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Has the National Bilinguism Plan been a success in rural schools? Why?: a six year experience.
One of the main objectives of the National Development Plan 2014-2018 in Colombia is to
promote equality, peace and education (Ministerio de Educacin Nacional, 2016). Subsequently,
one of the means whereby the government is trying to accomplish this goal is through the
Ministry of Education (MOE) that in their right to establish policies regarding their vision of
The government of Colombia has made significant investments in the National Bilingual Plan
(NBP), especially in the program Colombia Very Well (). According to statistics (Colombia
Very Well), five hundred thousand millions Colombian pesos had been invested only in teachers
of English. However, the Ministry of Education argued that with that investment students were
not learning english and achieving the desired goals. That is why it was decided that the
investment would increase in a 20% from then on over a period of ten years, reaching the amount
Although the term bilingualism is something that we take for granted, based on my
continuum that goes from A1 to C2. In Colombia the general idea is that a person who is situated
at the C2 end of the continuum is a person who has succeeded as a proficient English speaker.
On the other hand, those who reach levels near the A1 end of the continuum are seen as a failure.
bilingualism refers to the different levels of proficiency whereby a person can communicate in
more than one language and culture. In this case, and for the purposes of the Ministry of
Education, bilingualism takes the form of a foreign language, that is, a language that is not
spoken in the immediate and local setting. In this case, daily social conditions do not require
permanent use of the language for communication. So, it would be interesting to ask why all this
bilingualism fever if there is not a permanent use? Why all this investment if outcomes are not as
expected?
Since bilingualism as defined by the documents issued by the Ministry of Education seems to fall
short. It is important to have a clear idea of what bilingualism is, what it entails, in order to
outline possible drawbacks and strengths in the implementation of programs such as Bilingual
Colombia.
There are many definitions of bilingualism but it is out of the scope of this paper to try to include
and give the attention they deserve. So, for the purposes of this paper, Grosjean (1996), rejecting
the idea of a bilingual person as two monolinguals in one body, alternatively proposes a holistic
standards. This means that being bilingual is not having both languages at the same level of
mastery and with different linguistic structures but instead both languages interact and influence
each other .
Rural contexts have specific characteristics that should be taken into account when trying to
implement changes. Rodriguez (2012) states that due to the context, several variables may
influence the teaching and learning of a foreign language However, it is important to clarify that
my claims about rural schools are supported mainly by my experience and a few references that
give a positive impression of this kind of settings. And the truth is that, in reality, despite all the
constraints and limitations one may encounter, it is a pleasure to find peace in a place given the
reality of most public schools in Colombia where the average of students per classroom ranges
from 30 to 40 and teachers are practically limited to four walls. Overcrowding is not a problem
in rural schools, nor does one find disrespect or violence as you may encounter in urban settings.
In fact, one of the main characteristics of rural students is that they are rarely taken into account
in important decision about education. The rural student is characterized by his passivity in
Perhaps, and to start with, one of the main problems in implementing a bilingual program in a
Colombian rural school is the importance for them to learn a foreign language. Crdenas (2006)
shows her concern about to what extent the implementation of bilingualism has considered those
areas where English is not a priority, e.g. rural areas. Similarly, Nieto (as cited in Feldman, 2002)
and Feldman (2002) state that students voices and especially those of disempowered and
dominated communities are rarely taken into account in discussions about solving educational
problems.
Trying to adapt a model of bilingualism that comes from Europe is a utopian task since
similarities between contexts are practically non-existent and the purposes by which the
Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) was created were different
(Sanchez & Obarto, 2008). In this way, linguistic, cultural and religious diversity (a
(2003) affirms that English language learning, local identity and different Latin American
economies have been engulfed by globalization and thus language teaching policies must be
Although it seems that the use of the CEFR was deliberately imposed by the effect of
globalization, evidence shows that the government considered the implementation of models
from USA, Canada, Ireland, Spain and Australia but finally decided to use the CEFR because it
was the one that best suited the Colombian context (Meja, 2011). But, How can all these
arguments affect a rural school? Well, as it was stated above a rural school has special
school with a urban one, one immediately realize of all the disadvantages teachers and students
have (resources, infrastructure, location, low income etc). The point is that, if the implementation
of the CEFR is certainly problematic for a regular school in Colombia (Ayala & Alvarez 2005;
Crdenas 2006; Gonzalez 2007. Cited in Meja, 2011), to my view, the future for rural school is
very obscure.
