URL: http://www.amazonteam.org/index.php/253/Education_Colombia
Education: Colombia
Under the Colombian constitution, ethnoeducation is an officially accepted educational approach. Since 2000, in the department of Caquetá in southwestern Colombia, ACT has helped the largest indigenous group of the region, the Inga people, construct the infrastructure for and develop and fund the unique Yachaicurí ethnoeducation school on a property of 136 acres in the community of Yurayaco (Yachaicurí means "learning together in the Inga language).
The school, which was officially recognized by the government of Colombia in 2003, currently carries 90 students, many on a boarding basis, with 9 full-time teachers and a principal. Students range in age from 11 to 18, having completed their elementary education in their home communities. The school graduated its first students in 2006 in a ceremony attended by representatives of Colombia's Mini
stry of Education.
The school teaches an equal distribution of typical "western" and traditional subject matter. Course material includes the natural sciences, arts, mathematics, the Inga language, Spanish, English, ancestral agriculture, handicrafts, information technology, and ethics. The organizational and technical skills needed to survive within a larger market economy are studied and applied. The school grounds include a natural sciences laboratory and an agro-ecological farm where the students gain first-hand experience in traditional agriculture and sustainable production techniques and have the opportunity to grow their own food.
Interscholastic exchanges are conducted between the school and the communities' primary ("reserve") schools. In 2004, the Caquetá state Secretary of Education declared ACT's ethnoeducation program an "innovative educational model," and ACT was invited to present its work with the school and the Ingano communities to representatives of the Ministry of Education in Bogotá.
In early 2010, thanks to ACT's efforts, the School was added to a national list of schools eligible for state funding. However, the resources are insufficient for the complete operation of the School, thus ACT and the Inga community will continue to seek outside funding. ACT hopes to replicate the Yachaicurí model in several other indigenous communities of the Colombian Amazon.