Chapter IV
Indigenous peoples and education in Central and South America, and the
Caribbean
Juan de Dios Simón Sotz (United Nations Consultant).
Introduction
According to
the 2014 report on the objectives of Education for All (United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 2014), universal primary
education has been partially achieved. However, the situation is different with
respect to preschool and lower high school education.
Indigenous children and
youth have not met universal standards and they have encountered significant
difficulties in accessing quality education. The lack of quality education
results in higher grade repetition, desertion and dropout rates among
indigenous children, especially among girls. In response, the region’s
educational systems have partially incorporated indigenous peoples’
perspectives into the education system. There are two options in this regard:
bilingual intercultural education offered by States and education from the
indigenous perspective.
Based on 2010 census data, it is estimated that the indigenous population in the Latin American region was nearly 45 million (United Nations, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, 2014a, p. 42), including 826 different indigenous peoples (ibid., p. 44).
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| Chandra Roy-Henriksen and Me, in the coctel at UNHQ. |
Officially, Mexico is the country that has the largest indigenous population (17 million, constituting 15 per cent of its total population), followed by Peru (7 million, constituting 24 per cent of its total population) (ibid., p. 43, table II.1). However, the countries with the largest proportion of indigenous peoples at the national level are Bolivia (Plurinational State of) (62.2 per cent, or 6.2 million), Guatemala (41 per cent, or 5.9 million people) and Peru (24 per cent) (ibid.). The proportion of the indigenous population in the total population of Chile, Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama ranges from 7 to 12 per cent (in Ecuador and Honduras, and Panama, respectively) (ibid.).
There is a greater recognition of indigenous rights in political discourse, laws and policies. However, despite progress made in the last two decades, the impact of five centuries of exclusion and discrimination has not been reversed. Hence, the human development levels of indigenous peoples still lag behind when considering the tridimensional measurements of (a) a long and healthy life, (b) education and (c) financial resources.
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| Public and Panelist dialogue.
Generally, indigenous peoples continue to be subjected to racism, to have minimal access to health care and to endure disproportionate levels of poverty. Most rural indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica (e.g., the Garifuna, Lenca, Matagalpa, Miskito, Q´eqchi’, Tojolabal and Tzotzil peoples)), Amazonia (e.g., the Cofan, Shipibo, Siona and Záparo peoples), the Andes (e.g., the Aimara and Quechua peoples) and Chaco (e.g., the Chorotes, Mataco-Guaicuru and Tobas peoples) have neither a long and healthy life nor access to adequate education and financial resources. Indigenous exclusion in the region is related to ethnicity and gender; these factors reinforce each other with the result that indigenous peoples suffer from double exclusion and, in the case of women, even triple exclusion (United Nations Development Programme, 2005a).
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| Listening to a question from a Latin American State representative. |
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| Press conference and interview with United Nations Radio |
In most Latin American and Caribbean countries, there has been an improvement in the educational levels of women which are now equal to or higher than those of men (InterAmerican Development Bank, 2010). For example, in Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, the Caribbean countries with the largest indigenous populations, the high school registration rates for women were higher than for men in 2009 (4 per cent and 7 per cent higher, respectively). Nevertheless, in many indigenous communities, girls have higher dropout rates, as they are tasked, inter alia, with caring for younger siblings, providing help at home and fetching water and firewood. Some indigenous parents are of the view that it is sufficient for indigenous girls to know how to read and write (United Nations, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, 2005).
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| Pictures with other Authors, Dr. Karla Williamson and Dr. O. Trujillo. |
Moreover,
indigenous girls face problems of discrimination, violence in schools and,
sometimes, sexual assault, which also contribute to the high rate of dropping
out of school (United Nations, Economic and Social Council, Permanent Forum on
Indigenous Issues, 2009).
Although
there has been some progress over the last 20 years, the vast majority of
indigenous peoples, particularly indigenous women, are among the poorest and
most discriminated against in the region.
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