Nora, dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Panama, said that the problem of educational quality is the teacher, but in society, which has given many responsibilities the educator. He adds that as the boys no longer have the strong parental supervision, because both work, searching for what interests them, which is fun, and recalled that before the responsibility for education rested primarily on the parents.
THERE ARE GOOD AND BAD
Yaselis Canto, director of the Escuela República de Venezuela, within the system ensures that there are good and bad teachers.
The first group are aware that their role in the classroom goes beyond complying with a work schedule, he said. They guide, counsel, discipline, teach and above all are aware that many students do not have a dad or mom to watch them, because they regularly are by grandparents, aunts or older siblings.
While the others are bad, only concerned about meeting the work plan, he said.
Justo Medrano, vice president academic at the University of Panama, attributes the problem of poor school performance to the "appalling number of distractions that young people" because education is not a trainer, but to reform.
According to Medrano, teachers must first change the habits that bring young people, and then begin to teach them. He also criticized the media, because it ensures that there are very few who plan programs to help improve the training of young people.
EDUCATION
The results showed Unimer poll for this newspaper did not surprise the Minister of Education, Lucy Molinar. On the contrary. He said the results are the product of many factors that together act to the detriment of teaching-learning process within the public sector.
For Molina, the public perception is the result of an activity (education), which was cooled and left to be seen as a tool to become a better person, beyond that it acquires a title or profession.
And, according to the official, is not worth having training, better preparation and a series of academic qualifications, if the path is lost values education and one ceases to be a good person.
CHANGES
The Minister of Education explained that the work currently carried out in MEDUC heads to turn things around and so are aiming to improve the system in a coordinated way. For that, he explained, is necessary to involve all stakeholders in this process.
"We are bound by their parents in the education of their children, worked to highlight the figure of the educator, within and outside the classroom, because this had been frozen," he said. He added that further work to improve the infrastructure of schools, among other things, for changes within the system.
Molinar reiterated that although not surprised by the results of the consultation is very optimistic to be harvested in the future product of work done within the institution.
These will undoubtedly be to the benefit of society at large, said the minister.
FAR FROM THE BEST ON THE WEB
Panamanian education continues to stumble, but this time the trips were among the public and private universities, and a matter of positioning on the web. In a world university rankings, published by the Higher Council for Scientific Research of Spain, which measured the online presence of 12 000 universities in the world, only five of the houses of higher studies in Panama reached a position. But all, far from the top, and there were some, as the Catholic University Santa María La Antigua, that are not listed.
In the ranking, which appeared only six local universities, the University of Panama reached the best position (3.458), while the University of Panama (UP) 4.984 ranked. American University was ranked in the place 7.050, Universidad del Istmo, ranked 9.596 on the list, ranking as the tail of the Laureate International Universities appeared Panama, ranked 10.785, and Columbus University in the post 11.906. The position reached Panamanian universities was discussed by representatives of some institutions, such as Michelangelo Candanedo, general secretary of the UP, who called absurd ranking, because it only relies on the publications that houses the highest study on their web sites.
He added that this year the UP is adjusting your site, because "they had neglected."
For its part, Julieta Guillén, director of advertising at the University America, said to appear in the list, and is good, because they compete with global universities, which have more infrastructure and budget. In fact, the top 10 list is occupied by U.S. universities. The number one is Harvard.
Quiel Dimas, USMA academic vice chancellor, said this ranking does not necessarily measure the academic excellence of the university, but despite this they will investigate how it is done to find out why not come. He clarified that if the weights are in the use of web sites, this year the USMA has two domains, because they are making changes to the existing one.
URANIA CECILIA MOLINA
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