The Issue in Brief

In this last decade of the twentieth century, basic education has come to be considered by many international organizations as a fundamental human right. In addition to this ideological stand, societies around the world--and their governments--are coming to realize the practical importance of a citizenry with at least basic literacy and numeracy skills to be able to participate in our increasingly global marketplace. Perhaps more for such economic reasons, then, rather than ideological ones, it seems that every day national governments are mandating the education of their populations, and in many cases, non-governmental organizations are coming forward to help fulfill the mandate.

But even with the recognition of the social and economic importance of literacy and the increase in programs to educate the people, many segments of the population find it difficult to obtain an education. This is especially true in developing countries, and it is most often women and rural peasants who suffer the lowest literacy rates. Many cultures believe that it is not necessary to educate women, since their place is in the home and they will therefore not have much contact with the world beyond their own small communities.

However, there are many factors in today's changing world that invalidate this reasoning. Two important ones are the increase in many areas of single-parent homes with the mother as the only parent (whether from the effects of war, disease or, to a lesser degree in third world countries, divorce), and the fact that mothers' literacy and education levels often greatly influence the health and achievements of the children. Therefore, it is imperative that both already-existing and new programs in the process of elaboration make an effort to focus on these populations. Policymakers and literacy practitioners need to understand the social context of these populations and design programs that address that context in terms of both curriculum content and scheduling.

back to top

The Context in Peru

Peru is a country of contrasts, geographically and socially. Geographically, it is labeled as an Andean country (that is, one of the South American countries through which the Andes Mountains run). However, mountains are not the only landscape to be found in Peru. The Andes run through the central region of the country from north to south. The northeast corner and the eastern side of the country are bounded by Colombia and Brazil, and share Amazonian jungles with these two countries. These jungles extend from the borders of the country all the way up to the eastern foothills of the Andes. West of the Andes is the Pacific Ocean, and so this region is all coastal territory.

The social contrasts can be found in the mix of populations that make up Peruvian society, which in a general way tends to be divided along ethnic, linguistic and geographic lines. A brief sketch of these groups is offered below. However, the main focus of the present report will be on the Quechua speakers living in the Andean region.

People and Languages

In the jungle live numerous and distinct indigenous groups; in fact, throughout the jungle region of Peru, about 98 different languages are spoken. Quechua and Aymara are the principal languages spoken in the mountainous Andean region, and give their names to the people who speak them. However, even here not everyone speaks the same single Quechua language, but several dialects of it, with varying degrees of mutual intelligibility between dialectal areas. Finally, Spanish is the primary language of the coastal regions--where the original Spanish conquistadors founded their cities--and in the large cities of non-coastal regions.

These divisions are not absolute. For instance, since Spanish is the official language, it is spoken throughout the country to varying degrees. Also, besides in the Andes themselves, Quechua is spoken by some groups in the jungle as well as on the coast. In addition, while the various ethnic and linguistic groups have historically tended to be geographically separated, this has been slowly changing over time with the migration of Quechuas from the mountains to the metropolitan areas in search of a better life.

The cities are generally the sites of greatest economic activity, with businesses, industry, higher education, government, and so forth. all based there. It is also in the cities where the social life most closely resembles that of the developed western world, with a decent standard of living for the elite criollo classes. Life in the Andean highlands, on the other hand, is rural and agrarian, essentially at a subsistence level. Farming and animal husbandry are the principal means of surviving and of generating whatever income possible from the surplus. Textiles and pottery-making are also other income generating activities in this region. Because it is so difficult to make a living in the Andes, many Quechua people, both men and women, have moved to the city hoping to be more successful there. In some cases, these are permanent migrations. In many cases, however, it is a cyclical, seasonal migration for the purpose of earning extra income in the agricultural "off-season."

