WHY AN INTERNADO/ALBERGUE (DORMITORY)?

We at AsistED (Asistencia Educación Superior en Ligüí-Ensenada Blanca, A.C.) want to provide any young person living in the rural areas of the municipality with the opportunity to go to high school (and if they persevered and had the ability, with the opportunity to continue on to an advanced degree).  This is not as ambitious an undertaking as it may seem, for even though the government does not provide free education after the 9^th grade, schooling is available and there are government assistance programs to help needy families.  At the time we started the project we had in our community of Ligüí and Ensenada Blanca 10 or 12 kids between 14 and 18 who wanted go to high school. In the outlying areas of Santa Cruz (mountain ranches) and Aqua Verde (fish camp) we had another 10 or 15.  In addition, each year we could look forward to 10 or 15 new graduates from junior high in our community and in Agua Verde. So we have a pool of perhaps 40 kids who have the ability and the desire to go to high school.  However, even with the help we, and later AsistED, has offered for the past eight years, the actual number going to high school remained between five and seven.    

We believe there are three reasons for this.  First, the families feel they need their kids at home to work (boys) or work and take care of the babies and oldsters (girls).  The second reason is that the generally low level of education among the adults leads them not to recognize the advantages of literacy and education for their children. The third reason is cost.  Government assistance does not begin to meet all the costs, and, ironically many families in the rural communities, the families most in need, cannot qualify for assistance.  In order to receive assistance the community has to have both a health clinic where children can receive required vaccinations and check-ups, and schools.  The scattered ranches fail these requirements, and their children are ineligible for the program of Oportunidad.  

Today the attitudes of the parents are changing. The parents seem to be more receptive to education for their children if it means they may be able to stay in the area and have decent jobs.  In part, this is because work in fishing and on the ranches is not able to assimilate the younger generation as it grows up.  The young people have been leaving from the ranches and the fish camps to go to Cabo and other cities (not many to the US and Canada), and the families are disrupted.   

So why, we wondered, did the kids not go to school.  The main reason we believe is cost and logistics.  Ligüí and Ensenada Blanca are about 30 miles from Loreto, Santa Cruz is a scattering of ranches centered some 20 miles up in the mountains to the south, and Agua Verde is an additional 20 miles on and down the mountains (amazing road) on the coast.  The roads are bad, and transportation is costly.  There is no local bus service, and the highway bus, which passes 8 miles from the costs about $4.00 US each way.  Driving would work, but at $2.50/gal would still cost $5-7.00 per car per day.  What some families with relatives living in Loreto do is have their kids stay with the relative while attending school.  That worked for the few students lucky enough to have relatives in town. What it did not do was allow the kids who do not have family in town to go to high school. The rest of the kids from the outlying areas had no opportunity to go beyond what was available in the rural communities, fourth grade for many.  

We believed that the solution to the problem lay with solving the logistics. We tried to convince the government (SEP – Secretaría de Educación Publica) that a technical high school in Ligüí was the answer, with a dormitory to house students from the other settlements.  However, that idea was not accepted at the time. Instead, SEP suggested that the students be bussed daily to “Profr. Manuel Davis Ramirez” High School in Loreto with government providing becas to defray the transportation cost.  However, the high school in Loreto only had enough students enrolled to support one session, which was in the late afternoon from 3 pm until 9 pm.  The parents in the rural communities did not want their kids on the highway at night since they are very aware of the hazards driving after dark – a narrow, two-lane road with animals, rock falls, big trucks, etc.  

The school needed 65 students to support the cost of a new (morning) session.  About 20 Loreto kids wanted to go to high school but could not because the evening session was full. If we could supplement that number with students from our communities and with additional students from the outer reaches of the municipality it would justify a morning session . 

Our solution was to provide a boarding facility where the outer area kids could stay.  The question was where? One argument we considered was to build or rent a place in Loreto where all the kids could be during the week.  The other was to build or rent a facility in Ligüí where the kids from the further reaches could stay, and bus them and the Ligüí/Ensenada Blanca students together daily to school in Loreto.

The latter seemed the better solution as it would both provide students to help fill out the morning session, and there would be enough students fill a bus, thereby solving the transportation problem. By building the dormitory in this, the largest coastal community, the local kids that lacked family in Loreto could be home each night, and the outer community kids would still have a place to stay.                                                                                                          

So how good was the decision?  We think it was right.  Despite the fact that the state aid for daily transportation costs did not materialize, the municipality did help by providing a chauffeur, and the state did donate a series of buses.  The first handled the kids last year; the new one is bigger and will handle the kids we now have if we get some more seats.  The way it worked out is that we got a critical mass of kids that made in necessary for the government to recognize the need for transportation. This school year we have 38 students, and we have the attention of the government to the point we got a 40 passenger bus – minus a few seats.

But there is another intangible involved.  Having our kids away from Loreto at night seems to have helped their grades.  Not that Loreto is “Big City”, but it does offer distractions that we lack in here in the rural areas. What has happened is that our kids have excelled scholastically. We are very proud of our students’ achievements. The school rewards good scholarship by waving the inscription fees and tuition for students who maintain a grade point average of 9.6 or higher.  Ten students qualified this year, and all were from our rural areas, none from Loreto. So we feel there are several advantages in having the kids live at home or in the dormitory here. The grades speak for themselves.