My Guiding Questions to focus on and research during my Fulbright experience in Peru were:

How do schools identify and support struggling students in the school? 

Are there classes for students with special needs at the home school or at a separate location?

Are there services for students who are Spanish language learners (ie. indigenous language speakers), but not academically delayed?

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There has been tremendous growth in Peru’s economic wealth, a decrease in overall poverty, and a rapid rise of students enrolling in higher education in recent years.  However, it appears that children with learning disabilities or other learning differences have not seen as great an improvement in the educational system. There are significant current challenges to train teachers, identify students’ skills and deficits, and to provide sufficient support for their academic achievement. 

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It is important to review the history of the education system and how location, socioeconomic status, and gender has played a role in Peru. Before the Spanish came to Peru, the Inca Empire was the largest in the Americas and had their capital in Cuzco.  The Quechua language that was spoken then is still spoken today as well as the Aymaran language.  Roughly 25 percent of the population of Peru speak an indigenous language still today.  When the Spaniards arrived, they dismantled the Inca education system and replaced it with the Catholic church playing a major role in education.  However, these schools were available mainly for the privileged.  Whites and Mestizo populations had the power and indigenous people faced discrimination and often lived in remote areas which led to poverty and illiteracy.  In addition, although the amount of girls versus boys attending schools in urban areas is nearly the same, in rural areas, girls are much less likely to go to school.  Few rural households have internet access. Rural schools often have one teacher for multiple grade levels.  According to a fellow Fulbright teacher's experience at their host community, high school students often are pulled to quit school and work in the copper mines instead of going to the university.

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In addition to these struggles, Peru has had a history of political unrest.  Up until Covid, the education system had made great growth and the government had implemented quality standards for educational institutions to follow.  But the improvements generally benefited the urban rich, not the poor and/or indigenous communities.  However, recently there has been a push for funding for high achieving students and the disadvantaged.  In addition, the government has instituted a policy of bilingualism.

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For the most part, according to a parent and fellow educator I interviewed, students with mild disabilities are integrated into the mainstream classrooms.  However, the training and support for teachers is minimal.  There may be one specialist for 10 or more schools.  Students with moderate or severe disabilities may receive individualized instruction and support at a separate school.

 

According to a Fulbright alumni from Peru  who has a special needs child, many teachers feel that they cannot teach what they do not know about or have had adequate training in. She indicates, from personal experience, that it can be very difficult to identify and receive services.  There is a public health department where a parent may bring their child for evaluation if a need is brought up. However, she stated that  due to many parents working long hours and a high demand for the health department appointments,  it is difficult to get appointments for these evaluations.  She chose to pay for a psychologist herself and she also pays for therapy that the child is receiving, outside of school.  Even with an outside psychological evaluation, this documentation must be brought to the public health organization to be reviewed and certified by them in order for a plan to be followed at the school.   Yet with this plan, there are few special education trained teachers or training for regular education teachers, nor resources and materials for students with learning differences.  

 

There are very few colleges or universities that specialize in training teachers for working with students that have special needs.  At the moment, in the 5 years of university teachers are required to have only one class in teaching students with special needs.  In comparison, university students are now required to have 10 semesters of English. There are few colleges  that offer special education for teachers as a major.  Most teachers are not trained in identifying students with special needs, nor are they trained in how to teach their unique needs. It is from my observation and that of other Fulbright teachers, these students are not always actively engaged in the classroom as little accommodations or scaffolding is provided due to these limited teacher training and resources.

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In primary schools, there are generally two options, public or private settings. There is tenure for public school teachers and there is the opportunity to take an exam (7 levels) to increase one’s knowledge and salary.  It was pointed out to us at several public schools, that they feel underfunded and the parents of students often help with maintenance of the buildings and providing curricular resources for teachers. We also visited private schools often run by the church. These schools often appeared to have more resources for teachers and students as well as better infrastructure. 

