Studying in schools in the Pacific is not an easy task. In various towns, teachers have created dynamics to ward off violence during recess, however, outside the schools the conflict is latent. When there is a curfew, classes must be canceled and inevitably the classrooms remain empty for an indefinite period of time.
The same reality is experienced by 15 percent of the schools that were part of the 2022 Welbin Index, a tool that analyzes the conditions of school well-being in Colombia. This percentage of institutions ensured that, in the surroundings, there is still an active armed conflict. 43 percent confirmed that there is sale of psychoactive substances, and 25 percent, organized crime. A worrying panorama that, although it happens outside the classroom, interferes with and delays the learning of children and adolescents.
The creators of the index explain that an education focused on well-being is comprehensive and includes cognitive, physical, emotional and social aspects. When this happens, academic performance, school life and satisfaction with life improve, explained Daniel Tobón, director of Welbin, and Luz Karime Abadía, co-director of the Economics of Education Laboratory at the Javeriana University, who was also part of the study.
The general result of this index, which includes issues such as infrastructure, healthy eating and living, and mental health, reveals that the 1,556 schools participating in the survey, from 31 departments, are halfway through the task. On a scale of 0 to 100, the schools reached 50 percent. “Given the little information there is on these issues, the results are just the tip of the iceberg, we must continue measuring more schools in this area,” says Tobón, who clarifies that they might not measure Vaupés due to connectivity problems.
In the country, education has traditionally been measured by academic performance and school dropout, and forgets other factors that this latest report, made between May and August of this year, puts on the table. Having constant and free drinking water is one of those priority factors, even more so in a country where 1 in 3 children have intestinal parasites. However, 38 percent of rural and official schools do not have potable water service.
Daniel Tobón draws attention to visual screening, only 16 percent of schools perform it. A preventive measure that might change the lives of hundreds of students: 1 in 2 children have vision problems. The simple action of putting glasses on them would improve their performance in class, as the expert says: “Children must be physically fit, in good health. Many of them are absent for these reasons”.
Public and private schools recognize these shortcomings, such as the few tools they have for mental and emotional health: 33 percent provide psychosocial support and only 24 percent psychological first aid. In an official school in Bogotá, one of the psychosocial professionals, who is in charge of more than 20 primary courses, says that just this year he has received 26 complaints of sexual abuse, 22 of domestic violence and 30 cases of suicidal ideation.
“We have a big coverage problem –explains the counselor– because we don’t give enough attention. In addition, we do not provide therapy, we must make inter-institutional referrals and there are only two child psychiatrists in the District. The worrying thing is that a girl or boy without a protective environment cannot generate coherent learning processes. Without mental health, knowledge is not internalized”.
With the pandemic it became clear that the school is a safe place for girls and boys: it is not just a teaching-learning scenario and this demands a role for teachers, since they become promoters of emotional well-being. “The teacher is an intermediary who connects with the students’ family environments, is a recipient of the stories and a reference, but also a person who carries this heavy story,” says Juan Pablo Aranguren, director of academic projects at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of the Andes.
Aranguren has worked with experiences in schools in Quibdó, Tumaco and Buenaventura, where teachers developed writing initiatives to promote self-reflective processes in students, around themes such as happiness, mourning, sadness and fear. In these processes, the leadership of rector women has been decisive. Although the researcher says that the lack of resources and human talent is a shortcoming, he also explains that a school committed to well-being is not one full of psychologists, but one that specializes its teachers in the subject and seeks that teachers, students, and administrators feel good regarding themselves and can comment on what they feel to do their activities.
Pedagogical projects should be thought of that also work on the link between the family and the school, affective and effective accompaniments. “It is with them that we can generate healthy environments in schools and homes. This leads to a practice that legitimizes human beings. Perhaps it is time for us adults to talk less and listen more to children and young people,” explained Ruth Stella Chacón Pinilla, doctor in education and professor at Universidad del Bosque.
The topics of sexuality and gender were also part of the Welbin Index 2022. In Colombia, during 2020, the National Administrative Department of Statistics (Dane) reported that 4,268 girls, between 10 and 14 years old, were mothers. The response from schools is scarce, only 19 percent have trained their teachers in pregnancy prevention and 33 percent in sexuality. Subjects such as sexual orientation are still taboo in homes and schools.
In the Pacific, teachers have experienced “small victories” in welfare issues: phrases like “teacher, I’m finishing high school for you” show that their strategies stop school dropouts. An example that the school accompanies, but not a place where the problems of society are going to be solved. “That’s what social policies are for,” warns Inna Pahola Muñoz, PhD in Educational Sciences. This academic invites us to reflect on the way in which the system continues to be measured, “with tests designed for other educational parameters” and says that we have forgotten regarding that human being who develops in an integral way and the factors that affect this process.