EDUCATION TOWARDS INTERCULTURALITY AND EQUALITY. Education Thematic Programme. Guatemala

Transcription

1 EDUCATION TOWARDS INTERCULTURALITY AND EQUALITY Education Thematic Programme Guatemala GUATEMALA, MARCH OF 2012

2 CONTENT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY INTRODUCTION SITUATION ANALYSIS UPDATE ANALYSIS OF THE PROBLEM OBJECTIVES AND INDICATORS PROGRAMMATIC STRATEGY COMMUNICATION STRATEGY FUNDRAISING STRATEGY SUMMARY OF ACTIVITIES LEARNING, MONITORING AND EVALUATION PROGRAMME MANAGEMENT AND HUMAN RESOURCES ASSUMPTIONS AND RISKS BUDGET AND BUDGET COMMENTS

3 Executive Summary 1. The creation of the Education towards Interculturality and Equality Thematic Programme follows the second phase of IBIS Central America s Thematic Programme on Education for Change, which was in effect between January 2001 and July 2011; the TP considers the national context on the state of progress of the fulfilment of the right to education in the country and its primary challenges and opportunities. Its formulation primarily responds to the lessons learned in education, with an emphasis on intercultural bilingual education (IBE), acquired and accumulated by IBIS. These perspectives, in which the considerations of indigenous sectors related to educational issues have been incorporated, are the pillars that support and give conceptual and strategic shape to this proposal. 2. It is the result of a collective reflection process internally and with partner organizations, which began with the evaluation process of the previous thematic programme, as well as the lessons and reflections emanating from the National Strategy creation process, in which sessions for context analysis on the institutional thematic work areas were held and facilitated by external professionals. The analyses and reflections permitted the establishment of the programme s general focus and guidelines. Field visits provided information on the state of progress and exercise of rights and allowed the identification of the organizational social fabric; a validation process on the strategic lines was organized in which approximately 30 organizations participated and with the presence, assistance and recommendations of the two coordinators responsible for education and governance from the head office. 3. Its purpose is to respond to the national demands for inclusion, political participation, education for democracy, intercultural bilingual education, education for life, and the defence and promotion of individual and collective rights of male and female adults and youth. It has a referential rights-based focus in favour of gender equality and interculturality. Its efforts will promote more educational permanence, promotion and quality, particularly of IBE; it will support alternatives to education for life that improve the employability of youth and women; it will facilitate favourable contexts for the struggle against violence and the promotion of a culture of peace, based on a approach of education for democracy. 4. In continuity with the previous efforts, the challenges faced are: the lack of coordination between organizations actions and building educational strategy; the educational efforts implemented lacked specific links with their own governance issues, especially in the strengthening of civil society actors interactions with the State and the democratization of education; the discussion and reflection spaces on the topics related to indigenous people, educational 2

4 quality, and IBE need to be systematically developed to provide feedback on its own experiences and those of the counterparts. Furthermore, some of the previous programme topics like interculturality, gender and VIH/AIDS, etc., which form a part of the new proposal, will demand particular attention. 5. The social change desired will focus on creating increased conditions of equality, respect, well-being and tolerance, as well as higher levels of inclusion and respect for indigenous children, youth and women, achieving a closer link between IBIS and partners to obtain the programmatic goals but also as a manner to foment the counterparts qualitative growth and target groups skills. It aims to achieve more programmatic focus, increased levels of synergy and technical and political accompaniment, as well as elements of effectiveness and efficiency in institutional work. 6. The type of organizations pre-identified as potential partners of IBIS in Guatemala are: indigenous people s organizations like the National Council of Mayan Education and the Chichicastenango-Quiché Association for Community Development; civil society organizations like the Centre for Ecumenical Studies of Pastoral Integration and the Association of Communication in Favour of Women and Youth in Communities; women s organizations like Association for Us IXMUMCANÉ and the 25 November Collective; youth organizations like those departmental and regional youth organizations in the West of the country; research organizations or centres like Noj Synergy and the Centre for Studies and Documentation of the Western Guatemalan Border. 7. The start of the Programme coincides with a change in government, which has declared its commitment to continue with previously implemented social programmes in education; it has created the Ministry of Development that will bring together the social programmes currently dispersed in different institutions; plans to assign more resources and efforts to increase educational quality and develop training alternatives for youth employment. The former represents an opportunity to formulate actions in an inter-connected way, enhancing dialogue spaces and exchanges with the State. 8. The main factors prohibiting the exercise of this right for a large percentage of indigenous children, adolescents and youth are: the lack of access and permanence in education with intercultural relevance; the lack of cost-free options and economic difficulties to have access to educational services; low quality education; lack of an intercultural bilingual education model; dearth of continuing educational alternatives for those who are already in the system; insufficient training options for over-age students; scarce teacher training and refresher courses; low results in the educational process in which student repetition, absenteeism, and desertion persist; inequity and inequality of educational opportunities between men and women; high levels of corruption, violence and criminality; State bureaucracy, etc. Indigenous children enter late into the educational system; at seven years of age, only half of this group 3

