School`s out for summer?

On the first day of school in the States, I guarantee that the majority of students could tell you when the school year ends. (or give a pretty accurate guess within two days)

In Ecuador it´s a different story.

When I left for my two-week vacation, I asked people in town when classes end.

``January or February``

Now keep in mind, I asked this is at the end of December.

So I came back from my vacation in the first days of January and saw kids in the street in the middle of the day. I wondered why the kids weren`t in school if school didn`t end until some time near the end of the month.

Well, it turns out that classes are already over. The kids are just finishing up their final exams.

In some high schools, they actually finished classes before the new year.

But I can`t really blame the kids on this one. I think the education system is at fault.

I don`t know how far in advance they plan the school year or how much notice they give to the kids. Two days before records day, the kids don`t know that they have the day off.

I`m not complaining about this. It was just very funny to come back from my trip and expect to have another month to work with my students only to find out that they are done with classes until April.