Education Via Radio Among Guatemalan Highland Maya

Abstract

This study examines the preliminary results of almost four years experience with a literacy and mathematics program via a system of radio schools among a community of Maya Indians in the Western Highlands of Guatemala. Almost all the households of the community no longer have sufficient land to be self-sustaining in corn, the basic staple. This has forced the Atitecos to leave the isolation of their community and encounter Guatemalan national culture in search of economic survival. This experience has generated a felt need for literacy. A system of radio schools was established in which Maya teaches Maya. The educational and development philosophies make provision for this peasant group's view of the universe, their sense of inability with regard to the skills of the national culture, and Atiteco control over their own educational process. The acquiring of literacy by Atiteco peasants as well as the assumption of administrative duties and part of the financial responsibilities by the teacher group are the accomplishments of the system to date.