Printer-friendly versionSend to friendPDF version

The current Payamino School buildings were built with materials donated by the government around 1995. Although the introduction of education to the community dates back at least to the arrival of the Josephine and Dorothean missionaries in the 1920’s, and possibly as far back as the presence of Jesuits in San Jose de Payamino, over a century ago, the first formalised school was built at the former San Jose settlement by the Ahuano River in the 1960’s and was staffed by a missionary called Romulo Garcia, who was also the community’s justice of the peace.

In 2010 there were 65 students attending primary or secondary school and 26 students who were following a distance learning secondary school course on Fridays and Saturdays

The school has been one of the focus areas of the collaboration between Aalborg Zoo and Payamino and education has proven to be one of the most significant factors when it comes to prevent deforestation. Ironically, however, large parts of Amazon forest are cut down by family fathers every year to obtain funds for school books, pencils, uniforms or transport to and from the school.

With the help from project funds the school sponsor program, the Payamino project have managed to supply the school with enough funds to buy the text books, uniforms and other teaching materials that they need, which means that families can now concentrate on the learning instead of the annual economic burden (many families have 4-6 children in primary education at a time). Additionally, poor communities, such as San Jose de Payamino receive support from the Ecuadorean government, who now provide primary school pupils with text books, uniforms and school meals. However, they do not fund the distance learning secondary school text books, or provide money for other materials, such as pens, pencils, notebooks, and other stationery, or for the maintenance of school buildings.

The Payamino project, with the help of the school sponsors, are now providing equipment for students in both the the primary school and the secondary distance learning courses, such as pens, paper, folders, book protectors, dictionaries, etc., as well as basic teaching equipment e.g. chalk, whiteboard markers, felt tip markers, poster paper, etc., and the textbooks needed by the secondary students.

To create environmental awareness of the area outside Payamino and Ecuador in general, the project funding have also facilitated environmental field trips for the younger children and the secondary pupils. The youngest children visited an ecological NGO in 2009 to look at, and learn about, environmental pollution from oil mining. The college students took a field trip to the coastal region of Ecuador. None of the students have seen the sea, so this once-in-a-lifetime experience allowed them the chance to better understand the value of their rainforest in the national context, as well seeing some of the different habitats that exist in Ecuador and the impacts that industry and intensive farming are having on them.