PERU: Indigenous peoples’ HE needs neglected

Although indigenous people make up at least 40% of Peru’s population, their inclusion in higher education has never been an explicit national policy. Even intercultural bilingual education in primary and secondary schools has received little governmental support.

Peru’s indigenous populations can be broadly divided between the highland Quechua and Aymara-speaking peoples and the more than 50 lowland Amazonian linguistic groups. In the highlands, Quechua predominates with two major families, Quechua I with 750,000 speakers and Quechua II with almost 2.7 million, although linguists have identified 30 dialects within the two families.

The largest Amazonian linguistic groups, Aguaruna, Shipibo and Ashaninka, have only 20,000 to 30,000 speakers but at least 50% of all indigenous people also speak Spanish with varying degrees of competency.

In the strong indigenous movements in Andean countries throughout the 20th century, the demand for education played an important role. Yet intercultural bilingual education and the training of IBE professionals only began seriously during the 1970s when the Universidad Nacional del Altiplano, located in the Peruvian highland city of Puno, began an experimental bilingual education project.

This project served as a model for improving indigenous bilingual education and drew professional educators from throughout the Andean region, especially Bolivia. Since that time, however, Peru has fallen behind both Bolivia and Ecuador in developing bilingual programmes.

In Bolivia, the Education Reform Law of 1994 recognised indigenous rights and created intercultural bilingual education programmes in eight of the country's 19 teacher’s colleges. Four of Bolivia's major public universities offer professional degrees with minors in indigenous lanuages; two others offer masters in intercultural education.

The Intercultural University of the Indigenous Nationalities and People of Ecuador, created in 2004, began in the 1990s as a grass roots initiative of the powerful indigenous organization CONAIE. The principle of intercultural dialogue between occidental and Andean cosmovisions and concepts of science structures the university's curriculum .

In both Ecuador and Bolivia the existence of political organisations articulating these nations' diverse indigenous groups has forced their governments to respond to the demands for educational programmes at all levels. In Peru no such national level indigenous organisations exist with similar political clout.

In Bolivia, the Education Reform Law of 1994 recognised indigenous rights and created intercultural bilingual education programmes in eight of the country's 19 teacher’s colleges. Four of Bolivia's major public universities offer professional degrees with minors in indigenous lanuages; two others offer masters in intercultural education.

The Intercultural University of the Indigenous Nationalities and People of Ecuador, created in 2004, began in the 1990s as a grass roots initiative of the powerful indigenous organization CONAIE. The principle of intercultural dialogue between occidental and Andean cosmovisions and concepts of science structures the university's curriculum .

In both Ecuador and Bolivia the existence of political organisations articulating these nations' diverse indigenous groups has forced their governments to respond to the demands for educational programmes at all levels. In Peru no such national level indigenous organisations exist with similar political clout.

During his first term as Peruvian president between 1985 and 1990, Alan Garcia established the country’s first Intercultural Bilingual Department within the Education Ministry. Alberto Fujimori, president from 1990 to 2000, closed the department but was force to re-establish it following World Bank pressure to strengthen indigenous organisations.

Nevertheless, the programme received no significant government support and had virtually no power or budget to undertake the challenge. In 2000, World Bank programmes for strengthening indigenous organisations were being implemented in Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina and Chile but not Peru.

This situation did not change with the election of Fujimori’s successor, Alejandro Toledo who, although elected on the basis of his highland origins, implemented no specific policies for improving bilingual education for Peru’s Amazonian and Andean indigenous people. The situation has worsened under the current government.

Re-elected to the presidency in 2005, Garcia reduced the bilingual programme, removing its fiscal basis, cutting back its staff and subordinating control over its activities within the Ministry.

In March last year, the Peruvian anthropologist Rodrigo Montoya noted there was no national policy in higher education for professional development on indigenous issues. Montoya pointed to the lack of IBE training for primary and secondary teachers.

Current Peruvian legislation covering public universities makes no mention of indigenous education. Article 9, Chapter 2 of the National University law establishes the curricular autonomy of pubic universities for developing academic programmes according to the characteristics and necessities of the populations they serve. But only two universities have established bilingual and intercultural programmes.

The first, the University for Andean Development, was founded in 1990 in Lircay, Huancavelica, and has implemented Quechua-Spanish bilingual programmes aimed specifically at preparing indigenous professionals in fields other than education.

The second, the Universidad Nacional Intercultural de la Amazonia in Ucayali, was established in 2003 and similarly aims to develop professional courses for the Amazonian region.

Both institutions arose from regional initiatives whereas Peruvian national education policy continues to ignore the need for an education oriented to its indigenous peoples.

* Paul H Dillon teaches at Peru’s Universidad Nacional San Cristobal de Huamanga