Government’s 2012 budget focuses on social inclusion and closing the rural-urban gap

Cabinet chief Salomon Lerner was in Congress Thursday with the minister of Economy and Finance, Luis Miguel Castilla, to present the government’s 2012 budget for approval. Lerner said the budget focuses on ending corruption, reducing the deficit of infrastructure nationwide, boosting social programs, and gradually and specifically increasing public investment in rural areas to bridge the [...]

Report finds 78 percent of indigenous children living in poverty

A report presented by UNICEF and the national statistics and technology institute, INEI, has found that in Peru 78 percent of indigenous children between the ages of three and 17  live in poverty, compared to 40 percent for children whose first language is Spanish, state news agency Andina reported. “The inequality is greatest among ethnic [...]

Peruvian historian Antonio Zapata leaves successful TV history series to return to academia

By Paul Goulder After nine years directing a history series for national television, historian Antonio Zapata has decided it is time to go back to university to teach and do research full time. Sucedió en el Perú has been broadcast on the national television channel, Canal 7, since 2001 and has dealt with a wide [...]

Purloined Lung returned to Bodies Exhibition

The press were alerted and a $2000 reward was offered when a polymer-coated lung went missing this week at the Bodies exhibition, held at the Camacho shopping mall in La Molina. The lung was taken when the medical student on watch duty in a roomful of at least 50 visitors, was distracted by TV reporters. [...]

Peru police forcibly evacuates 200 students staging a sit-in to demand more free lunches in Lima’s San Marcos University

Peru police armed with tear gas ousted more than 200 San Marcos National University students camped out in the dean’s office since Tuesday to demand that more free lunches to be served to low-income students. The students, who also took two San Marcos University employees hostage for a few hours, demanded that free lunches increase [...]

Peruvian University of Applied Science and Peruvian singer Gian Marco inaugurate music academy

Peru’s University of Applied Science, or UPC, and Peruvian singer-songwriter Gian Marco inaugurated a professional musical academy Wednesday in the country’s capital city, Lima. “Musical training must be complete,” said UPC’s Rector, Luis Bustamante. “We’re going to formally train not only composers and performers, but also music producers.” Our students “will be responsible for waking [...]

Regional Government of Cajamarca donates 50 workstations to local university

As part of its education program, the Regional Government of Cajamarca has donated 50 state-of-the-art computers to the National University of Cajamarca, UNC, reported daily Panorama Cajamarquino on Friday. The donation – valued at 122,000 soles, or $38,000 – will provide UNC engineering, geology and computer science students with a better-equipped computer lab. “Our commitment [...]

Andina: Peru lawmakers pledge to tackle illiteracy among blind children

Thousands of blind children – illiterate because of the inaccessibility of Braille material – will be taught to read via the “Hands that See” campaign launched Tuesday morning by Congress’ Special Commission on Disabled People, according to state news agency Andina. The month-long campaign, designed to raise funds for the purchase of Braille material in [...]

New school year begins with laptops

Peru’s school year began today, with ambitious plans from the Ministry of Education to begin distributing laptops in state schools. Idel Vexler, the vice-minister of Education, said that the first laptops will be distributed in different schools around the country in the coming weeks, for use by children in elementary grades within a program called [...]

García proposes modifications to contentious education law

President Alan García and Education Minister José Antonio Chang announced Sunday changes to a contentious new education law that will prohibit public schools from hiring teachers who do not finish in the top third of their class while at University or an academic institute. García and Chang said they will modify Supreme Decree 004 by [...]