5 (compared with 75% of non-indigenous children) have started primary school. Generally, they abandon school when they are 12 years old without having completed primary school; only 20% of them have completed primary school by the age of 13 and they have an average three years of schooling. 9. IBIS in Guatemala has decided to contribute to solve the problems related to indigenous children s access and permanence in high-quality intercultural bilingual education; advocacy in public policies on inter-cultural education; educational quality, mainly that involving inclusive, non-sexist approaches and training for employment; and violence and the absence of a culture of peace. 10. The Programme has the General Objective that indigenous people, the educational community and civil society organizations participate actively and in a coordinated manner to ensure inclusion and political participation and the right to a formal and non-formal high-quality education with intercultural relevance. Its specific objectives are, first, that they produce, validate and/or develop proposals for the exercise of the right to a high-quality education with intercultural relevance and second, that they strengthen their capacities to dialogue with the State and with power groups to contribute to the prevention of violence and the promotion of a culture of peace. The first specific objective includes two thematic areas: Intercultural Bilingual Education and Education for Life and the second includes the area of Education for Democracy. 11. In function of the first specific objective, the following activities, among others, will be conducted: promotion of the access and permanence of indigenous children in school; advocacy in the Global Campaign for the Right to Education: accompaniment for school registration; training in IBE; reflection and communication on educational quality, non-sexist education, prevention of violence and culture of peace; research on the contributions of the Mayan culture to the construction of new femininities and masculinities; support for the fulfilment of indigenous peoples educational agenda; social auditing on educational budget and quality; and support for technical training initiatives that foment employability. 12. The following activities, among others, are planned for the second objective: education and training, capacity strengthening of the actors who are part of the educational community, context analysis, reflection and communication on educational issue to increase dialogue capacities with the State, oversight of the right to IBE, prevention of violence, promotion of a culture of peace, children s rights, gender equality, etc. Furthermore, the monitoring of denunciations of the non-compliance of the right to education and situations of violence against indigenous girls and women. 13. The programmatic strategies include, among others: Education for Change; intercultural governance; advocacy strategy based on the change triangle, gender strategy and positioning of youth; partnership strategy; sustainability strategy; strategy for the appropriation and replicability of IBIS global policies 4

6 and strategies; etc. Emphasis will be given to work with indigenous women and youth from Guatemala s Northern and Western regions since along with children, they represent the group with the highest vulnerability in the acknowledgement and exercise of their rights; additionally these populations constitute a new political subject and a critical mass able to dismantle with more openness and understanding of the basis of inequality and exclusion not only due to their ethnicity but also due to their gender and generational identities, thus making them primary agents to build fairer and more inclusive societies. 14. Other strategies will be communication of experiences using alternative communication tools and new information technology; spaces to exchange knowledge and develop research that advocates for new manners of understanding indigenous peoples educational situation; the topic of HIV/AIDS will be linked to sexual and reproductive rights approach. 15. Another important Programme strategy is that in addition to lobbying for changes at the level of the State, public institutions, local governments and political organizations, it also proposes that counterparts internally build the objective and subjective conditions to make viable the change from authoritarian, sexist and racist attitudes with new standards for interaction between members of the organizations and social movements, giving way to a new organizational culture but also to reaffirm social transformations from the individual level. 16. The Communication Strategy will strengthen the advocacy processes; make the achieved impacts visible; be accountable to the community, national and international civil society and cooperation institutions; demonstrate the efficiency of the aid received and effectively contribute to meeting the foreseen fundraising objectives. 17. IBIS in Guatemala has the following fundraising goals for (expressed in millions of Danish Krone- DKK): 1.2 in 2012; 2.3 in 2013; 6.5 in 2014; and 10 in As it works to reach this goal, IBIS in Guatemala has 10 million DKK at its disposal annually as allocated by the DANIDA frame budget. Reaching these goals is linked to communication and fundraising goals for which an advisor will be hired for their design and implementation. A rapprochement process will be implemented with organizations that work on similar topics to identify alliances and IBIS in Guatemala will coordinate with the Fundraising Department in the home office to define the types of projects for fundraising. 18. It will apply an integrated monitoring focus that links the planning, monitoring, organizational performance, progress assessments, accountability, strategic leadership and learning processes in the programmes and forms the fundamental basis for decision making. This process has started with the participation of potential counterparts to increase the appropriation of the 5

