Villa Maria Project
DEVELOPMENT OF
THE VILLA MARIA PRE-SCHOOL/PRIMARY SCHOOL
Overview
In Peru, there does
exist state education but the number of available places does not meet
the number of children, particularly in the capital Lima. Furthermore,
although the education is supposedly “free”, the need to buy uniforms,
books, materials often still keeps the option out of many parent’s
reach.
The Aim of the Villa Maria school
To offer a quality
education to children from disadvantaged families within the Villa Maria
district of Lima. Not only will this education be equivalent to the
state curriculum, its link with the UK (and regular UK volunteers which
support the school) can give these children the opportunity of a higher
quality and variety of education, offering greater possibilities than
just “getting by”. Pupils are provided with books, uniform and other
basic materials as standard, and when possible, extra materials are
provided which would not be available in a standard state school (use of
computers, science equipment etc.)
The school also
serves as a focal point for the community, where adult education
classes, health and hygiene awareness workshops and even social events
have and will be held there. This brings the community much closer to
the project as a whole, and of course widens the scope for other
outreach programmes.
History
The school was
founded in 2004 and was initially supported by contributions from the UK
gap year organisation Quest Overseas, as well as a proportion of pupils
who actually did pay tuition fees. Due to the development of other
projects within Villa Maria, the support from Quest for the school is
now less regular, and of course the ideal situation is to provide more
“scholarship” places than paid ones.
Structure
The school has the
structure and facilities to accommodate up to 120 pupils over 7 years (3
pre-school and 4 primary). It currently has just 35 pupils on their
books. Any financial support would allow the school to accept more
pupils and meet its potential capacity.
Finance
Below we have laid out the financial
commitments/needs of the school in different ways – the cost to admit an
extra pupil, the basic running costs and the possible purchase of the
school building.
-
COST PER PUPIL
– The basic tuition fee for the school is GBP£12 per
month, or GBP£120 per year.
-
BASIC RUNNING COSTS
– GBP£525 per month. This includes teachers’ wages,
water/electricity etc. Educational materials would be considered
separately.
A basic calculation of the above
shows that the school needs to receive the equivalent of 50 pupils’
tuition fees to cover their basic costs.
How La Vida has helped so far:
La Vida has
sponsored the 2008 intake of 20 pupils on full scholarships:
-
SPONSORSHIP OF A
CHILD’S PLACE IN THE SCHOOL - £120 for a year x 20
Click here
to see the children who will be receiving the scholarships.
La Vida has also provided computers/software and printers (10 computers);
purpose built games and rides for their playground (as opposed to
makeshift blocks they had) and a basic library of educational and
recreational books as well as science books and laboratory materials.
-
ESSENTIAL
EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS - £2000
Photos of the
library, play area and computer lab that 'La Vida' has funded.
 |
