Education reform

The case of BoliviaAnke van Dam

General Information• Surface: 1.098.581 Km² (26 x The Netherlands)• Population: 8.6 mln• Language: spanish 63.5%; quechua 20.8%;

aimara 13,6; guarani 0,6%; others 1%; 60% of the total population speaks an indigenous language; 48% is bilingual (spanish and an indigenous language), 40% is monolingual in spanish and 12% monolingual in indigenous language.

• Indigenous population: 62%

General information continued• Literacy: 86.7% (male: 93%; female: 80.6%)• Net Enrolment rate: 88% (male: 88.1%, female

88%) (great differences between urban and rural areas)

Intercultural and Bilingual Education

Defining education reform

• Based on experiences obtained in former EIB activities initiated by indigenous groups

• Strengthened by the then acting vice president Victor Hugo Cardenás

• Elaborated by a specific team within the Ministry of Planning (ETARE)

• Implemented by a special team in the Ministry of Education

Implementation education reform and aimed impact

• Equity: improve access and relevance to avoid drop out

• Quality: curriculum reform, textbooks, teacher-training, involvement of different stakeholders; Introduce intercultural vision: bilingual education, adapted curriculum for each ethnic group

Curriculum reform

• Bilingual and intercultural curriculum: general package of contents and more flexible curriculum

• Constructive teaching method as part of new pedagogical principles

• Crosscutting issues• Use and relevance of different languages• Intercultural character

Role of the different actors

• Government: defines the policy, develops the curriculum and textbooks, defines the pedagogic principles and trains the teachers

• Teacher unions: are mostly in opposition; organise strikes and protests; stronly politicised; do not always represent the teachers

• Teachers: hardly involved in the changes; are supposed to implement; lack of training; are involved in education projects at school

Role of Actors continued

• NGOs: hardly involved; tension between NGOs and government;

• CEPOs: Indigenous people councils on education involved in policy making

• Parents and community: parents councils, do no realy play a role in decision making on policy and implementation. Role of parents and community is changing

• Donorcommunity: changing role; stronger ownership of the country

Problems and critics

• Power relations between different groups and use of languages

• Acceptance of the standardized languages• Low capacity for curriculum and textbook

reform• Deficit of qualified teachers in different

languages

Problems and critics continued

• Intercultural and bilingual perspective are linked to a western concept of education

• Involvement of different actors in education reform

• Crosscutting issues and their relevance for indigenous groups

Recent Developments

Changes made by Evo Morales Government

• Strong focus on interculturality and trilingual education (more exchange between cultures; trilingual education for everybody)

• Focus on vocational and technical education• Literacy programme and adult education