7 project and programme. The MPT forms will be updated and an educational seminar will be held and a tool for guiding the monitoring of the progress made in the gender policy and interculturality. The products obtained from the innovative processes and successful experiences will be systematized and disseminated. These will create new political knowledge on the issues of territorial defence, violence against women, and indigenous people s justice systems and education for life that will sustain political advocacy. 19. The Management Group, with support from the Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor and the Tracking and Monitoring Committee, has responsibility for decision making. Design, implementation and evaluation will be a shared responsibility between the counterparts and IBIS who will accompany and facilitate, provide technical, financial and programmatic assistance and support dialogue with civil society and governmental actors. The counterparts formulate organizational and political proposals for the exercise of their rights fomenting internal democracy and taking responsibility for the efficient and transparent use of resources. 20. It will develop knowledge in the thematic areas and formulate a Capacities Development Plan. The human resources for the Programme s implementation are: Country Director, Head of Finances and Administration, Programme Manager, Programme Advisor, Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor, Administrative Assistant and Support Team. A Fundraising Committee, made up of the Management Group, a Fundraising Advisor and the Communication Advisor, will be established. This committee will coordinate the fundraising activities, according to the established goals established. 21. The Programme is based on the following assumptions of favourable conditions regarding the management of the Guatemalan government, links between organizations, support from international cooperation and implementation of IBE and the Peace Accords. The principle risks considered are: closure of spaces for participation, increased confrontation and conflict as a result of extractive activities, persistence of violence, corruption, patronage and the effects of climate change and natural disasters. The mitigation strategies for risks are: strengthen the organizational level; increase social forces achieved through community consultations and project them towards demands for basic services; women s political education on the causes of gender inequality and the development of their dialogue skills; strengthening of dialogue, negotiation and meeting spaces; strengthen the technical quality of proposals and the dialogue and political management capacities of the counterparts. 6

8 1. INTRODUCTION This document has been prepared after the evaluation process and closure of the second phase (Document B) of the IBIS Central America s Thematic Programme on Education for Change, which was in effect between January 2001 and July For its preparation, it considered the national context to provide information on the state of progress of the fulfilment of the right to education in the country and its primary challenges and opportunities. The formulation of the programme primarily responds to the lessons learned in education, with an emphasis on intercultural bilingual education that IBIS in recent years has acquired and accumulated through its presence in the country. These perspectives, in which the considerations of indigenous groups related to or working on educational issues are incorporated, are the pillars that support and give shape conceptually and strategically to this proposal. The following documents also served as resources for concepts, reflection and information, and on processes: Final Evaluation Report of the Thematic Programme Education for Change, Guatemala and Nicaragua (Recommendations and Lessons Learned). IBIS Guatemala Strategy , Moving towards Inclusion and Interculturality. Education for Change Institutional Strategy Draft document for the Institutional Strategy for Change Institutional policies and strategies on gender, citizens rights and governance, partnership, youth empowerment, environment and HIV/AIDS. Conceptual documents from the global learning system: Change Triangle, the Spiral, Monitoring and Evaluation Tools (programmatic and financial), and Guidelines for TP Formulation November Contributions and recommendations from the First Workshop with National Actors held in January 2012 within the framework of the creation process of the thematic programmes in education and governance. As well as other national documents and studies, cited in the text, on educational issues and related to the thematic areas delimited within the Programme. The Education towards Interculturality and Equality Thematic Programme has the purpose of responding to the national demands for inclusion, political participation, education for democracy, intercultural bilingual education, education for life, and the defence and promotion of individual and collective rights of male and female adults and youth. The proposals that are formulated and implemented within the 1 IBIS Denmark Regional Programme for Central America, Document B: Regional Thematic Programme, Education for Change, January

9 framework of these areas will have a referential rights-based focus in favour of gender equality and interculturality. Its efforts will be directed towards 1) Promote more educational permanence, promotion and quality, particularly intercultural bilingual education. 2) Support and provide continuity to programmes and alternatives to education for life that create better conditions and options for employability, particularly for youth and women. 3) Develop and implement actions that create favourable contexts for the struggle against violence and the promotion of a culture of peace, based on a focus of education for democracy. Lessons Learned and Prior Evaluations to the Programme: The previous thematic programme supported rights-based education focused on the strengthening of indigenous and Afro-descendant organizations based on the situation and context in each of the countries. It achieved the following results and learned these lessons: Existence and strengthening of local educational projects and political proposals that contribute to making effective educational policies in favour of a high-quality bilingual education with relevance. Incorporation of environmental, cultural, and linguistic elements and the populations and communities development expectations. 2 Contribution to the strengthening and positioning of intercultural bilingual education on the national agenda. Organizations possess a political proposal related to individual and collective rights, as well as conceptual and political tools to demand their educational and cultural rights and enrich their own proposals. Implementation of current educational policies like Educational Quality, Strengthening of Intercultural Bilingual Education, Eradication of Illiteracy, and Educational Decentralization. These results provide IBIS and its counterparts with the conditions to continue working towards the wider success of these proposals. However, challenges around the progress related to the following have been identified: The lack of coordination between organizations immediate actions and experiences versus the building of departmental, national educational strategy. The educational efforts implemented lacked, or at least did not have a specific link to governance issues in the sense that they have a corresponding role in the construction of democratic governance, especially the strengthening of civil society actors interactions with the State and the democratization of education. Discussion and reflection spaces on the topics related to indigenous people, educational quality, and intercultural bilingual education need to be 2 Final Evaluation Report of the Education for Change Programme, Guatemala and Nicaragua, July