Education

Unfortunately, social privilege has generally followed ethnic lines, with the indigenous peoples being the underclass. While the country has a national policy of equal access to education, and primary education is mandated for all, in practice this has not been achieved. This is due to a number of factors. Perhaps the most significant factor is the language barrier. The mandated education is offered in Spanish. And although Peru is clearly a multilingual nation, it does not follow that every speaker is multilingual. In fact, there is still a high percentage of monolingual Quechua speakers, especially in the high Andean regions that do not have much contact with the cities. In the great majority of cases, it is the women who are monolingual rather than the men. So even though theoretically everyone has the opportunity to learn, because of linguistic limitations, not everyone can take advantage of it; and because women more than men are the monolinguals, this linguistic barrier affects them to a greater degree. It has been estimated that 70% of the illiterate Quechua-speaking population are women.

Another factor affecting school attendance is the lifestyle of the Andean peoples. Since it is so hard to eke out a living in the highlands, every person in the family must help one way or another, as soon as they are old enough to walk and talk and follow orders. As mentioned above, farming and herding are two primary livelihoods. These do not tend to wait for out-of-school hours for the work that needs to be done. This means that school-age children may not be able to attend school because they are needed at home. If any child does receive the opportunity to go to school, very often it will be the male children rather than the female. Since a woman's place is ultimately in the home caring for children, the house and the fields, it is very often not seen as necessary for her to receive an education, much less one in Spanish. Women are also not considered as likely to travel to the Spanish-speaking centers as men, so it is not as necessary for them to be able to communicate in Spanish as it is for men.

Literacy and Language

As recent history is showing, education and literacy attainment are not necessarily best carried out in the official language, but in the dominant language of the learners, with the official language brought in later in the educational process as a second language. In addition, educational curricula should be relatively context driven: it makes more sense to teach children to read by using stories they can relate to, that connect with their lived experience in a rural, agrarian area, than to use stories about city life which mean nothing to them. In recent decades in Peru, many bilingual primary education programs with a more context-sensitive curriculum have sprung up in an attempt to overcome the language barrier to education. These programs teach the "three R's" in Quechua and they have had varying degrees of success. Their general lack of success is most often due to the fact that they do not take into account the social and cultural reality of the populations they are trying to reach.

Women, Education, and Literacy

One thing that seems to remain fairly constant in the face of the variable success of attempted literacy campaigns is the social fact that women still receive less education (or less opportunity for it) than their male counterparts. In traditional Quechua culture, men are the community leaders and often will not even let women attend community assemblies, let alone participate. They reason that it is useless to let women participate in civic affairs, since they are uneducated and "know nothing." In this way, the cycle of female passivity is reinforced and perpetuated: women do not need an education because they do not participate in community affairs, and they cannot participate in civic affairs because they are uneducated. However, with the changing times, traditional ways are not always practical, and so women are becoming more involved and active in community affairs. At the same time, they still maintain their primary role as keepers of the hearth, maintaining home and family as well as routinely helping with fields and flocks.

In view of their slowly evolving roles in Quechua society, it is becoming increasingly obvious that men are not the only ones who need an education. Involvement in community affairs implies any number of activities for which literacy is a necessity, from record-keeping at meetings to developing action plans for community development. Additionally, statistics show that educated women tend to have healthier and higher-achieving children. At a minimum, if a woman knows how to read and write, she could help her children who are able to attend school with their homework. As one peasant woman said, "I want to be able to teach my children but I do not know how. I cannot even help them with their homework."

Recognizing the need to make up for lost educational time for women, diverse organizations and institutions in Peru are developing and implementing literacy programs geared specifically towards women in their mother tongue, Quechua. One such program is the Literacy and Civic Education Program for Indigenous and Peasant Women of Peru. It is being implemented in the departments of Cajamarca, Cuzco and Apurimac by three non-governmental organizations. In Cajamarca, where Spanish is spoken more than Quechua, PeruMujer is the NGO that has initial responsibility for the literacy efforts. In Cuzco and Apurimac, where Quechua is the dominant language of the rural areas, two NGOs are involved: the Association for Ecology and Development (Asociacion para la Ecologia y el Desarrollo, APED), and the Andean Center for Education and Promotion (Centro Andino de Educacion y Promocion, CADEP) Jose Maria Arguedas. The work of all three NGOs is carried out under the auspices of UNESCO and OREALC.

To look at an overview of the program, program activities, or program outcomes and implications, click on the corresponding heading.

back to top