Ecuador's Bilingual Education Strengthens Indigenous Community

Ecuador's ministry of education held a ceremonial event together with representatives from 14 of the country's indigenous nationalities Tuesday to celebrate the achievements of bilingual education, which works to strengthen and sustain Indigenous language and culture.

Vice Minister of Education Freddy Peñafiel handed over a package of materials representing the Model of Intercultural Bilingual Education System to a representative from each Indigenous nationality in attendance.

Investment in education is a high priority for the government of President Rafael Correa, which recently committed to building 400 new schools by 2017 and signed a new pact to guarantee equal opportunities for minorities and marginalized populations in the country to access higher education.

Before the Correa government, Ecuador's bilingual education was run in parallel to its standard education system and was severely underfunded and lacked regulation.

"We are no longer talking about a distinct bilingual intercultural system, we talk about innovations that we make to the National Education System from the points of view of indigenous peoples and nationalities," said Peñafiel.

The inclusion of the Intercultural Bilingual Education into the National Education System has provoked the ire of some Indigenous organizations, such as the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador, known as Conaie, which insists that it remain under the control of their constituent organizations and have included this demand in their recent anti-government protests.

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​In 2007, before the arrival of the Correa government, the country had a primary school enrollment rate of 92 percent, and only 89 percent among the Indigenous population. In 2014 the primary school enrollment rate was 96 percent for all, including Indigenous peoples and Afro-Ecuadoreans.

Meanwhile, Indigenous students earning bachelors degrees increased from 24 percent in 2006 to 55 percent in 2014.

Peñafiel added that free, public, and secular education forms a major part of the government's efforts to transform the country after several decades of neoliberal policies that saw education be starved of resources.

“We cannot allow anyone to take away what we have achieved, we have become the education system with the most progress in Latin America,” said Peñafiel.

The Ecuadorean government is aiming to build 14 schools dedicated to preserving and straightening indigenous languages, one for each of the country's nationalities. Currently two are already in operation.