10 systematically developed to be able to provide feedback on its own experiences and those of the counterparts. It is necessary to continue implementing training process to strengthen skills that can be more integrated internally within IBIS and with its counterparts, thus fomenting better conditions for dialogue and conducting educational advocacy with the State. The latter is tied to some of the issues addressed within the previous programme s framework and that forms a part of the new proposal and requires or demands particular attention (interculturality, gender and VIH/AIDS). The social change desired by IBIS in Guatemala will focus on creating more conditions of equality, respect, well-being and tolerance, as well as higher levels of inclusion and respect for indigenous children, youth and women. Its action is directed towards a closer link between IBIS and partners to obtain the programmatic goals but also a manner to foment the counterparts qualitative growth and target groups skills. IBIS in Guatemala plans to achieve more programmatic focus, increased levels of synergy and technical and political accompaniment, as well as elements of effectiveness and efficiency in institutional work. The Programme s primary counterparts and target groups: IBIS in Guatemala envisions contributing to the scope of the Thematic Programme in partnership with civil society actors having the potential to conduct oversight and advocacy over public institutions and power groups. Thus, it is necessary to claim and demand the fulfilment of the right to formal and non-formal intercultural bilingual education, non violence and the promotion of a culture of peace. IBIS in Guatemala plans to establish cooperation agreements with indigenous and civil society organizations whose target groups are children, women and youth, with women s organizations, and with organizations dedicated to research and systematization of the topics the Programme addresses. The following section provides a profile of the type of organizations by sector, as well as the organizations that already have been pre-identified as potential partners of IBIS in Guatemala. 1. Indigenous people: Indigenous people as well as their organizations in civil society have been identified for support. This decision was made since it has been observed that different indigenous peoples structure themselves and forge alliances according to their political and situational interests and do not necessarily respond to the classic structure of a non governmental organization. Their collective efforts are tied to ancestral authorities and organizational spaces of the educational community or churches and in a joint manner form a part of regional spaces with the possibility of building a national front to work for the fulfilment of indigenous peoples collective rights. They have a great deal of interest and experience on issues that IBIS in Guatemala addresses, principally the demand for the right to education. Among the groups 9

11 that can be mentioned are: The National Council of Mayan Education (CNEM) and the Chichicastenango-Quiché Association for Community Development (ASDECO). 2. Civil Society Organizations: These are made up of indigenous people as well as organizations that act in favour of the rights of indigenous people. They have ample experience in the topics of education, links with the communities where they are located, and a high margin of possibility for conducting effective advocacy and promoting their proposals. The Centre for Ecumenical Studies of Pastoral Integration (CEIPA) and the Association of Communication in Favour of Women and Youth in Communities (COMUNICARES) are among these organizations. 3. Women s Organizations: New leadership of women with a more municipal and departmental character recently have been established. Their principal axes are the eradication of gender-based violence, political participation and the defence of territory. These have the potential of intra-regional coordination and strong ties to national and international women s organizations. These organizations and their leaders argue the need to implement actions and qualitative changes for equality in the framework of customary indigenous peoples organizations, which are traditionally made up of men. Due to the strategic commonalities, IBIS in Guatemala has considered Association for Us (IXMUMCANÉ) and the 25 November Collective among these. 4. Youth Organizations: These are youth organizations that have more visibility and recognition at the municipal, departmental and national level and demonstrate rapid growth. Their leadership presents the potential to demand that the Guatemalan State fulfil their rights. The youth demand changes and inclusion in the definition of municipal and national policies, primarily to have access to their rights to education, employment, exercise of citizenship, and their sexual and reproductive rights. IBIS has identified departmental and regional Youth Associations in Western Guatemala. 5. Research Organizations or Centres: These are organizations dedicated to the knowledge management for advocacy and capacity strengthening for other civil society and indigenous collectives and organizations. They are characterized by their exploratory and qualitative studies on human rights, individual and collective rights and on matters that interest or are including in civil society agendas for action. Among these groups including Sinergia Noj and the Centre for Studies and Documentation of the Western Guatemalan Border (CEDFOG). Civil society is composed of a variety of organizations with heterogeneous characteristics. Some organizations are from rural communities with low educational levels and others are composed of urban professionals. Some have a long tradition dating from the 1980s and others, mainly the youth organizations, are recently established. The latter have limited technical and analytical capacities regarding political and economic issues and their organizational and institutional 10

12 development is irregular. They establish limited coordination and alliances due to mutual mistrust and leaders lack of vision, as well as ethnic and ideological prejudices. They have weak political positions among other causes due to activism and leaders centralizing practices; they do not sponsor political training in their organizations. The majority are financially dependent on international cooperation. Thus, IBIS in Guatemala within the framework of this programme, in alignment with the Institutional Partnership Strategy plans to promote organizational strengthening and the enlargement of their political and technical capacities. The Creation of the Thematic Programme implied a collective reflection process at the internal level and with partner organizations, which began with the evaluation process of the previous thematic programme. The lessons and recommendations served as the first point of departure in the creation of the current programme. The second was the National Strategy creation process, in which sessions for context analysis on the institutional thematic work areas were held and facilitated by external professionals. The analyses and reflections allowed the establishment of a general focus and guidelines for the two programmes. Field visits and interviews with different civil society actors were organized to gather information related to the state of achievement and exercise of indigenous peoples rights with regards to education, collective rights, and the human rights of children, women and youth. These visits also allowed the identification of the organizational social fabric, actors and topics on which their activities focus, prioritized areas, etc. in the distinct regions. Following this, a validation process with the strategic lines was organized in which approximately 30 organizations that work on the issues and focus of the Programme participated. While none of these represented a State institution, several of the participating organizations were part of institutions, local structures and departmental State bodies (Children s Commissions, Educational Commissions, Municipal and Departmental Development Committees, etc.). The two coordinators responsible for education and governance from the head office also were present and offered assistance and recommendation in this session. 2. SITUATION ANALYSIS UPDATE Guatemala is a multiethnic, multilingual and pluricultural country with a territorial land mass of 108,899 square kilometers. It is organized administratively into 8 regions, 22 departments and 333 municipalities in which 22 linguistic communities of Mayan origin linguistic live, in addition to the Xinca and Garifuna peoples. An important percentage of the population identifies as non-indigenous or ladinomestizo, which has Spanish as its native language. The estimated total population is 14,636,487 inhabitants. The ethnicity index is 0.14; for every 100 inhabitants, 86 identify as ladino and 14 as belonging to one of the other 24 linguistic communities. 52% of the population is under the age of 20. The relation between the male and 11

