Bilingual Education in Latin America

On October 1-4, representatives from 30 countries, including every South American country, came together for the 7th Congreso Latinoamericano de Educación Intercultural Bilingüe (Latin American Congress on Intercultural Bilingual Education). The Bolivian Minister of Education, Felix Patzi, pictured with me above, discussed the government´s proposal that every Bolivian student learn three languages, Castillano, an indigenous language, and English. This way the process of becoming a more integrated and igalitarian society will be more of a two way street. Many mono-lingual teachers, particularly in urban areas, are against the proposal, as they fear they will be required to learn an indigenous language. It is unclear how and along what timeline the government plans to implement this proposal. However, as the minister put it, if bilingual education is only for the indigenous in the rural areas, Spanish will continue to be the norm and indigenous Bolivians will remain second class citizens.