Education is undoubtedly the basis of development in any country in the world and represents the true engine of any serious and responsible economic and social policy for the generation of knowledge and intellectual skills that it generates in people capable of generating greater economic growth. and star in the change towards modernity and efficiency in the well-being and quality of life that our peoples require.
There are some people, professionals, as well as public officials who do not give it due importance, simply because of incompetence in this matter or because a change in the current system in the educational aspect would bring "a lot of queue" as we would say in Peru since it would modify a a lot of the formal and administrative structure (call it institutions, bureaucracy and official regulations) already existing in our country that would affect the status quo of our society.
Currently, in Peru there is an education based on its ineffectiveness to constitute a generation of "citizens' society" and where only subjects or courses are provided in accordance with an educational curriculum whose main objective is to prepare or pretend to prepare young people of today for a possible college entrance exam. I say possible, because finishing secondary education for many young people and adolescents is in itself an achievement, given the economic and social difficulties we are going through, and most regrettably, those who manage to finish high school and decide to apply for either a state university or a prestigious private university, collide with a harsh reality: the education they received in their schools is of little use to them, to say the least,to achieve direct admission to a higher education center.
When I refer to “citizens' society”, I refer to people in this case young people and adolescents capable of contributing through their knowledge and future continuous learning to the development of our societies and the progress of our nation. To the formation of a new generation of leaders, with initiative and responsible for their own destiny, aware that the world is experiencing a series of continuous changes, mainly in the field of knowledge that requires efficiency, competitiveness and high demands to emerge from underdevelopment and collective poverty in which we find ourselves.
Obviously, the student will not only be able to achieve everything expected of him, this requires the support of the main educational authorities at the initiative of the state in academic quality and infrastructure, as well as assistance in social programs for the least favored sectors of our society, such as for example, food, together with a constant training program for teachers and a larger budget for the education sector.
I would like to tell you something: a few months ago, I had to live one of the most gratifying experiences of my life, I participated on my own initiative as a volunteer for the International Junior Achievement Organization in Peru, an organization whose main objective is to promote entrepreneurship in school age youth. The project entrusted to the volunteers, all professionals with recognized success through work experiences, was to work together with young people from the 4th and 5th years of high school in a school located in the Puente Piedra district, located on the outskirts of Metropolitan Lima, almost one historical center time.
Three different companies were formed, where the students were responsible for their constitution and organization; likewise, they were in charge of the subsequent production and marketing of the products that each company produced. The amazing thing about this project was that all the aforementioned activities were done entirely by the students themselves, with the function of the volunteers serving solely as references to advise and guide outside the companies; but even more incredible was observing their way of working, which consisted of the following: they met and worked after school hours including Saturdays, moreover during the first stage of said project, the state schools went through a serious and prolonged strike of teachers.But this was not an impediment for all of them (I mean the students) without exception to go to school every day with the desire not to stop and take their respective companies forward.
The result was more than encouraging, they carried out the products they had planned and which in this case were: scented candles in two companies and glycerin soaps in the other one. As a volunteer advisor myself, I was in charge of contacting them and taking the vice presidents of each company to Radio Programs of Peru, perhaps the most important radio in our country, so that they themselves could explain what their role had been in the production, organization aspect, finance and marketing throughout the process until the final sale of the products.
Throughout this process, I was an exceptional witness to the creative, supportive and responsible spirit of students who saw this program as a challenge, a challenge and at the same time a means of demonstrating how capable they were of achieving goals and objectives when encouraged to do something. different and they are entrusted with a high degree of responsibility and initiative that goes beyond exams or grades, because being schoolchildren was a stage that already ended in them, however being entrepreneurs was the beginning of a new stage in their lives and It encouraged them to continue learning and demonstrate in practice how successful they could be.
The program itself was not only intended to train entrepreneurs themselves, but rather to expand the panorama of school-age youth like them, who are prepared for new challenges, the same as based on their work, perseverance and above all, their intelligence and creativity, be able to acquire and put into practice new knowledge.
Unfortunately and this as a final conclusion, this type of organizations and programs are not very widespread in Peru, perhaps more organizations like these need to be created to support the work of young people today, but perhaps and I am sure of it; it must correspond to the governments reforms of structure and not simply of laws, it is urgent to change the current educational curriculum, introducing some changes such as applying the use of technology to the service of students, developing individual projects among students (why not?) that generate a response of confidence and security in them, that young people of school age see in current and future knowledge an instrument of change and improvement at the service of themselves, their families and society in general.