13 female population is 0.96; or in other words, there are 96 men for every 100 women. Guatemala is considered one of the countries with the highest level of inequality in income distribution; 10% of the population concentrates 42% of the wealth and 10% of the lowest quintile only has 1.3% of the wealth. Additionally, the gender development index positions the country among those having the most inequality in Latin America. Chronic malnutrition is among the highest on the continent, mainly in indigenous households in rural areas and for children with mothers lacking formal education. 3 The Northern and Northwestern regions have the highest national levels of malnutrition. The country also has the second highest fertility rate in Latin America (4.8 children per woman). Guatemala is situated at the mid-level of human development (0.70), ranking 122 out of the 182 countries evaluated. 54% of the population lives in poverty and13.33% in extreme poverty. Poverty is mainly rural; 71% of the people living in poverty are located in rural areas. The unemployment rate is 4.8%. From 1996 to 2011, illiteracy was reduced from 52% to 18%; yet, the sector of the population between the ages of 15 and 19 years have the lowest illiteracy rates in comparison to older age groups. Only 20% of youth are exclusively dedicated to formal studies. The total illiteracy rate for the entire country is 76% and the matriculation rate is 52%, resulting in a scholarly rate of 0.68%. 4 The net matriculation rate in primary school 5 is 96.6% and 50.1% in secondary school. The most important challenge at all educational levels continues to be the access and permanence of boys and girls, adolescents and youth in high-quality education that is free of charge and inter-culturally appropriate. This contrasts with the fact that only 3.2% of the Gross Domestic Product- GDP is assigned to education. 6 The country also is characterized by a low level of tax collection, due to the ingrained anti-taxi practices of tax evasion and avoidance, the existence of a system of exemption privileges that undermine the tax base, the ineffectiveness of the tax-related justice system, high inequality in income and wealth distribution, existence of a substantial informal or underground economy, as well as the lack of a social pact that binds the increase in a tax burden with an increase in transparency, decline in corruption, reduction of irrelevant public expenditures. On Transparency International s Corruption Perceptions Index, the country ranks 84 out of 180 countries. 7 3 Guatemalan children have 30 times more probability of suffering malnutrition than Chilean children. 4 The index of education is obtained weighing the gross illiteracy rate (2/3) against the gross matriculation rate (1/3). The departments of Totonicapán, Quetzaltenango, Quiché, Huehuetenango, Sololá, San Marcos and the Verapaces have the lowest levels on the index of education. 5 The formal education system in Guatemala is composed of the pre-primary level (5-6 years), primary school (7-12 years), middle school (13-15) and high school (16-18 years). 6 According to the ECLAC Annual Statistics for Latin America and the Caribbean, Guatemala registered a GDP of USD 32,536 million dollars in UNDP, National Human Development Report, Guatemala towards a State for Human Development, p

