A chance at higher education for Kichwa children

Guadalupe Ramirez and Ben Blevins, directors of the Highland Support Project, visited Guamote, Ecuador, during the first part of March. The purpose of the visit was to formalize planning with Dr. Luis Alberto Tuaza Castro, professor at the National University of Chimborazo, to formalize the planning for an Indigenous University to serve the ninety-eight percent of young adults not served by higher education.

The Institute's purpose is to provide relevant education and training, enabling Indigenous young adults to stay on their land, in their community, and with their culture. The current system of higher education does not focus on the relevant skills, opportunities, or values of the region.

In Ecuador's highly stratified and unequal society, Indigenous youth face many obstacles from obtaining higher education. One significant issue is the inappropriate qualifications required for admission to the University. For example, a portion of the entrance exam is English proficiency, while there is limited English instruction provided in Indigenous regions. Furthermore, entrance exams developed in Chile and adopted for an urban population are not culturally appropriate for Highland communities.

The vision of the Institute is to provide quality education and training for the majority of youth that otherwise would not have an opportunity for the development of critical thinking skills, culturally relevant intellectual development, and practical skills to be productive contributors in their communities.

A significant issue with the current education model is that the skills and world view are not appropriate for the realities of rural communities. To fully utilize the education, students typically have to move to a city or immigrate to the United States. Rather than educating students to improve their communities, students are trained for jobs that do not exist or norms of behavior that make them aliens in the lands of their ancestors.

Currently, Dr. Luis Alberto Tuaza Castro has organized colleagues from Universities to provide weekend classes for young adults that do not qualify for the Univesity. The objective is to provide services to the majority of students that would never be able to attend a Western education institution and provide them with directed education that enables them to live well in the place where they choose.

This pivoting of our programming focus represents a listening process with community leaders concerning their real goals and objectives for their communities. The foundational questions concern the value of an education and world view that forces young people to reject their culture and their community to obtain a life whose value requires a radical change in world view.

Over the next few months, we will be developing the logical framework and sustainability model to provide education in community health, popular education, Indigenous world view, construction, practical engineering, entrepreneurship, and civics.

We thank you for your support as we continue to innovate and invest in transformational programming to break cycles of dependency and marginalization.