Education plays a crucial part in shaping the future of any community, so we are happy to see more High school graduates, even tough they have to travel to another town to attend school and get their diploma. There is now a local daycare where young children can receive early stimulation other than being watched by grandparents or their siblings. We are also happy to see more kids from town become professionals and return to our community to give back.
Playing "Tazos" after school
It is both easy and hard to get an education in La Manzanilla, it is for the most part free but only until you try to reach beyond basic education it's were it gets difficult for families to pay for room and board or/ and far away transportation.
Primaria (Elementary), Secundaria (Middle school, grades 6th, 7th and 8th) and Kinder are mandatory in Mexico, but in our town sometimes there are just not enough 3 year old attending the Primero of kinder garden so the teachers have two include them with the next group Segundo or wait until the child is 4 years old.
Padres de familia charlando afuera del Kinder
The kinder garden teachers are very welcoming to foreign students and we all remember growing up having foreign classmates all trough middle school in La Manzanilla, they would be speaking Spanish in no time!
Our Elementary "Manuel Lopez Cotilla" is named after Mexican education visionary from Guadalajara who created rural school systems such as our own and fought hard to eliminate religion from the classrooms; these type of schools belong to the SEP (Secretary of Public Education).
Here we see the classrooms rebuild after the 1995 earthquake, and a cute girl under the Almendro leaves.
There are 98 boys and 123 girl students today, these students come from La Manzanilla, Boca de Iguanas and Los Ingenios. The school has 7 groups in total because they have two Terceros, 3roA y 3roB due to overcrowding. So there are a lot of 8 year olds!
Director de Primaria: Jilberto Arechinga Rodriguez
Alumnas barriendo cancha de basketball/volleyball.
Everyone must participate to keep the school clean since they can't always afford a janitor. In fact there is a Parents Committee that helps deal with the schools challenges, they trow benefits, offer their own labor when it comes to cleaning or working on the school, and even help run the school kitchen and cafeteria area. It is truly a community effort! Current President of the Comite de Padres de familia: Rosaura Montes Garcia.
The next level of education you can get in La Manzanilla is the Telesecundaria, located at the entrance of town and named after Jose Maria Morelos y Pavon a rebel revolutionary priest who lead the Mexican Independence War.
Telesecundaria
This type of school is a Mexican designed model of education, intended to reach the most desolated and rural areas of the country trough a television signal in an effort to combat illiteracy.
Alumnos antes de clases
There are 6 groups in this school divided in to A and B respectively with 88 students in total. There are 5 teachers and an administrative person. Principals name is Guillermo Camacho.
Sesion al aire libre
A Parents Counsil exists as well for parent participation in the Telesecundaria it is represented by Jose Manuel Figueroa "Chemillo". Sadly enough a large number of kids wont make it past here in their education, a lot of them will rather stay behind and work construction instead and the girls work in housecleaning or some form of customer service in local stores or restaurants, etc. Also teenage pregnancy usually occurred during this time and is a mayor reason for drop outs.
But now there are more option for the working mother because now we have a Day Care in town thanks to a government program that subsidizes these types of children homes, so working parents don't have to pay for child care.
Daycare Center
Here they care for kids under 4 years old, they have 3 groups for 1 years, 2 and 3. Families from both La Manzanilla and Los Ingenios use the Daycare services. They have 23 children currently enrolled, their Directora is Judith Requena and Josefina Lua Madrigal is her assistant and the children's cook. They also have 3 other caregivers.
The main places to get a college education if you are from La Manzanilla are: Melaque (Marine Biology only), Manzanillo, Col., Colima, Col., Puerto Vallarta, Autlan, Guadalajara. And most people achieve their degrees in the Public State Universities like U de Colima or U de Guadalajara.
I hope we provided some insight in to La Manzanillas academic structure :)
Hasta la Proxima!
P.S.: Today was the election for Delegado in our town, we welcome
Don Pedro Preciado Chavez "El Brujo"looking forward to working with him!
Special Thanks to:
Lin Magali Loza
y
Eloy Soto Contreras.
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