Belize’s GG Gives O.A.S. Talk on Indigenous Education

Froyla T’zalam

Governor-General of Belize Froyla T’zalam was the featured speaker at the latest edition of a virtual series called, “A Chat with the O.A.S.”  G.G. T’zalam delivered a thought-provoking speech this morning on the importance of cultural education in bridging the social divide.

Froyla T’zalam, Governor-General of Belize

“We all recognized that educational policies and systems have often been used as a means to systemically discriminate against indigenous people, assimilate them into the broader society and thus destroy their culture, identity, and rights, displace them of their lands, resources, and territories. We continue to see the prepositions of such policies, such as in Canada over the summer. For the last three days, many states have attempted to address problems of intercultural bilingual education. However, sadly these education systems, policies, and curriculums are rarely developed with indigenous people’s participation or consent. As a result, this has mostly failed indigenous children and continues to deny them vital life opportunities and cultural security. Indeed, in the case of Belize, there is Government support for bi-lingual intercultural education. And, there are currently two schools for the Maya and the Garifuna people. But, there are challenges, because despite teachers being paid, they are unable to work in partnership with parents to address the policies and curricular that need to be developed for cultural education.  Lamentably, quite often, the teachers are not qualified to teach indigenous people and continue to use mainstream methodology. In my experience, the teachers have been the ones to push back on indigenous-led education.”