Practical Secondary Education

The Father Tom Moran Education Center

Ak Tenamit’s work with village schools has resulted in more and more children completing elementary school, so in 2001, we inaugurated the Father Tom Moran Educational Center: a vocational boarding school where indigenous teenagers can get an innovative, practical education in a culturally sensitive, supportive environment. Students, their parents and international volunteers built the school and students perform much of the work needed to keep it running – growing food, maintaining buildings, etc. Its thatched-roofed classrooms, dorms, cafeteria, library, computer lab and organic farm are surrounded by the rainforest and can only be reached by boat.

The education program’s goal is to provide Maya youth with the knowledge, skills and motivation to help themselves and their people. We adapted Guatemala’s national curriculum to the Tutorial Learning System, through which students work in groups at their own pace and develop problem solving skills. Subjects such as math and science are presented in a local context and students also learn about sustainable agriculture, tourism, community development and Maya culture. Classroom time is complemented by working at Ak’ Tenamit’s restaurants and gift shops, where students gain valuable job experience. This strategy has many benefits:

It motivates and empowers the Center’s approximately 500 students to help their communities.
It promotes equality of the sexes in a country where women suffer widespread discrimination. Nearly half the Moran Center’s students are female and we make a special effort to recruit and retain them through the We Must Educate the Girls program.
Students have a strong sense of ownership – they help to run the school and return early from vacations to work on construction projects.
They learn personal responsibility, good citizenship and the importance of working through consensus.
Students develop a capacity for critical analysis and problem solving while learning entrepreneurial skills.
They accumulate 3,000 hours of job experience at the school’s farm, restaurants and handicraft operations. They work at all jobs and learn how to manage a small business, or community enterprise. In the process, they help pay for their education.
In their last year at the Center, students develop a tesina – a detailed proposal for a community development project.
Moran Center graduates have gotten jobs with private businesses, government offices and charitable organizations.
Some graduates form a teaching cadre that is helping to replicate the program in other parts of Guatemala.

All our students come from very poor families and would not be able to attend school if not for our student sponsorship program. Please sponsor a student!