Bolivia to Open 3 Universities Teaching in Indigenous Languages

[Judi Lynn]

August 15, 2008
Bolivia to Open 3 Universities Teaching in Indigenous Languages

Bolivia plans to open three indigenous universities next year that will teach in Aymara, Quechua, and Guarani, which are co-official languages in the South American country, along with Spanish. The Bolivian president, Evo Morales, has said the universities would help “decolonize” the country ideologically, culturally, socially, and economically, El Pais reports (in Spanish).

The plan has stirred debate among some Bolivian educators, who have criticized the universities’ would-be teachers as inadequately trained, and who have worried about the limits of teaching exclusively in the local languages.

The Bolivian Education and Culture Department said the universities’ curricula would be completed by September, and so far they include subjects such as tropical agronomy, animal husbandry, and forestry, all of them “in great demand.”

http://chronicle.com/news/article/5003/bolivia-to-open-3-universities-teaching-in-indigenous-languages

[AlphaCentauri]

1. Good to know that Evo is focusing on education