Towards an indigenous education
Wapichans have started advocating for a different model of education in their communities, because they realize that an education system that continnues to reproduce colonial and Western values does not make use of a rich local culture and ends up failing most Wapichan students, leaving them despondent and with fewer opportunities. They became involved in a grassroots initiative over the last few years based on collaborative and proactive pratices. They have taken the initiative to review and initiate new models and approaches to education that draw on Wapichan culture and language as a foundation. Making contact and working with the Ministry of Education, they sought to introduce a Quality Bilingual Education Programme (QBEP) in three nursery schools in the South Rupununi. In August of this year a memorandum of understanding was officially signed between the two parties, paving the way for the Quality Education Programme to be piloted in three nursery schools in the South Rupununi. On the first of September 2018, the education programme was officially launched in Aishalton South Rupununi.
It is good to see Wapichans taking their education into their own hands because in the world at present, there has been a global shift towards recognizing and understanding indigenous models of education as a viable and legitimate form of education. Members of indigenous communities celebrate diversity in learning and see this global support for teaching traditional forms of knowledge as a success. Indigenous ways of knowing, learning, instructing, teaching, and training have been viewed by many scholars as important for ensuring that students and teachers, whether indigenous or non-indigenous, are able to benefit from education in a culturally sensitive manner that draws upon and utilizes indigenous traditions, beyond the standard Western curriculum of reading, writing, and arithmetic.
The ball is now in the court of the Wapichan people to draw on and expand this initiative which is a different approach in education for their children. It is my hope that when this education programme is successful, it could be extended to other groups in the country, offering local and inspiring examples of appropriate quality education that can provide indigenous people with opportunities to survive in their villages and anywhere in the world.