Teach English in Jingwu Zhen - Tianjin

Problems for learners in Mexico Reasons why I choose to write about problems for learners in Mexico. My husband and I have lived in Baja Norte, Mexico for the past three and a half years as retirees. In the past 3 years we have worked as volunteers for several organizations in Rosarito as well as Xalapa, Veracruz where we gained some experience in dealing with students in Mexico. Because of living in mexico, and being actively engaged with the people I have direct, firsthand experience and have become familiar with local customs and mexican culture in general which enables me to express an informed opinion. In Mexico specifically, the problems are: a) extreme poverty in many areas b) access to education c) motivation to go to school d) lack of qualified teachers a. In areas of extreme poverty parents often cannot send their children to school because they can't afford to pay for uniforms, school materials or even food. Parents are often illiterate and have no access to assistance or aid. If children do go to school, more often than not the children will not be able to finish high school as they have to start working to help making a living. Schools don't have sufficient funds to provide learning material, and students don't have access to libraries, research material, computers etc. b) If students cannot pay for transport to get to school not having access to education is a result thereof. Sometimes, especially in rural areas, schools are such a distance away that students need to travel to school by car or bus. For secondary or higher education this can be an especially difficult problem to overcome. School fees become more expensive the higher the level of education. c) Motivation to go to school often is a continuous problem in a family. When parents have had no or little education, they tend to not encourage their children to go to school. Of course there are many exceptions, there certainly are parents who do see the importance of education and who try their best to provide the means for their children to go to school. Where children grow up in poverty, often all the people around them are in the same position, there is no peer pressure to get an education. There are few jobs available, wages are low. Adult learners often are not motivated to go to school if there are no qualified teachers to teach them. If classes are held in the evenings, many adults are too tired from working, sometimes not one but two jobs, to be motivated to go to school to further their education. d) Lack of qualified teachers is a result of an inefficient school system; schools don't have enough funds to pay teachers decent salaries. Teachers have a rigorous syllabus to complete in a short time. More often than not english teachers have no opportunity to practice speaking english themselves; they regularly teach many other subjects too. When teachers are not well qualified, their students will also have problems learning. They don't have access to learning and resource material, because of lack of funds (school and parents). When volunteering in Xalapa, our adult learners were english teachers who had a reasonable theoretic knowledge of english, but could not speak the language at all. They were motivated to learn, but had problems finding time and energy to do homework, which meant that they were making only slow progress. Generally children are not disciplined well in mexican schools, therefore our young learners were not motivated or encouraged to pay attention in class, which meant they had problems making any progress in learning. After many conversations and exchanges of opinion with different people who had similar experiences and mexican people themselves, I have come to the following conclusion. Unless several necessary, fundamental changes are made to and within the school system, which will take a very long time to implement even if started right now, many of the problems mexican learners have to deal with will not be alleviated for many years to come.