Moreover, Meja (2011) states that through the implementation of this European model, local
school systems have been given the appearance of being internationally competitive. In fact, I
have evidenced that rural students feel behind as to being part of the opportunities provided for
those who learn English with the argument that it will insert the citizen in the global economy
(Ministerio de Educacin Nacional, 2016) or with the idea that it will facilitate educational and
occupational mobility (Crdenas, 2006). The above mentioned disadvantages are to my view
some of the main constraints to learn, not even a language, but anything. Therefore, Who would
like to spend hours of hard work, invest in materials and stop doing something else when it is
evident that learning a second language, namely english, is not profitable or meaningful for
them?
The truth is, as stated by Herazo (2012), that the current conditions in regards to labor market
demands, intercultural and interlingual contact provide little opportunity and incentive to
Being a little more optimistic, in 2016, the Ministry of Education issued a document called
suggested curricular structure (SCS) which provides the educational community with
guidelines for the implementation of Bilingualism from 6 to 11 grade. The relevance of this, is
that unlike the document Basic Foreign Language Competence Standards: English (2006)
issued in 2006, the SCS acknowledges the importance of contextual factors by saying: We value
and understand the demographic, cultural and social diversity of our country (ministerio );
aspects that were previously criticized and that personally, as a rural teacher, I appreciate.
The SCS guidelines make emphasis in a communicative approach and also it proposes learner-
centered activities based on tasks, projects and problem solving methods. This, with the
argument that this model is more likely to be contextualized and adapted to the specific
characteristics of learners and teachers from different regions and realities in Colombia
(ministerio).
However, this new view raises some questions regarding more variables such as: What does the
methods entail? Are teachers ready for the change? Why are primary levels excluded? Is the
initial 1.3 billion pesos investment enough or unnecessary? Questions that deserve special
Regarding the aforementioned concerns, from experience, I have to say that teacher preparation
has been reduced to a three-day immersion program with foreign people (not teachers) who are
going to teach teachers how to improve communicative skills. Sanchez & Obando (2008),
worried about the fact that people who are not foreign language teachers are giving classes state
that language teaching comprises many aspects such as psychology, sociolinguistics, linguistics
and second language acquisition which a real teacher should know. Moreover, Bremmer ()
suggests that changing from a teacher-centered approach to a learner- centered one is a difficult
process that may take a lot of time due to it is not only about changing practices but also beliefs
about education. In the same view, Humphries & Burns () claim that when there is a strong
clash between teachers own beliefs and those underlying a curriculum innovation, teachers are
Another challenge for rural schools, is that due to policies in public education, schools require a
certain number of students to hire one teacher. The consequence is that since rural schools do not
have a considerable amount of students, sometimes there are not enough teachers for all the
subjects. So much so that I have to teach arts, computing, ethics (besides english); leaving me no
time to properly focus on my area. Another example is that before my arrival to my two previous
jobs, english was taught by teachers of Spanish. The point is that, the amount of 1.3 billion pesos
investment in bilingualism was not considered to cover the demand of english teachers in public
rural schools. That situation leads me to question the term quality in education.
Turning positive again, rural schools do not often suffer from one of the main problems
Colombian schools face: large-sized classes (Sanchez & Obando, ). However, thanks to policies,
when the number of students decreases to less than 27 per group, two different grades must be
joined in one class. Now, there is not only a problem of overcrowded classrooms but also mixed-
level classes.
Finally I would like to address another drawbacks related to the policy that requires a certain
amount of students to hire one teacher. The first one is that exposure to language is not enough.
In my case (and many colleagues), out my 22 hours of teaching a , only twelve are devoted to
teach english in six grades. The remaining 10 hours must be used to cover the missing teachers
subjects. In this view, Lightbown & Spada (1999) suggest that one or two hours a week are not
The second drawback is that there are not guidelines for the implementation of bilingualism in
elementary levels (Sanchez & Obando). But even worse, rural schools use the model new
school which requires teachers to teach from kindergarten to fifth grade in one classroom at the
same time.
As a conclusion, the implementation of the NBL has been so far very obscure and with poor
results, especially for rural schools. The governments optimistic view of Bilingualism in
Colombia must be questioned regarding the conditions of specific contexts. The inclusion of the
opinion of rural communities in the designing and implementation of educational policies is not
organization, use of foreign languages in the academic and cultural domains of the country,
working hours and competences of language teachers must be contrasted with the reality
I strongly believe that teachers who work under special conditions must be included when
problematizing educational issues in the country. In the same position Sanchez & Obando ()
claim policies are created in a top-down approach and only few people know what should be
As a hopeful view and , I want to highlight how professional development programs have
emphasized the need of a critical view of education (Ortega, 2014) leading teachers to a series of
educational concepts and pedagogically informed proposals that take into account the relation
between politics and education and particularly emancipatory practices urgently needed in