By Gonzalo Chavarria, Nicaragua
On the picture: Gonzalo
Today at 8:00 AM I visited Sundhojskolen in Svendborg where I had to teach some classes about my country Nicaragua.
The school building looked more like a hotel because of the size and the many (class)rooms, than the old building I see when I go to school at home. In the school yard I saw a lot of happy children running around, playing loudly. I guess the energy comes from eating breakfast, which is a privilege most children in Nicaragua do not have. There the children are more shy and quiet, their eyes less careless.
Then I began teaching class in a 9th grade with 25 students, which is considerable less than the 40-50 pupils I use to share classroom with back home. I decided to tell them about something I figured teenagers would find interesting: sexual education in my home country. In Nicaragua it is taboo to talk about what sex is, prevention and sexual transmitted diseases in classrooms, due to religion and culture. Therefore many young girls get pregnant, without knowing how to deal with it.
The class told me that this topic is discussed in 3th grade already, and were thus surprised to hear about my childhood-realty.
However, I am lucky to even have an education. Because only 40 % of children finish their primary school, after that their parents do not have money to eat or buy schooluniforms.
I think one of the biggest reasons Denmark is doing good is because of education. You can feel it when talking to a person, when you see that they respect the traffic signs, when they do not throw garbage in the streets or when they build a country like Danish people have.
Education is a way out of poverty and a mean for society to get better. Therefore I wish Nicaragua manages to help the lacking 60 % finish primary school and thereby live up to the Millenium Development Goals.