14 In February 2012, the government approved a law to update taxes 8, which aims to increase State income and reduce the growing public debt. The tax burden reached 11.2% of the GDP in According to the projections by the Ministry of Finances, these reforms will collect 1,200 million Guatemalan Quetzals (USD 154 million dollars). Different analysis by experts on the issue agree that the measures taken will mainly affect the middle class and not large capital, which will foment a culture of non payment, increase the fiscal risk and the non-collection of taxes for the country. Despite the progress in education, like the reduction in illiteracy and the increase in schooling and coverage, the culmination indicator sill positions the country as one of the lowest in Latin America and even in Central America. The lack of cost-free schooling, economic challenges for access to educational services, low quality and the fact that education in the great majority of cases is imparted in a monolingual manner, among others, are determining factors that prohibit the exercise of this right for a high percentage of indigenous children, adolescents and youth. The importance of education in one s native language for cultural, identity and individual development is widely documented. However its coverage is limited and when it does exist, it is reduced to classes in Communication and Language and not as a vehicle for teaching and learning processes. Among the country s most important challenges in issues of educational relevance and quality are the lack of an intercultural bilingual educational model that takes into account not only the bilingual aspect but also the situations of the four different peoples in Guatemala and the growing State bureaucracy that duplicates responsibilities and efforts within the Ministry of Education. The Political Constitution of the Republic of Guatemala, enacted in 1985, establishes the major objective of education as the comprehensive development of the human being, knowledge of the national and universal context and culture. 9 It also recognizes the right to education and that basic education is mandatory; that the State has the obligation to provide educational services free from discrimination and that public education is free of charge; the freedom of teaching and teacher s criteria, as well as families freedom to choose their children s type of education; the optional nature of religious education; the State priority to grant educational credits and employers obligation to provide education; bilingual education in indigenous areas; the national importance of literacy; decentralized and regionalized administration of the educational system; teachers economic, social and cultural improvement; and the promotion of agricultural, science and 8 According to the new law, companies and professionals that monthly bill up to 30 thousand Guatemalan Quetzals (USD 3,865) should pay 5% income tax and those who bill more than this amount, should pay 7%, plus a quota of 1,500 Guatemalan Quetzal (USD 193). Dependent employees, who previously paid value added tax (VAT), will pay 5% when their annual income is less than 300,000 Guatemalan Quetzals (USD 38,659) and 7% when it exceeds that amount. The law also establishes that individuals can reduce their income tax up to 60,000 Guatemalan Quetzals. However from this total amount, they should present 12,000 Guatemalan Quetzals (USD 1,546) in a VAT registry, with invoices that are subject to the Tax Authority (SUNAT). The law also prohibits the importation of vehicles older than 10 years or that have had accidents. 9 UNESCO, International Educational Bureau, Global Educational Data. VII, 2010/2011, p

15 technological education. The National Educational Law in place since 1991 amplifies and ratifies these principles. In addition to that cited, the other instruments that establish consensus around education in the country are the Peace Accords, the Design for Educational Reform and the Dialogue and Consensus for Educational Reform. Each one contemplates a series of commitments that seek the fulfilment of the right to an intercultural bilingual education for everyone. Following the Peace Accords, policies and changes in the State structure and bureaucracy were introduced between 1997 and The creation of the Peace Secretariat (SEPAZ), the Presidential Secretariat for Women (SEPREM) and other commissions 10 created with the purpose of following up to the fulfilment of the Peace Accords should be mentioned. In educational matters, the approval of the Literacy Law and the creation of the National Programme of Self-Managed Education (PRONADE) was in effect until Through this programme, the Ministry of Education hired educational service institutions to focus on teacher training, but the transfer of public functions to private bodies unleashed a tendency towards the privatization of educational services, mainly at the middle, technical and higher levels. Educational Committees (COEDUCA), composed of parents and legally constituted community leaders, were formed and received financial resources from the ministry to pay and hire teachers, acquire didactic materials and provide food for students. Intercultural bilingual education (IBE) started in Guatemala in the 1980s as a pilot project financed by international cooperation. In 1984, it constituted the National Bilingual Education Programme (PRONEBI) that in 1995 was transformed into the General Directorate of Intercultural Bilingual Education (DIGEBI). In 2003, the Vice-Ministry of Intercultural Bilingual Education was created with the purpose of transforming IBE management and responding to the interest to increase the coverage and the output that this teaching model generated. In this sense, it has a legal framework that regulates that related to the recognition, respect, promotion, development and use of the languages of the Mayan, Garifuna and Xinca peoples, as well as the enforcement and absolute adherence to the country s Political Constitution and to human rights. It established the mandatory nature of bilingual education, teaching and practice of multiculturalism and interculturality as public policy to address students ethnic and cultural differences. With regards to the organizational nomenclature, the Ministry of Public Education (MINEDUC) decides national policies, the system s basis, financing and staff appointments. The National Education Council is a multi-sector, educational and representative body with its leadership level in the ministry and acts in coordination with the office of the Minister of Education. Based on a government agreement, the 10 National Women s Forum (FNM), Joint Commission on Reform and Participation (CPRP), Commission for the Definition of Sacred Sites, National Council for the Peace Accords (CNAP) and the Ombudsperson s Office for Indigenous Women (DEMI). 14

