Peru is the home of the oldest continuing operating university in the Americas that dates from 1653. It has impressive and historic facilities. This stamp shows us a new in 1945 engineering school housed in a large and impressive art deco building. In 2011, Peru opened a new engineering school housed in ultra modern buildings that won the Pritzger prize for architecture. With such a great commitment to education, you might expect Peru to be at the head of the pack. Or not? So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
This stamp issue is right up my alley showing off new construction of the time in Peru. The printing was farmed out to De La Rue in London. Here the ball seems to dropped as the design is lackluster. Perhaps the London printers with access to photos decided to hint that the buildings really were not that great. It also could be that Peru only paid for the economy printing package.
Todays stamp is issue A122, a 25 Centavo stamp issued by Peru in 1952. It was a 10 stamp issue in various denominations. There were later versions for airmail and third world currency devaluation. Interestingly late versions were printed by Joh Enschede in the Netherlands so perhaps Peru was dissatisfied with De La Rue’s work, or were offered an even more economic printing package. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.
The first University as most early ones in Peru was founded in order to train Priests to serve in spread out religious missions. For this, there was much instruction in indigenous languages. My research lead me to the list of the 130 top schools in Peru, and these older institutions are at the top of the list.
This stamp though has us look to engineering education. Here the picture is less in focus. There were three engineering schools that made the list that were founded in 1997, 2002, and 2011. What about this one dating from 1945? Everyone can’t make the best list, even a very long list, in Peru.
In 2012 Peruvian 15 year olds participated in the Programme for International Student Assessment along with 65 other countries. Peru’s students came in last in reading, math, and science. All three subjects tested. Peru blamed the performance on the particularly low scores of indigenous students that face language issues and often have to work when they should be in school. Peru does however graduate a lot of students and literacy is over 90 %.
Peru since 2009 has been a participant in the international program One Laptop Per Child program that has given out over a million laptops in Peru that have a built in assistant named Butia’. Like building fancy buildings, handing out cheap fake laptops to desperately poor people did not have the desired effect on learning outcomes. The OLPC scam shut down in 2014.
Well my drink is empty. If you can and desire to read some more, there will be a new story to be learned from stamp collecting tomorrow.