Pride of the Maya -- basic education project for Mayan girls in bilingual and bicultural manners
Jica Newsletter 6(4): 7
1996
PMID: 12292096 Document Number: 303664
Girls Education Project, a two-year program sponsored by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), seeks to address the educational needs of Mayan girls in rural Guatemala. The program is being implemented under the framework of the Japan-US Common Agenda for Cooperation in Global Perspectives. Preliminary fieldwork revealed the importance of ensuring that entire communities, including teachers and parents, appreciate the human right of rural girls to a basic education. The project team will conduct three-day workshops in each of the four pilot states in 1997 to discuss teaching methods, materials, and curricula to promote girls' participation and improve their achievement levels. Also planned is a three-day national seminar involving governmental officials and representatives from the public and private sectors, nongovernmental organizations, professional groups, universities, and ethnic and cultural groups. The bilingual/bicultural method selected for the intervention seeks to implement basic education for Mayan girls in both Spanish and the four main Mayan languages. Another focus is to encourage the students to maintain pride in their cultural heritage.