 

For secondary schools, there are public and private school options as well. One public high school option is COAR.  COAR-Colegios de Alto Rendimiento- are high-performance, free, public boarding schools.  These are 25 elite boarding schools, one per region, that includes students who are economically disadvantaged and performing at top 10% of their schools. There is no tenure for COAR teachers. According to COAR teachers interviewed, they were paid more at the inception of the program, but the salary now is about the same as a public school teacher.  The hours for teachers of COAR are much longer, often a 10-12 hour day. However, the students are more motivated to learn, have 1 to 1 computer use, and there are few discipline problems.  The COAR schools have an International Baccalaureate curriculum and experience with this type of designation can lead a COAR teacher to a more prestigious job at a private school, for example.  Religious education, specifically Catholicism, is mandatory in public and private schools in Peru. Now, parents are entitled to opt out and some schools replace religious education with moral or ethical education, which is exactly what happened for the COAR schools network in 2015 when the network of schools was created. Furthermore, private schools with different religious beliefs from Catholicism can insert their own into their curriculum. Students are required to learn English every semester and pass exams in this language. There is usually one school psychologist at each COAR school.  The COAR model is monumental as it allows all students, regardless of economic background, to have access to educational opportunities and thus improving the socioeconomic status of the community and the country.

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I was very impressed with COAR schools. While it was noted that many urban schools have better resources for teachers and students in general, there is one COAR for each region so that geography is less of a barrier for these opportunities.  The rigor and expectations for these students were very high. The students we worked with at the school were very aware of global issues, spoke English very well, and worked hard to excel all the time. Those students often talked about taking additional classes outside of school and challenging themselves academically in order to be able to attend the best schools. Public universities are free and very competitive.  Private universities are less competitive and easier to be accepted. I have to admit that I found these students to be more motivated than the high school students in my experience in the US.  We also visited a public high school for the arts.  These students also were highly industrious to be successful and acquire opportunities to attend the best schools in the future.  

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I considered if my area and state had similar programs here in North Carolina.  I am currently teaching at a Career Academy. This is a specialized school for students who may need more assistance and attention than the "regular" high school setting.  In addition, we also have the Early College model at our local college campus. Those motivated students, who often are first generation college students, will attend 5 years of high school and also graduate with 2 years of college credit that is easily transferrable to a 4 year college.  North Carolina has public, residential high school for 11th- and 12th-grade students with an interest in STEM, offered in Durham and Morganton, NC.  These are free schools and highly competitive.  NC also have a four-week summer residential program, Governor's School, for gifted and talented high school students.

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In regards to meeting students' needs academically, according to COAR teachers, students who are falling behind receive tutoring after school hours. In other regular public schools, the same policy has been implemented for the last five years. Teachers are asked to tutor the students who have fallen behind in their subject, but lack the expertise to help out students with their specific exceptional needs such as learning disabilities, emotional trauma, or on the autism spectrum.

 

We had presentations and discussions with members of the Ministry of Education. The Ministry currently mandates the funding and the curriculum for all schools whether they are public or private.  There are 435,000 teachers-67% are in public schools.  The nine learning areas required include math, communications, art and culture, physical education, English as a foreign language, religion, social sciences, science and technology, and the Spanish language. There is no mandate to include instruction in indigenous languages, which is the first language for a quarter of the population, although there are some programs aimed at providing these services. The country has put a strong emphasis on learning English and other languages throughout the school years to improve Peru's economic growth on a global scale.  These initiatives are very impressive and other countries, including the US, could learn from their international language focus for students. There are also vocational tracks in addition to academics.  Another major concern is immigration. There are over 830,000 immigrants from Venezuela in Peru with 96,000 in schools (88% in public schools).  This puts additional strain on the limited resources available for education.

 

Organizations such a UNESCO make recommendations to Peru to be more inclusive with students who have special needs, however the support and follow through is not yet present. There have been great improvements in providing opportunities for disadvantaged students and a push for bilingual education. In all of the schools I visited in Peru, I was impressed with the students interest in global issues and their commitment to learning other languages and cultures as well as honoring and celebrating their own. I believe Covid and immigration has slowed some progress for students with special needs, but hopefully the focus on the educational progress of students with disabilities will also become a priority and the training and support will allow Peru to make the necessary investments to improve the educational achievements for all of their children.

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