Indigenous schoolchildren left behind
02/12/2010
- Opinión
The tiny Qeqchí Mayan village of Peña Blanca in the Guatemalan northern department of Alta Verapaz is so remote that getting is a two-hour drive from the city of Cobán and an hour-long walk through narrow, dusty country paths in sweltering heat, a village that has been all but forgotten by the national education system.
Back in 1994, the village had no school and 60 percent the population was illiterate.
“People from the capital used to take advantage of our ignorance”, remembers community leader José María Quib. “We needed education, so that we could stand up for ourselves”.
Peña Blanca residents refused to continue waiting for the government to reach this forgotten corner of Guatemala. But the main problem when it came to setting up a school was the fact that no one there had completed primary school, let alone had a teaching diploma.
Undeterred, the community went ahead and chose a set of volunteers who could read, write and count. “We wanted to teach our children the little knowledge we had,” says another community leader, Pedro Quib.
The villagers decided to set up the Xool Ixim, or “Heart of Corn”
Association to manage the school and every family paid a monthly quota of US$3 to cover school supplies and a symbolic salary for the teachers.
Parents drew up a curriculum that included subjects such as community history, Mayan Qeqchí values, literacy, basic mathematics, and the Mayan calendar. Lessons were taught in Qeqchí, with Spanish as a second language.
Children learnt about Guatemala’s 36-year-long armed conflict, which wiped out hundreds of indigenous villages, and were asked to write essays on the subject which were then read aloud in class.
As Peña Blanca’s school wasn’t officially recognized by the Ministry of Education once students completed primary school education, it was impossible for them to leave the village and continue their education elsewhere as they had no formal qualifications.
Undeterred, Xool Ixim decided to send the children to the nearest school, in the village of Salahuí, to take the official examination necessary for them to move on to secondary school.
Amazingly, every single child from Peña Blanca passed the exam and received their primary school diploma.
Today, one of these students, Ismael Quib, is studying Forest Management at the Rafael Landívar University in Cobán. Another student, Fredy Quib, won a scholarship to study in a Canadian high school and then went on to study International Relations in an American a US university.
Peña Blanca’s teachers also went on to obtain their primary school diploma and later studied pedagogy with a grant from the Niños del Mundo organization. José María Quib has just finished a master’s degree in pedagogy.
After years of struggle, the Ministry of Education agreed to pay Peña Blanca’s teachers a $75 monthly salary and the school was officially recognized as an Official Rural Education School.
The teachers were forced to adopt the National Curriculum but they continued to teach in Qeqchí.
Today, Xool Ixim’s successful model of bilingual education is used in five of Cobán’s tiny villages: Laguna Chiquita, Kuxpemech, Gancho Caoba II, Sa’multeken II and Peña Blanca.
Bilingual education and indigenous identity
Back in 1994, the village had no school and 60 percent the population was illiterate.
“People from the capital used to take advantage of our ignorance”, remembers community leader José María Quib. “We needed education, so that we could stand up for ourselves”.
Peña Blanca residents refused to continue waiting for the government to reach this forgotten corner of Guatemala. But the main problem when it came to setting up a school was the fact that no one there had completed primary school, let alone had a teaching diploma.
Undeterred, the community went ahead and chose a set of volunteers who could read, write and count. “We wanted to teach our children the little knowledge we had,” says another community leader, Pedro Quib.
The villagers decided to set up the Xool Ixim, or “Heart of Corn”
Association to manage the school and every family paid a monthly quota of US$3 to cover school supplies and a symbolic salary for the teachers.
Parents drew up a curriculum that included subjects such as community history, Mayan Qeqchí values, literacy, basic mathematics, and the Mayan calendar. Lessons were taught in Qeqchí, with Spanish as a second language.
Children learnt about Guatemala’s 36-year-long armed conflict, which wiped out hundreds of indigenous villages, and were asked to write essays on the subject which were then read aloud in class.
As Peña Blanca’s school wasn’t officially recognized by the Ministry of Education once students completed primary school education, it was impossible for them to leave the village and continue their education elsewhere as they had no formal qualifications.
Undeterred, Xool Ixim decided to send the children to the nearest school, in the village of Salahuí, to take the official examination necessary for them to move on to secondary school.
Amazingly, every single child from Peña Blanca passed the exam and received their primary school diploma.
Today, one of these students, Ismael Quib, is studying Forest Management at the Rafael Landívar University in Cobán. Another student, Fredy Quib, won a scholarship to study in a Canadian high school and then went on to study International Relations in an American a US university.
Peña Blanca’s teachers also went on to obtain their primary school diploma and later studied pedagogy with a grant from the Niños del Mundo organization. José María Quib has just finished a master’s degree in pedagogy.
After years of struggle, the Ministry of Education agreed to pay Peña Blanca’s teachers a $75 monthly salary and the school was officially recognized as an Official Rural Education School.
The teachers were forced to adopt the National Curriculum but they continued to teach in Qeqchí.
Today, Xool Ixim’s successful model of bilingual education is used in five of Cobán’s tiny villages: Laguna Chiquita, Kuxpemech, Gancho Caoba II, Sa’multeken II and Peña Blanca.
Bilingual education and indigenous identity
Xool Ixim is one of the best examples of why bilingual education is so important for indigenous communities.
