Friday 5 May 2006
Teachers have difficulties teaching in Papiamento
CURACAO – Part of the group 3-teachers in the first cycle of the basic education (fo) have difficulties with the unprepared transition to Papiamento as instruction language. The transition from Dutch to Papiamento as instruction language was underestimated by the policymakers.
The schools inspectors of the fo concluded this over a year ago after orientation visits to a few schools. Yet, the extra training of the teachers didn’t get adjusted.
The fo was expanded to group 3, the old first grade in the school year 2004-2005. The schools inspectors assigned to the fo observed during orientation visits to schools that not all the teachers master the Papiamento language well enough to give lessons in this language without preparation.
There had to be a course that eases the transition from Dutch to Papiamento as instruction language. This course was not included in the extra training package yet. The instances responsible for this didn’t announce yet when this will happen or if it will happen at all.
The schools inspectors also established that according to several teachers, the Papiamento teaching method Lesa Bon contains errors and does not have enough didactic indications.
Despite this shortage, most of the teachers were still capable of putting together teaching material themselves. Furthermore, the teachers in group 3 didn’t know how and when to start with the so-called ‘familiarize the students with the Dutch language’. It now turns out that this was not done enough and the students in group 4 that have to continue to group 5 will have to take Dutch language supplemental lessons in order to catch up.
The report also indicated that almost every teacher, cycle coordinator, and principal have tried to make it clear to the inspectors that they and other colleagues have the feeling that they are worked off their feet by the profusion of written information, including orders from several education authorities.
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