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local Friday 13 January 2023

Colegio San Hose elementary school celebrates its 83-year anniversary

On January 11th, Cole-
gio San Hose elementary
school celebrated its 83
years of existence. The
school’s principal, Miss
Dyan Croes Caster, spoke
to the local press explain-
ing what this celebration
means for the school and
how the school use to be
compared to now.

“Today is a very special
day, because Colegio San
Hose just marked 83 years
of educating our children
and leading with respect,
discipline and love towards
our fellow man”, she ex-
pressed. of the year. Fifth and sixth
She recalls the time she was graders receive lessons in
going through the history of Dutch. Papiamento in turn
the school and noticed that is given as a separate sub-
around 1950, the school ject.
had about 600 students. Lastly, Croes Caster indi-
At the time, it was decided cated that for this celebra-
that 45 students in one class tion, they told the students
would be too crowded, so the school’s history. She
they branched out to the also expressed her grati-
districts of Paradera and tude for those who helped
Santa Cruz. the school reached its 83
Croes Caster further ex- she said. are now finishing up high ed. years of existence.
plained that Colegio The director highlighted school, and the principle She explained that the way “We are thankful for our
San Hose is a multilingual that there is room for im- gushed that the results the system works is first, past principals, past teach-
school. This was a part of a provement, especially in were positive. second and third graders ers, everyone who have
then prototypical project terms of keeping up with the “The kids did well in high receive lessons in Papia- helped us, and the past
that started ten years ago, current educational stan- school. You have to look mento, and receive lan- and current parents com-
where the school gives out dard. She commented that at it like it’s a bank: you de- guage lessons as separate mittee. To the Aruban com-
learning materials and les- in traditional schools, men- posit so many words in dif- subjects. Fourth graders munity, thank you for sup-
sons in four different lan- tality about the children’s ferent languages and then start the year with lessons porting Colegio San Hose
guages. This is something education is different, and you can take it back out in Papiamento, but switch when we needed it the
very interesting and impor- many children struggle when needed”, she add- to Dutch in the second half most!”q
tant for the children. to express themselves in
She stated that the biggest their own native language
challenge over the last 83 nowadays (Dutch is tradi-
years have always been tionally taught in all schools
the maintenance of the on the island), though they
school’s population and are allowed to. The differ-
quality in the education ence in Colegio San Hose
they wish to provide. The is that children are not only
financial part, she added, taught to express them-
cannot be left out either, selves in their own native
for it has not changed in language, but also how to
a very long time. It is for do so in other languages.
this reason that they can- Croes Caster indicated
not provide much of new that Colegio San Hose start-
digital materials for the chil- ed its multilingual project in
dren. 2012, along with Colegio
“Any extra support we re- Conrado Coronel from the
ceive usually comes from bottom up. “At that time
our own initiatives, parents everything was new. The
who help and other third teachers had to work very
parties who help us some- hard to get materials for
times”, she pointed out. their lessons, because there
Colegio San Hose currently was nothing they could use
has 250 students divided at the time. There were
into twelve classes, a big some methods, but you
team of 22 teachers and would have to return these
volunteers too. “We have along with your extra mate-
a big family and a par- rials”, the principal stated.
ents committee who lend The students who started
a hand when we need it”, school under this project