Bilingual Education 2011

Imprimir

Commencement of the Project: Ethnic Intercultural Bilingual Education 2011. San Andres and Providence Islands.   Objective: To present to the community of San Andres, Providencia and Santa Catalina the commencement of the ethnic intercultural bilingual education project 2011 to be developed in public schools on San Andres and Providencia in the present year (Dionicio Brown O’Neill, M.Ed).

INTRODUCTION

The Ethnic Intercultural Bilingual Education Program 2011 is the result of a work conducted by the Ethnic Education Office of the Secretary of Education´s Office of San Andres, Providencia and Santa Catalina under the leadership of Governor Pedro Gallardo Forbes and Mayor of Providencia Janeth Archbold Howard. It is a program defined by the local Development Plan 2008-2011 in order to respond to the educational needs of the population, but most importantly of the native islander population.

ESSENCE OF THE PROGRAM

The program takes into account the two main languages spoken on the islands with great respect for the local vernacular. It focuses on 3 main strands: 1) the development of language skills in English and Spanish, 2) the development of social skills in order to facilitate and to promote peaceful living among the different social groups of the islands, and 3) the development of academic skills in the content areas, that is, content-based instruction for language and concept development in the teaching process.

The Teaching of English by Level of Competence is a fundamental focused English teaching strategy designed by the Ethnic Education Office to a) determine the level of English managed by students, b) Teach English to students based on their level of competence in English skills, c) Provide permanent assessment to students’ language skills development.

COMPONENTS

The Ethnic Intercultural Bilingual Education program is founded on the development of academic activities that tend towards improving the quality of education and as a consequence to improving the standard of life of the people of the archipelago. These activities are been implemented by three universities under contracts signed with the department.

There are 8 components: 1) the design of bilingual curricula of natural science, mathematics, social science and teachers using technology and communication in their teaching activities to be developed by the Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira; 2) the implementation of Teachers in-service Training Plan and the improvement of learning environment for students by setting up 2 intelligent or virtual classrooms to be developed by the Instituto Nacional de Formación Técnica Profesional of San Andres INFOTEP; 3) the teaching of English by level of competence and language policy and planning to be developed by Universidad Nacional de Colombia San Andres branch; 4) community and parental involvement in the intercultural bilingual education project and school management for principals and school coordinators to be developed by INFOTEP and Universidad Nacional.

These components set the basis and foundation for a strong and well implemented intercultural bilingual education after years of struggle and difficulties. These activities were possible due to a project presented to the Dirección Nacional de Estupefacientes (DNE), who allotted $ 2.230.000.000 in 2009 but only sent to the Department in 2010 and now executed in 2011.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

We wish to thank Doctor Pedro Gallardo Forbes for his interest in education and permission granted to develop the project; the Ministry of National Education for its technical support; the Secretary of Education for his supporting and enduring confidence in the project; Instituto Nacional de Formación Técnica Profesional (INFOTEP), Universidad Nacional de Colombia sede Caribe and Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira for accepting the challenge for implementing the ethnic intercultural bilingual educational system for the archipelago; the community for its trust in us and acceptance, and all the entities and people who in some way participated and are participating in this process.

Dionicio Brown O’Neill, M.Ed.

Project Director

Última actualización ( Jueves, 12 de Mayo de 2011 12:45 )