Intercultural bilingual education in Nicaragua: Contextualisation for improving the quality of education

For the past 35 years, various models of intercultural bilingual education (IBE) have been implemented in Latin American schools and adult education. While Spanish is the official language in Nicaragua, many indigenous languages, such as Miskito and Sumo-Mayangna, are also spoken – especially in the Atlantic coastal region. The Nicaraguan Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport recognises the need for a flexible curriculum that reflects individual local and regional linguistic and socio-cultural characteristics, through the use of mother tongue and second language learning. The contextualisation model applied in the Atlantic coastal region of Nicaragua is therefore based on the use of a languages strategy in preparing textbooks and basic technical materials with an IBE approach, as part of the process of improving the quality of education. Thus intercultural communication is enhanced, and the need to strengthen the systematic teaching of languages, differentiating between mother tongue, second language and foreign language, is recognised. As well as explaining the contextualisation process in detail, this article discusses the conceptual differences between intercultural bilingual education (IBE) and bilingual intercultural education (BIE). The paper concludes with several recommendations for the further development of BIE in Latin America.