Teaching English to children in Ecuador has been a fantastic experience. Most of the children are very eager to learn and I’m happy to be a part of their education.
However, within my very first weeks here I noticed a very disturbing trend: a lot of the kids cheat. At first I thought it was just a few isolated incidents, but then I compared stories with other foreign English teachers and they said the problem was even worse in the high schools. Talking with my aunt I found that the habit continues all the way through university. What I find so shocking is that kids as young as six at our school don’t think twice about cheating. And I’m not talking just looking at your neighbor’s paper, I’m talking about bringing little sheets of paper to discreetly keep in your lap. Where is this coming from?
My aunt, who has lived in Ecuador for 30 years and is the principal at our school, tried to shed some light for me on the epidemic of cheating in Ecuadorian schools. She first cites pressure from parents. Perception and appearance is very important to Ecuadorian parents. A child doing poorly in school is a direct reflection on the parents. One that the parents do not want and made known to their children.
The second reason, my aunt points out, is flaws in the law surrounding Ecuadorian education. It is against the law to hold a child back a grade in primary education (through 6th grade) unless the parents consent. Unfortunately, with many schools requiring monthly tuition, parents are not apt to agree to hold their child back, regardless of poor performance, because this is seen as a “waste of money.” After 6th grade, kids are able to get held back and my aunt broadly estimates that nearly half of Ecuadorian students fail 7th grade due to poor foundational skills built in primary years. Failing just one subject means a child must be held back, so cheating becomes an even larger incentive after 7th grade, especially in subjects like English and math.
By the time a child is a teenager, cheating has become habit. You can only imagine how having no conscience about cheating can permeate a culture and affect it negatively in the forms of corruption and dishonesty.
At my aunt’s school she tries to instill the value of failure – letting children know that it is okay to fail, but it is not okay to cheat. We’re only one school, but hopefully, for the sake of Ecuador, other schools will begin to teach the value of honesty and allowing children the room to fail.
For more stories about teaching in Ecuador, check out my personal blog.
Latest posts by laurenfoukes
- Saying Goodbye to Ecuador - March 29th, 2010
- At Some Point I Became Lorena - March 15th, 2010
- Aftermath of Chilean Earthquakes - March 7th, 2010
- Taking the Plunge - March 1st, 2010
- My Country, 'Tis of Thee - February 8th, 2010
- Forget Language Teachers...I've Got Kids - January 31st, 2010
- Staying Flexible - January 25th, 2010
- Pollution Matters - January 22nd, 2010
- "...But Is It Safe?" - January 11th, 2010
- Saludos de Ecuador! - January 4th, 2010
