Mexico's Indigenous Demand Education in Their Language, Respect for Their Culture Laura Poy Solano - La Jornada
go to original December 27, 2014

Indigenous communities in 19 states spoke out to ask why their native language, history and ancestral values are not a priority in the Mexican education system. As such, they are demanding teachers who speak their language and who know the content they teach, so that evaluation can take into account their socio-cultural characteristics.

Students and parents demand schools that are secure and equipped, with capable teachers who don’t rotate and who maintain an ethical classroom. Also, they demand that classes include the diversity and richness of their culture.

According to the results of the prior, free and informed Consultation of indigenous populations, carried out by the National Institute for Education (INEE) and the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), among the main conclusions is the demand among indigenous communities that schools speak their language and preserve and promote its use.

The consultation was applied for the first time in Mexico and Latin America, carried out in 49 localities of 19 states, and in 31 languages, with the collaboration of the National Teachers College (UPN). Its objective was to know how different indigenous communities define good teaching and teaching practice, as well as the contents and types of evaluation that they think should be applied in schools.

The results, presented at a meeting behind closed doors, to which the media was not invited, showed that the methods that would improve indigenous schooling are: an improvement in the school environment, the teaching of values and, above all, the teaching of native languages.

Read the rest at Mexico Voices

Translated by Roxy Thompson

Mexico Voices is a blogging endeavor aimed at raising the awareness of U.S. citizens regarding the destructive impact of the U.S. economic policy and the War on Drugs on Mexico — on its people, their economic and physical security and their human rights, on the nation’s dysfunctional justice system, and on the rule of law and Mexico’s fragile democracy. Visit the website at MexicoVoices.blogspot.mx.

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