16 ministry should be organized in four functional areas: substantive, administrative, technical support and internal control. It is made up of vice-ministries, including the Vice-Ministry for Bilingual Education and is composed of several General Directorates, among which the following should be mentioned: the Directorate for Educational Quality responsible for the implementation of the basic national curriculum in every one of the educational levels in the school sub-system; the General Directorate for Educational Research responsible for evaluating the student population s performance; the General Directorate for Curriculum; the General Directorate of Intercultural Bilingual Education responsible for providing and putting into action the guidelines for the design and development of the bilingual intercultural curriculum of the school and non- school sub-systems with local level consultations; the Directorate of Extracurricular Education responsible for providing an educational process to above age children, adolescents and youth with different modalities from that in the formal school sub-system; the Direction of Educational Planning with technical support functions in the formulation of educational policies and plans. Finally, the Departmental Directorates responsible for proposing and implementing the Ministry of Education s policies, plans and programmes in all of the 22 departments and has technical bodies that support its work. However, these departmental directorates do not have power over staff and funding. At the municipal level, there is a District Supervisory body; a Director supported by Educational Board composed of teachers and parents elected for this body are in charge of the educational centres. The State has addressed the situation of educational education by developing policies and complementary assistance programmes mainly aimed at low-income students. This is the case with the scholarship programmes to finish middle and high school, educational scholarships, food scholarships for students in marginal urban areas, employment scholarships to finish technical careers, scholarships for girls access to education, conditioned cash transfer programmes, extra-curricular education, job training, etc. Institutionally, there are specialized directorates like those for children with special educational needs, like the aforementioned Directorate for Bilingual Education, professional training programme for teachers, technical, administrative and professional workers from MINEDUC. With regards to educational standards, the Basic National Curriculum has been designed and has been approved and validated in the country s different teaching levels from 2007 to the present. In 2002, the General Law on Decentralization mandated the transfer of decision making powers, responsibilities, functions and resources to apply the Executive body s public policies to other State entities, especially Development Councils, municipalities or organized communities with municipal participation. This law prioritizes educational decentralization. For its part, the Municipal Code in decentralization matters acknowledges the municipality s authority in the management of pre-primary, primary and bilingual education, as well as literacy programmes. 15

17 Begun in 2008 as a poverty reduction strategy and stemming from the experience of other Latin American countries like Brazil and Peru, the Conditioned Cash Transfer Programmes will continue in place as part of the programmes of the recently created Ministry of Social Development. In Guatemala, this strategy is called My Family Makes Progress (MiFaPro) and was handed over to the Ministry of Education. In the previous government, it was coordinated by the Inter- Institutional Commission of Social Cohesion, according Government Agreement Its main contribution, from the perspective of educational exclusion, is that it conditions monetary transfers to beneficiary families based on the attendance of school-age children (up to age 15) in an educational centre. The parents are obligated to take them to school and obtain, as proof, the teacher s signature on the relevant attendance card. This motivates a higher level of student attendance in the regions with most vulnerability and that the families prioritize enrolling their children to school from a young age, instead of opting for child labour during school hours. It was assessed that although the programme generated higher attendance rates, it also provoked the saturation of students in schools and classrooms in precarious conditions. In the framework of enforcing the rights of children, adolescents, and youth, as well as part of a gender equality focus, the Law for the Comprehensive Protection for Children and Adolescents was approved in 2003, which defines the policies of comprehensive attention to the actions formulated by the National Commission and the Municipal Commissions on Children and Adolescents to guarantee the complete fulfilment of their human rights. With regards to youth, Guatemala does not have an instrument that guarantees the special human rights of this particular sector of the population. With regards to women s human rights, the country has a National Policy for the Promotion and Comprehensive Development of Women and an Equity Plan in place for These instruments establish the basis for the progress towards ethnic and gender equity as a strategy to reduce all forms of discrimination due to gender, ethnicity, age and social condition. Essentially, it favours the construction of a more democratic society that guarantees the full participation of women and constitutes the main State policy to improve the living conditions of Guatemalan women. At the international level, Guatemala has signed and ratified the following agreements: Millennium Development Objectives that establish reaching universal primary education by 2015 so that boys and girls throughout the world can finish a complete primary education cycle; the Dakar Agreements to improve education s qualitative aspects, guaranteeing the highest level of parameters so that everyone achieves acknowledged and measurable learning, especially in reading, writing, arithmetic, and essential skills for daily life; Educational Goals 2021 to universalize primary and basic secondary education (middle school), increase access to secondary school (high school), favour the connection between education and 16

18 employment through professional technical education, improve the quality of education and the student curriculum at all levels. 11 Several situation analyses and the state of education studies in Guatemala identify that despite the formal conditions and the political frameworks that exist in the country, the measures to solve educational exclusion for those who are outside the system are insufficient. Among other reasons, because they have not considered aspects like the quality of learning and the continuity for those who are in the system, creating a situation that boys, girls and youth that are already studying encounter serious difficulties to conclude middle and high school and consequently to obtain access to university education and to incorporate into the labour market in competitive conditions, thus further aggravating the exclusion and marginality faced by the majority of the population. An opportunity is lost to conduct changes at this level where it is more likely to contribute to breaking the inter-generational chain of poverty. 12 Guatemala rates 125 out of 138 countries analyzed in educational quality. 13 Overcoming this situation is limited by students socio-economic conditions, the lack of teacher training and skill strengthening and the low level results of the educational process in which repetition, absence, and scholarly desertion persist. Added to the former is the inequity of opportunities for men and women; although these have decreased, the disparities in the access to education for girls versus boys continue to demonstrate a gap. In the case of indigenous girls, the main problems faced for their entry and permanence in school are: academic lagging, coverage, school absence and abandonment, as well as cultural, social and economic issues in which poverty is unquestionably a determining factor that explains classroom abandonment. One of the other pertinent aspects regarding quality is community participation in education management. Community performance has not been efficient and is limited to logistic functions, like the preparation of snacks, the administration and presentation of school supplies, the administration of scholarships, etc., for which their influence in budget and curriculum content decision making is minimum. The citizenry s inertia to not make connections or actively participate in issues in which they have responsibility is closely related to the high degree of corruption operating in the country, as well as with the situation of violence, product of the effects of the internal armed conflict, drug trafficking, organized crime, high levels of conflicts and trend towards militarization. All of these are phenomena that do not contribute to solidifying the incipient basis for a democratic process. In this context, and in addition to accessibility and universality, education requires the 11 The Guatemalan State has ratified the content of all the mentioned agreements or commitments; those related to the issue of education are cited in the text. 12 According to the Youth in Action for Development- JADE more than 22 thousand youth abandon their secondary studies each year. The reasons range from the lack of families economic resources to unwanted adolescent pregnancy and common crime. The official student desertion data shows 8% at the middle school level and 6% at the high school level. 13 Report of the Human Rights Ombudsperson to the Congress of the Republic, January

