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Higher Education in Contemporary Central America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Barbara Waggoner
Affiliation:
Philosophy at the University of Kansas
George R. Waggoner
Affiliation:
Philosophy at the University of Kansas
Gregory B. Wolfe
Affiliation:
Philosophy at the University of Kansas

Extract

“The National University? Of course, I use it for political purposes—pay a student to stay in school to fight the communists. Yes, he's 35 years old, been there quite a while. The name of the Rector? I don't know.”

“No, I've never given any money to the university—I've never been asked. Library? I don't know whether they have one or not. Don't the students listen to the lectures?”

These comments illustrate the widespread feelings of public indifference and hostility toward higher education in Central America today. They also underscore the need for better information about higher education and the need to reduce the gap between the universities and the societies in which they operate.

The universities of Central America have long been tottery towers built on inadequate structures of national public education. Their marginal utility as centers of learning and intellectual leadership is evidenced in many ways: in low levels of financial support; rundown physical facilities; weak administrations and consequent weaknesses in the standards of teaching, research and student academic performance.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 1964

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References

1 Hatch, W. B., Labbens, J., Terlingern, J. H., Informe de la Misión Consultora de la UNESCO para las Universidades Centroamericanas, UNESCO, París, 1962, pp. 2324 Google Scholar. Referred to in later sections of this paper as UNESCO Report.

2 Consejo Superior Universitario Centroamericano, Eficiencia del Sistema Educativo Primario en Centroamerlca y Escolaridad, que Produce, Proyecto de Recursos Humanos en America Central, San José, 1963, Cuaderno 1, Anexo, Cuadros Nos. 1, 7 and 16. Referred to in later sections of this paper as Recursos Humanos, Sistema Primario.

3 Oyanguren, Marioano Fiallos, Anteproyecto de Desarrollo de la Universidad. Unpublished memorandum of the Universidad Nacional de Nicaragua, León, December 1962, p. 2 Google Scholar.

4 UNESCO Report, pp. 10-11.

5 Ibid, p. 15.

6 Stiles, Lindley J., Programas para la preparación de Profesores de Segunda Enseñanza en la Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, 5 de Julio 1962, p. 8 Google Scholar.

7 Orr, Paul G. and Hereford, Karl T., “Proyecciones Estadísticas de las Necesidades en la Docencia Media en Centro America (1964-1970,” part of an unpublished manuscript, Regional Study of Secondary School Teacher Preparation Programs in Central America, IIME, San Carlos, Guatemala, 1963, pp. B7-9Google Scholar.

8 A group of Michigan State University faculty have defined a “competent” secondary school teacher as having completed the following minimum study program beyond secondary school:

A general studies curriculum equivalent to one or preferably two years including courses in basic psychology, literature, history, sociology and the philosophy of education.

An intensively studied area of specialization related to materials to be taught.

A program of supervised teaching and instruction in teaching methods.

9 UNESCO Report, pp. 16-17.

10 Bemheim, Carlos Tunnerman, Exposición Comparada de las Leyes Orgánicas de las Universidades Centroamericanas, CSUCA, León, Nicaragua, 1960, pp. 134 Google Scholar.

11 UNESCO Report, p. 17.

12 Algunos Aspectos Socioeconómicos de la Población Estudiantil Universitaria Centroamericana del Ano 1962, Recursos Humanos en Centroamerica, CSUCA, San José, October 1963, pp. 10-12. Subsequently referred to in this study as Población Estudiantil.

13 UNESCO Report, p. 22.

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18 See Enarson, Harold L., “University Education in Central America,” Journal of Higher Education, XXXIV, (April 1963), p. 201 Google Scholar.