After an article last December 10 on « Language explorers », Le Monde continues to focus on endangered languages. Special correspondent Chrystelle Barbier has written a report on a village in the Peruvian Amazon, where she has witnessed the vitality of a bilingual literacy programme entitled Pronama (National Mobilization Programme for Literacy).

Launched by the government of Peru in 2006, Pronama was originally a simple literacy programme for adults, first implemented in the Andes before being extended to the rest of the country. In 2008 the holders of the programme decided to make literacy tuition bilingual, that is to teach not only in Spanish but also in the mother tongue of students. This information is significant, knowing that 4 million Peruvians (more than 15% of the population) speak a language other than Spanish: Quechua (the ancient lingua franca of the Inca civilization), Aymara (language of the Altiplano peoples), plus several Amazonian languages (Aguaruna-Awajun, Shipibo, Huambisa and Ashaninka).

In terms of overall results, programme director Angel Velasquez announced a total of 1.6 million people enrolled, often in areas of great proverty abandoned to guerilla fighters and drug traffickers. There is logically a large proportion of women, as they make up three quarters of illiterates in Peru.

The article does not pass over in silence the difficulties encountered, in particular the reluctance of the local populations, traumatized by years of terror when the only outsiders were the Shining Path guerilla fighters who exploited and abused them. But the fact that classes are also given in the mother tongue is clearly an advantage, for people perceive it as a recognition of their culture and customs.

In the end, even if all do not leave the programme knowing how to read and write, the Pronama initiative is said to have helped bring down the illiteracy rate in the country from 11% to 6.5% in just 4 years.

Read the full article on Le Monde‘s website

Read our mother-tongue education series on Sorosoro’s blog