19 development of principles and subject matters that foment the building of an active citizenry. Civil society and indigenous organizations continue to press forward with intercultural bilingual education, conducting oversight of its budget and monitoring indigenous people s educational agenda. However, the lack of coordination continues to be an issue weighing on the actions of these organizations, mainly for political party reasons as is evident in the high level of political polarization in the country. As an effect, its dialogue with the State is seen as lacking representation that diminishes its capacity for effective advocacy. Additionally, social organizations place more efforts in advocacy at the national level and with the central government and underestimate the importance of local conditions that could constitute an effective route to achieve national level goals. The start of the implementation of the Education Thematic Programme coincides with a change in government. The government has declared its commitment to continue with previously implemented social programmes in education, like the conditioned cash transfers for access to education for boys, girls, and adolescents. At the institutional level, the Ministry of Development has been created that will bring together the social programmes currently dispersed in different Executive bodies. The government also has planned to assign more resources and efforts to increase educational quality and develop training alternatives for youth employment. The former represents an opportunity to formulate, to the extent possible, the Programme actions in an inter-connected way, enhancing dialogue spaces and exchanges with the State, in a manner that the proposal development substantively contributes to achieving genuine high-quality intercultural bilingual education. 3. ANALYSIS OF THE PROBLEM The main factors prohibiting the exercise of this right for a large percentage of indigenous children, adolescents and youth in all levels of the educational system continue to be: the deficient access and permanence in cost-free high-quality education with intercultural relevance; the lack of cost-free options and economic difficulties to have access to educational services; low quality education; lack of an intercultural bilingual education model that takes into account the situation of the four populations in Guatemala; dearth of continuing educational alternatives for those who are already in the system; insufficient training options for over-age adolescents and youth; scarce teacher training and refresher courses; low results in the educational process in which student repetition, absenteeism, and desertion persist; inequity and inequality of educational opportunities between men and women; high levels of corruption, violence and criminality in the country; State bureaucracy in the application of policies, laws and programmes to overcome educational gaps and inequality that remain in the country. 18

20 Faced with this situation and sustained in an analysis of previous experiences, as well as IBIS skills in the Thematic Programme development, based on its resources and capacities, IBIS in Guatemala has decided to contribute to solve the problems related to: i) indigenous boys and girls access and permanence in highquality intercultural bilingual education; ii) advocacy in public policies on intercultural education; iii) educational quality, mainly that involving inclusive, non-sexist approaches and employing training models and alternatives for women and men; iv) violence and the absence of a culture of peace. IBIS emphasizes the preponderant role that school plays in the socialization process and the building of models for more equitable relations that respect the human rights of all people. The following thematic areas will guide the development of the programme content: 1. Intercultural Bilingual Education 2. Education for Life 3. Education for Democracy The Guatemalan educational system, under the management of the Ministry of Education, is structured in the school and non-school sub-systems. The school system covers the pre-primary, primary and secondary levels. Secondary school has two cycles: three years of middle school and two or three years of high school (the duration depends on the choice of discipline: high school graduate, teacher, technical experts, etc.). The bilingual educational modality only functions at the pre-primary and primary levels. For the population who cannot study in the corresponding ages, the non-school system offers special education modalities, which are equivalent to primary and middle school education. The State and private institutions provide the educational services in both sub-systems. Private institutions predominate in the supply of secondary education. Other educational systems also operate in an autonomously: the National Committee for Literacy (CONALFA), the High Council for the State University of San Carlos of Guatemala and the Council for Private Advanced Teaching. The Technical Institute for Training and Productivity (INTECAP), dedicated to technical training for private sector workers, also functions autonomously. Intercultural bilingual education in Guatemala was included in the government plans at the end of the 19 th century, during the First Central American Pedagogic Conference. Guatemala proposed an idea of education for indigenous people: education and instruction in Spanish; learn reading, writing and counting; safeguards for indigenous people; westernize indigenous languages, clothing and customs; use stimulus and rewards; and the role of indigenous mayor was granted, with honour, to those who spoke Spanish. 14 These facts illustrate that the State historically considered it problematic that indigenous people spoke their native languages. The first experience of intercultural bilingual education in Guatemala took place in the 1980s, as a pilot project supported by international cooperation. In 1985, the 14 Save the Children and ICEFI, Investment in Intercultural Bilingual Education in Guatemala, Guatemala, November