Waldorf Education in South America
How many Waldorf schools exist in South America? There are about 65. Compared to Europe this is not a high figure – for example alone Sweden and Switzerland together have more Waldorf schools. But South America is not Europe but for one thing: as well as in nearly all the countries outside of Germany, Waldorf schools have to stand on their own feet - without government grant.
Focusing on their situation, 65 Waldorf schools in South America are actually quite a lot – especially compared to 38 schools in Asia and 22 in Africa. Almost everywhere around the globe, the Waldorf movement is still in the process of sprouting – not a surprise considering the glaring discrimination compared with charge-free public schools and compared with the allocation of poor and rich worldwide.
And therefore all of the 65 schools in South America deserve a lot of respect for their work and dedication, which generates living examples for the fact that an alternative education is possible. The most powerful school movement is to be found in Brazil with 32 Waldorf schools (of which 11 schools joined in just the last six years). The Brazilian Waldorf movement is followed by Argentina, Mexico, Chile and Columbia with 5-8 schools, Peru with 4 schools as well as Costa Rica with a few initiatives. In Ecuador, El Salvador and Uruguay one Waldorf School can be found.
The transition between Waldorf Schools and schools with Waldorf elements is naturally quite blurry, particularly as teacher’s training has to be financed, courses are not comparable to full time study and like in Africa often huge distances have to be bridged, which again costs money… Furthermore, stating just the number of schools there has not been said anything about their respectable size. In Costa Rica for example one should rather talk about Waldorf initiatives than schools. In three to four places in the country there are a few classes hosting a hand full of children next to an existing kindergarten. Within the figure of 65 schools, these kinds of initiatives are not yet counted.
We support 10 schools in South America with student sponsorships – for everybody over there this is a huge help and for the donors an individual way of supporting Waldorf education. I would love to arrange even more sponsorships. In just these 10 initiatives we still continue to search sponsorships for more then 30 children.
All in all we were able to support 45 Waldorf initiatives in South America with donations over the past years – this number includes all kind of Waldorf initiatives such as Waldorf Schools- and Kindergartens, teacher’s training, social work and institutions of curative-education. To all these initiatives we were able to transmit 750.000 Euro, half of which went to Monte Azul – a big initiative with many loyal donors, which alone helps more then a thousand children and teenagers.
Holger Niederhausen
To top