Cuchilla Zapa Computer Based Learning
There is good work being done in this community. They anticipate 15 students from the community moving up to seventh grade next year, and have had an outpouring of interest from surrounding communities to participate in the program. Our meeting yielded a few decisions… a proposal being written to A Better World to buy more computers, a commitment to analyze the final numbers of how many of the original students complete the program and what their grades are like. The school year ends at the end of November.
This map shows the location of Cuchilla Zapa from La Entrada
The computers are available from 1:30 to 6:30 6 days a week. The majority of students work in the morning and attend school in the afternoon. The Superintendents have chosen to divide the time into two sessions. We discussed having the school open into the evening also. The problem is the facilitator who is there to answer questions, and assign marks. They had a donation to provide an honorarium for this person over the last year, but are wondering how to continue covering costs. The students pay 50 Lps a month (about 2.50$ US) and that money has covered any computer repairs that have been necessary. We discussed the possibility of raising the fees but 2.50$ represents a half days wages for them. We brainstormed several ideas including partnering with a technical school to do computer repairs.
A questionnaire will be constructed for the students to assess their satisfaction of the problem and get their feedback. One or two questions like… would you recommend the program to a friend, and do you like the program and will you continue with the program… will be asked.
