Ngobe Learning Center
Most of the Indian populations are located in remote areas of the province and the government schools in these locations generally only go up to the 6th grade. The student would then be required to go to the mainland or to Isla Colon for any further education. This is not feasible for most students due to the high cost of transportation or the lack of a family to stay with in the school area. Bocas is a province of island communities, which may be some distance apart and have no organized public transportation system. Also, by Panamanian law, the students must have their own uniforms, books, and some supplies to attend school. Some of this is supplemented by the Panamanian government, but often times many children fall through the cracks due to a lack of parent and government support and therefore cannot attend school.
Knowing that the future of these people in this rapidly developing area depends on an understanding of the western world (traditional Panamanian education), we decided to provide our own learning center in 2006. There would be no uniforms and we would provide all necessary supplies. To not compete with the public school system already in place, we would only take in students who were to old or poor to attend the public community school. We started with a typical 7th grade Panamanian curriculum and expanded it to meet what we felt were special community needs. Our center's additional goals were to preserve the Ngobe culture, educate the people about local politics and its affects on them, teach environmental conservation, and agriculture. The village had a voice in what they felt needed to be provided at the center and are constantly solicited for their input.
To achieve the first goal of cultural preservation, SBT searched for an Ngobe teacher who would teach in their native tongue. The loss of the native language would ultimately lead to a further loss of the culture. After 6 months, we located a young teacher and arranged for him to teach at our farm and eco-lodge project (which is near the village and one of the primary beach access trails). We modified and he taught in one of our large equipment buildings. We hoped this was a temporary location until a building could be built in the village.
Land in the village has already been donated for the school, we now need funding and to arrange for the village manpower to assist in its construction. SBT pays for the teacher's continuing education at the university in Changuinola and a salary. We also provide all the school supplies and the teacher's food and transport to and from Salt Creek each week.
The name of the school was selected by the Ngobe and our teacher and is called "The Hatodigue Learning Center", which literally means in the Ngobe language of Gyami "to study". Our teacher teaches the basic 7th grade curriculum, plus biological and cultural preservation, life skills, and simple agriculture. One of the student's writing assignments is to speak with the village elders and record the old folklore. Most of the native language "Gyami" is based on a story of the past. The language and the past are intimately tied together. We are working with the Texas State University Archeology department and hope to prepare a booklet of Ngobe folklore in the future, partially from the students work.
One long-term project planned for the students is to assist the local village shaman "curiador" in locating and tagging forest trees from which he acquires medicinal plants. The shaman told us the trees he uses are being cut down and he needs help to educate the village and outsiders to stop cutting them. SBT proposed to help him through this project, which utilizes the students and teachers.
The students will go out bi-monthly to assist with the tree locating, identification, and tagging. This information will be added to a GPS data base and later to a project map. A large area around the village will be systematically mapped and tagged. This is a project which will take possibly a year to complete. After the initial tagging is complete, the students will present their project to the village and assist the shaman in describing the tags used and why the trees are vital.
Through this project the students will not only promote their culture, but gain practical experience in conservation, mathematics, map and GPS usage, writing and much more. We believe students should gain practical experience in the areas of conservation, agriculture and science. Our farm station will offer them additional practical experiences in all of these areas.
The school began with seven students and finished with fifteen its first year. The parents of the students are very pleased and we have been approached by several other islands about opening a center there as well. SBT plans to continue to add teachers for the higher class levels and a Vocational-Tech portion if possible. There are many retired expats in Bocas with skills that could be utilized in a Vo-Tech setting. We are currently discussing adding another grade to the most remote island in Bocas "Cayo de Aqua". We are only limited by our funding, volunteers, and time. All SBT staff except for the teachers are volunteers.
In our second year (2007) with the center, we hired another teacher. She was pursuing a second degree in both computer sciences and English language. She provided community education courses, while also teaching in the learning center. The village requested classes in English, which she provided to everyone who wished to attend. We had hoped to add computers to our center in that year, but a lack of signal for wireless Internet has held this project up. During this year we lost our second teacher and have not been able to replace her to date. To teach here requires living on site for the week. We would greatly appreciate any bi-lingual volunteers for this position.
During this year our students were able to visit both the CCC Turtle Research Station located in the Isla Bastimentos National Marine Park and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute located on Isla Colon. Both of these trips were firsts for any Ngobe student from the out lying villages (please see the Blog). All of the students were very interested by the new ideas expressed at each of these locations. Ngobe typically eat sea turtles as a normal part of their diet. A lot of interest was generated by these visits including recycling at the village level.
This type of education is not wasted on these children; it only needs to be relevant and interesting. Through these experiences a new generation of Ngobe children will emerge with a greater awareness of the many possibilities that may await them in the future.
This year (2008) was to be our third year for the center. Unfortunately, we have not opened this year for many reasons which include; the addition of higher grade levels in the village, some changes occurring within the community itself, and financial reasons tied to rising transport prices. Transport of the teacher costs nearly half of the monthly budget. We asked that the village assist with the transport of the teacher(s), but have not gotten an answer at this time. We hope that a resolution can be found and that the school will open again this year, but without some financial or volunteer support that seems unlikely at this time.