“About half of all rural students leave school because they have been forced to study in Spanish, which is a foreign language for them”, says Guatemala’s former Minister of Education, Bienvenido Argueta. “When Spanish is imposed on them, they feel that their own language is worthless, their identity is annihilated”.
Even though 40.5 per cent of the Guatemalan population is indigenous, the education system only has 7,000 bilingual teachers to cater for 900,000 Mayan children. Argueta admits that the country needs at least 55 thousand.
Most countries in Central America face a similar situation. Panama’s seven indigenous communities — Ngabe Buglé, Kuna, Emberá, Wounnan, Naso, Teribe and Bribrís — which make up around 6 percent of the country’s population, were among the first in the region to fight for cultural rights. In 1975, the Ministry of Education set up the Program to Develop Bilingual Education, which was later renamed System for Intercultural Bilingual Education.
Costa Rica’s 8 indigenous communities — Huetar, Chorotega, Teribe, Brunka, Guaymí, Bribrí, Cabecar and Malekuque — make up 1.7 per cent of the country’s population and live in 24 territories, mainly in the Talamanca mountain range near the border with Panama.
The right to bilingual education and to use indigenous languages as a first language is not recognized by the Constitution but public schools and the national university intercultural bilingual education programs do recognize it.
In Nicaragua, bilingual education for the country’s indigenous Miskito communities — around 6 per cent of the country’s total population — was ushered in following the Sandinista Revolution, during the 1980s.
Educators demands fall on deaf ears
“About half of all rural students leave school because they have been forced to study in Spanish, which is a foreign language for them”, says Guatemala’s former Minister of Education, Bienvenido Argueta. “When Spanish is imposed on them, they feel that their own language is worthless, their identity is annihilated”.
Even though 40.5 per cent of the Guatemalan population is indigenous, the education system only has 7,000 bilingual teachers to cater for 900,000 Mayan children. Argueta admits that the country needs at least 55 thousand.
Most countries in Central America face a similar situation. Panama’s seven indigenous communities — Ngabe Buglé, Kuna, Emberá, Wounnan, Naso, Teribe and Bribrís — which make up around 6 percent of the country’s population, were among the first in the region to fight for cultural rights. In 1975, the Ministry of Education set up the Program to Develop Bilingual Education, which was later renamed System for Intercultural Bilingual Education.
Costa Rica’s 8 indigenous communities — Huetar, Chorotega, Teribe, Brunka, Guaymí, Bribrí, Cabecar and Malekuque — make up 1.7 per cent of the country’s population and live in 24 territories, mainly in the Talamanca mountain range near the border with Panama.
The right to bilingual education and to use indigenous languages as a first language is not recognized by the Constitution but public schools and the national university intercultural bilingual education programs do recognize it.
In Nicaragua, bilingual education for the country’s indigenous Miskito communities — around 6 per cent of the country’s total population — was ushered in following the Sandinista Revolution, during the 1980s.
Educators demands fall on deaf ears
However, Nicaraguan teachers in rural areas continue to feel that they have been forgotten by the Ministry of Education as the government rarely offers specialized teacher training courses for Miskito teachers and schools in the Caribbean coast are ill-equipped and often lack basic furniture and stationery.
Three years ago, the University of the Autonomous Regions of Nicaragua’s Caribbean Coast trained 35 indigenous teachers from the communities surrounding the Coco River, who received a diploma in Bilingual and Intercultural Education.
“Children were confused because they speak Miskito at home but were forced to learn Spanish at school. Now, the textbooks have been translated and chapters about the Nicaraguan Caribbean have been included”, says Miskito teacher Norberto Bob.
Bilingual education arrived late in Honduras, in 1997, and the country only has around 20 schools for Garífuna children from the Afro-Caribbean communities — around 7 percent of Hondurans are indigenous. Efforts to stamp out racism through education include a course to train 25 bilingual Tawahka teachers held by the National Autonomous University of Honduras and the Honduran Institute of History and Anthropology.
El Salvador has five tiny indigenous communities: Pipil, Xinca, Pokomam, Chortí and Lenca, which make up 1 per cent of the country’s total population. Ninety per cent of indigenous Salvadorans are illiterate due to high poverty rates among native communities and the complete absence of official bilingual education programs.
Three years ago, the University of the Autonomous Regions of Nicaragua’s Caribbean Coast trained 35 indigenous teachers from the communities surrounding the Coco River, who received a diploma in Bilingual and Intercultural Education.
“Children were confused because they speak Miskito at home but were forced to learn Spanish at school. Now, the textbooks have been translated and chapters about the Nicaraguan Caribbean have been included”, says Miskito teacher Norberto Bob.
Bilingual education arrived late in Honduras, in 1997, and the country only has around 20 schools for Garífuna children from the Afro-Caribbean communities — around 7 percent of Hondurans are indigenous. Efforts to stamp out racism through education include a course to train 25 bilingual Tawahka teachers held by the National Autonomous University of Honduras and the Honduran Institute of History and Anthropology.
El Salvador has five tiny indigenous communities: Pipil, Xinca, Pokomam, Chortí and Lenca, which make up 1 per cent of the country’s total population. Ninety per cent of indigenous Salvadorans are illiterate due to high poverty rates among native communities and the complete absence of official bilingual education programs.
Guatemala City
Source: Latinamerica Press http://www.comunicacionesaliadas.org
https://www.alainet.org/en/active/42729?language=es
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