Ministry of Education endorses education in the Guna language

The curriculistas of the Ministry of Education (Meduca) received the programs and booklets that contain the teaching in Dulegaya language, of the primary level of four fundamental subjects, in an act that had the presence of the minister of the branch, Maruja Gorday de Villalobos.

The Guna chief, Rengifo Navas, pointed out that “it is important that in each school in the Guna Yala region, the mother tongue is recognized in the bulletins as a qualification and the spirituality program, which is something innate to us, in which we talk about the creation, also of the social sciences and natural sciences ”.

The announcement was made before the highest authorities of Meduca and the three chiefs of the Guna Yala region (sagladum magan) Aníbal Sánchez, Inocencio Martínez and Navas. In addition, the programs and booklets were delivered to the ministry's curriculists.

Armando Alvarado, Regional Director of Education for Guna Yala, stated that “it was a good opportunity with Meduca and the work team, because years ago they have tried to implement intercultural bilingual education, but in no previous administration it was done, until now. that the minister [Gorday de Villalobos] accepted and collaborated so that the contextualized programs can be applied in the region ”.

The document was delivered after a report from the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), on intercultural bilingual education, among children and young people from the seven original groups in the country: Bri Bri, Naso Tjerdi , Ngäbe, Buglé, Guna, Emberá and Wounaan.

The National Director of Curriculum, Carmen Reyes, said that this is a historical debt that has been owed to the Guna people since 2006, a task that was resumed in 2019 and 2020 to project it to the community and deliver the curriculum in their own language. This will be endorsed and posted on the Meduca website and can be used this year.

“For the Guna region it is a benefit to recover and strengthen their mother tongue, in the first three grades so that the children have that cultural identity typical of their ethnic group and contextualized so that they can advance to fourth grade and can master the other language, that is , Spanish, ”Reyes explained.