So many of you have emailed me asking more specific questions in regards schooling here in Cuenca for your young children. Public, private or home-school?
Disclaimer:
I am only speaking from my own experience and cannot speak for others. My experience in regards to schooling is my personal opinion and I cannot and will not promote or dis-credit any type of schooling here in Cuenca, Ecuador. The information I provide here is just general information and may change at any given time. Again, I am only speaking based on my experience here in Cuenca, Ecuador.
General Information:
Public School - Free
Uniform Costs - $100 (Pants, shirt, sweater, sweat pants, sweat shirt, shorts, and skirt)
Private School - $100-300
*
This price does not include the uniform an various other things the school may charge.
Uniform Costs - $150-300 (Jumper skirt/dress, turtleneck, t-shirt, shorts, sweat pants, matching jacket, swim cap)
Home-school - Free
Here is our experience with me working as a teacher here in Ecuador and sending our youngest to private school:
We were very nervous about putting Aria into any school. So my husband and I embarked on finding a school for her and the boys as well. We went to several schools and all of them were very intimidating for the kids as no teacher spoke English and it would be a sink or swim situation. I saw an ad looking for an English speaking person to teach English at a private school about 15 minutes away. I thought this would be great, I could be with Aria everyday and monitor her. The person who posted the ad spoke English and there would be at least three other English teachers. This sounded like a perfect situation.
On the interview I asked as many questions as I possibly could about the school, their curriculum, talked about my daughter attending the school and so forth. They told me that the pay would be $300 per month for teaching English. I asked about the tuition for Aria and they told me it would be $175 but they would give me a 50% discount since I would be teaching there. SWEET! On the interview, I found out that this was a relatively new school with the goal of being a tri-lingual school (Spanish, English and Mandarin). The school was only 2 years old and still trying to develop their curriculum so Mandarin had not been introduced yet. This would be a great opportunity to allay both my fears and my daughters; to be there with my her to see how she was adapting to the environment, etc.
I was so happy to see Aria doing very well! She was frustrated occasionally because of the language barrier, but kids are so resilient and I was very impressed with her being able to adjust. She would even complain that she knew the work, but I would say now you know it in Spanish. My husband and I figured well at least she would immerse herself with other kids and learn Spanish. But the problems soon begin to manifest.
What she was learning at the 3 grade level here, she learned in 1st grade in the States. On top of that, in regards to me teaching, we (English Teachers) noticed the Ecuadorian teachers only had 20-30 students they would teach per day; whereas the English teachers had approximately 90-100 kids per day. We also had to make up our own monthly curriculums for each grade level. We had to come up with creative lessons, songs, etc. each day and the books they had in English were for students who were advanced in the English language, not for beginners. There were no copy machines, so we had to make our own copies after work. They would not allow me to teach reading in English because the children here don't begin to learn how to read until the 2nd grade. So they didn't want me to confuse the children. Ok, so these were problems I didn't anticipate about the job, but this was not about me, it was about Aria. So I just had to grin and bear it...until I got Aria's first bill:-)
I received the discount on tuition from $175 to $87 per month which was great and I told them to just add the registration fee ($120) and I would pay it all together. So I'm expecting a bill of $207 instead I get one for $388. Lunch was $33 per month, swimming was $20 per month, the bus ride for Aria $20 per month, my free bus ride because I was a teacher turned into $40 per month (because the bus driver quit and the new bus driver wanted to charge the teachers) and swimming was $16 per month. In addition, a one time Classroom Materials fee was also added for $88. This made me appreciate our schools back in the States even more:-) In private schools here you have to pay for every single thing. Yes, before the kids start school they give you a list of books that have to be purchased before they begin class. This is not provided by the schools. So Aria's books were $180.
So here is the run down of how much it cost for 1st year of private school:
Registration Fee - $120 (yearly one time fee)
Tuition - $175 - (50% discount) per month
Classroom Materials - $88 (yearly one time fee)
Bus - $20 - per month
Swimming - $16 per month
Lunch/snack - $33 per month
Books - $180
Uniforms - $180
Miscellaneous - $50
Total = Approx. $800
This was just getting Aria started to begin school in the first month not to mention what it cost me to start teaching.
Aria in her 3rd Grade Class
This was only one private school. Others are more economical and still others are more expensive. I did a survey asking the parents whose children attended public school, why they chose public over private; and many of them said that it is just as good as the private, while others just can't afford the costs (which is understandable). One administrator who worked here in our subdivision told me her son attends public school and she showed me his curriculum and sure enough it was the same as the private school. The jury is still out on if we will send her to public school because she is doing very well with our home-school curriculum. If you have the patience to home-school... that works too! We go on field trips to the museum, she writes reports on her trips. When travelling around Ecuador we make that part of her schooling as well. Every day living here in Ecuador is an educational experience as well as following your own personal curriculum, which includes math, science, history, English, etc. I have her in extra-curricular activities too. She takes violin lessons for $7 per hour. Her Spanish lessons are $5 per hour and she is learning from a friend how to knit and weave. So there are lots of things here to keep them busy.
If you have children who are in the 6th grade and higher, you may want to immerse them in school here, but if they are like my teenagers who do not want to go to school here, you may want to look into your home states Virtual Home-School Program. My two teenage sons attend virtual home-school and take classes online. They are doing well with this type of schooling too. Who knows one day we may send our daughter back to school here. But right now, homeschool works. I see a lot of children in school here in Ecuador and it works for them. So do your homework, investigate; you the parent are the one who best know your children and your circumstance. You have many options, you just have to do what you feel is best for your child. Hope our experience has been enlightening...ciao until next time.
