Indigenous Education and Democracy

Practices with perspectives of Equity, Gender and Migration

“Human Rights unite us, brings us closer; they are a bridge that extends among human beings who follow their pursuit to contribute with their experience and knowledge, so that this planet may have a better future, and those who have lived in vulnerable conditions may advance, grow and have the same opportunities.” 

Rosalinda Morales Garza, Director-General DGEI

During 2009 and 2010, the General Delegation of Indigenous Education (DGEI initials in Spanish) of Mexico executed the project “Democracy and Indigenous Education: Practices with Equity”, with technical and financial support provided by the Horizontal Cooperation Fund of the OAS Inter-American Program on Education for Democratic Values and Practices. The experience was not only successful in achieving its objectives, but also in strengthening and giving continuity to the Action Plan that was elaborated in the framework of this project.

                              

The second phase of the project, also financially supported by the Horizontal Cooperation Fund in 2012, allowed to substantially advance in the public policy and action plan previously initiated by DGEI, thereby strengthening the progressivity and affirmative actions of the right to education of indigenous people and women, considering too the topic of immigration. The technical assistance provided to DGEI by Defensoría delPueblo of Colombia, the Inter-American Institute of HumanRights, with headquarters in Costa Rica, the Bolivian Aymara IndigenousUniversity “Tupak Katari” of Bolivia and the Department of Education and Promotion of the National Institute of Human Rightsof Chile, was essential to promote and disseminate the right to education of indigenous people by developing a strategic tool as a space to dialogue, reflect and exchange experiences, achievements and progress made in the framework of democracy and its implications in the autonomy of people and nations. The project also aimed to strengthen cooperation practices among member states of the Organization of American States that have experience in education, specifically in the fields of human rights, gender, equity and indigenous peoples rights. 

This cooperation experience led to creating the Lecture “Right to Education of Indigenous Peoples, migrants and gender”, which acknowledges the development of a series of strategies aimed to promote and disseminate the Right to Education of indigenous peoples, migrants and populations in risk of educational exclusion. The lecture and formulation of general guidelines of the Program Right to Education, allowed not only to access and improve knowledge on the topic, but also represented a permanent regional space of discussion and exchange of experiences.

  

“Historically, indigenous peoples have been situated among the most poor, marginalized and discriminated sectors of society; a determining factor to reverse this situation is providing access to an equal, inclusive and equality education, conceived in the framework of the right to education by indigenous peoples, immigrants and women in risk of educational exclusion.

In this regard, the right to education is considered as a door to attaining other rights because it searches for a social change, especially in those communities that need tools to survive in disadvantageous conditions.”

Rosy Laura Castellanos, Transformación posible de la educación para la niñez indígena. Contextos, alianzas y redes, México, D.F, 2010.

The activities developed during the technical assistance mission were mainly centered in the exchange of knowledge and methodologies about construction processes of the curricular design of indigenous formal education in Mexico. There were contributions made regarding teacher professionalization to prepare and educate in intercultural citizenship, and a curricular proposal through learning that is cooperative, ethical and socially responsible towards indigenous peoples.

Institutions that provided technical assistance, along with DGEI personnel and other convened institutions, met during six days in Mexico City, with the objective of a) strengthening training and building capacities to recognize the rights of indigenous peoples and the construction of their communities based on their own citizenship through the exchange of academic, cultural, social and institutional experiences, and b) implement the creation of the Lecture on the Right to Education of Indigenous Peoples, Migrants and Gender, as well as the general guidelines of the Program Right to Education of Indigenous Peoples, Migrants and Gender.

To achieve these objectives, indigenous women leaders, and representatives of indigenous communities and migrant populations were offered training and capacity building opportunities since, with the support of DGEI, they will be the ones deciding their general agreements and mandates.

Cooperation also had a positive impact in the incorporation of the topic of rights of the indigenous peoples in its broad meaning, and particularly of their right to education.  This can be observed in the increase of favorable results demonstrated in national evaluations on the educational achievement and statistical data that evince an improvement in the basic indicators of education in Mexico. In this same regard, there was an increase of spaces where the topic of rights is the main axis of revision of advances and achievements made regarding equal opportunities. This is evidenced in the achievement of goals of programs of special attention to migrant populations, and in the increase of care coverage for young mothers and pregnant young women that have not completed their basic education.

During the technical assistance activities, 111 participants were gathered and trained. Participants included officials that make decisions in the framework of DGEI regulations, among those from the Preschool and Basic Education Programme for Children of Migrant Farm Workers (PRONIM, initials in Spanish) and Scholarship Program of Basic Education for Young Mothers and Pregnant Young Women (PROMAJOVEN, initials in Spanish). Guidelines were also established to regard the Lecture as a possibility to created a specific program of the right to education of indigenous peoples, migrants and gender, to give it continuity by the different departments of the DGEI, and other academic institutions interested in its ownership.

The beneficiaries of the project is the educational community in general, and those involved in the educational process, and its improvement. This initiative opened the door to foster institutional relations at an international level. It also allowed that the participants of all the modalities of DGEI’s programs to exchange directly with specialists, dialogue with authors of important changes in their field, question Mexico’s situation in relation to the achievements of other experiences of countries with indigenous populations, analyze their conquests and expectations, achievements, advances and participation in societies that have reached basic agreements regarding the autonomy of the indigenous peoples.