Bilingual Education in Peru: Milestones and Perspectives

Abstract

More than one-third of Peruvians speak an Indigenous language. However, successive educational policies have ignored this fact. It was not until the 1970s that some steps were taken toward bilingual education. In 1987, the Directorate General of Bilingual Education (DICEBIL) was established to promote a new approach to education—bilingual and intercultural—aimed at people who speak a Native language and have a Native culture. This model is being implemented primarily at the primary education level.