Testimonios Despus de la Pandilla en Guatemala (A Film Documentary); Advocacy of the Right to Education for Minorities in Colombia

by Robert Brooks Davenport, BA

Reports
Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of

Master of Arts

The University of Texas at Austin May, 2008

Testimonios Despus de la Pandilla en Guatemala (A Film Documentary); Advocacy of the Right to Education for Minorities in Colombia

Approved by Supervising Committee:

Abstract

Testimonios Despus de la Pandilla en Guatemala (A Film Documentary); Advocacy of the Right to Education for Minorities in Colombia

Robert Brooks Davenport, MA The University of Texas at Austin, 2008

Supervisors: Charles Hale, Bryan Roberts

Testimonios Despus de la Pandilla en Guatemala. While the phenomenon of youth gangs and violence in Central America is well known, less known is the story of the challenges faced by individuals who determine to leave gang life behind. Even though significant numbers of youth may eventually decide to change and commit themselves to non-violence and rehabilitation, there exists practically no State or societal support for such a process. It does not matter to society whether an individual has left gang life behind their identity is permanent in the eyes of a deeply suspicious public that would take gangs as a scapegoat for deeper criminal problems affecting the society. The police and extra-judicial actors conduct social cleansing. The mass media capitalizes on symbolizing gangs as the scourge of society, actively ignoring stories about rehabilitation. Narcotrafficking and organized crime groups operate with impunity, aided, perhaps, by the social and political attention focused on youth violence.

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Development programs sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Guatemala fail to provide any real alternatives, and reinforce social hierarchies by playing to the interests of a national elite business class. The film takes place in Guatemala, and is structured around several former gang members who are each struggle to find new lives. Surrounding these individuals, community members and journalists tell the story of an extremely complicated social dynamic, and speak truth to the forces described above. The social forces in question are ingrained in a discriminatory public consciousness, reinforced by the mass media. But they are also perpetuated by U.S.imposed development culture. Thus the film also contains a critique of neoliberal development policy. As a U.S. citizen, I focus on critiquing two situations supported by my own tax dollars, via the U.S. Agency for International Development. One is a USAID program for a youth rehabilitation and education center, a program which miserably fails to provide any concrete opportunity. The other is a USAID sponsored television reality show about turning former gang members into young business entrepreneurs, which receives unanimous praise in the northern media. If there is a point to the film, it is to give a voice to these individuals that have struggled to find new lives and to bear witness to their reality. Advocacy of the Right to Education for Minorities in Colombia. This report attempts to outline some of the human rights advocacy challenges related to the right to education in Colombia. The report was written in the context of a summer research internship at the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights in Washington, D.C.

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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION THE AFRO-DESCENDANT POPULATION AND THE QUESTION OF DATA THE STATISTICAL PICTURE OF EDUCATION FOR AFRO-COLOMBIANS LAW 70 AND AFRO-COLOMBIAN COLLECTIVE TERRITORIAL RIGHTS AFFIRMATIVE ACTION FOR AFRO-COLOMBIANS THE STATISTICAL PICTURE OF EDUCATION FOR INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES ISSUES INVOLVING THE ADMINISTRATION OF EDUCATION IN COLOMBIA DISPLACEMENT AND THE RIGHT TO EDUCATION Bibliography Vita 1 3 8 10 12 14 15 19 22 24

INTRODUCTION
Special Rapporteur Katarina Tomasevski visited Colombia in 2003 to assess the right to education in that country. Her report makes special note of the lack of educational data that is disaggregated for minority populations, and emphasizes that exclusion and discrimination in education is linked to exclusion and discrimination in other areas. Tomasevski also points out that while data exists on children who are actually enrolled in school, data does not exist on those who are not enrolled. According to her report, there are between 1.5 and 3.3 million children who are excluded from education in Colombia. 2.9 million people are displaced in Colombia, 1 million of this group being school-age children.1 A lack of information in Colombia makes it extremely difficult to advocate for and monitor education. She calls for an immediate study into the nature and scope of discrimination in education to actively produce data in this regard:

When discrimination is not officially recorded, it can be ignored. Without such data, anyone who tries to prove discrimination is doomed to failure. Discrimination cannot be combated unless it has been documented. The Special Rapporteur recommends an immediate study into the nature and scope of discrimination in education, with the participation of its victims, so as to adopt policies and practices to eliminate discrimination and to ensure public scrutiny of the implementation of these policies and practices.2

Here, Tomasevski has indicated one of the fundamental challenges in addressing structural discrimination from a human rights perspective. She states that

discrimination is impossible to prove based on statistical data in Colombia. Ms. Tomasevski calls for studies that outline the nature and scope of discrimination. If there is no data to construe the actual discrimination, there is no means in which to hold
1 The right to education. Report submitted by Special Rapporteur, Katarina Tomasevski. Mission to Colombia. 1-10 October, 2003. United Nations Economic and Social Council. E/CN.4/2004/45/Add.2/Corr.1 30 March 2004. 2 Ibid.

authorities accountable. The lack of data itself is part of the context of the Colombian States discrimination and exclusion of certain sectors of its population. While understanding that the RFK Center does not seek to conduct surveys on the right to education, it is critical to be familiar with the issues surrounding data in Colombia. The right to education is implicated in different types of discrimination against disadvantaged populations in this country. It is also important to understand the context of multicultural legal identities that have existed in the country since the Constitution of 1991. This paper will attempt to outline several of these issues. Firstly, it will attempt to describe the complicated issue of the lack of data on the Afro-Colombian population, and the context of Law 70 of 1993 which establishes the collective right to territory. Secondly, it will outline some recent studies that have managed to some extent to disaggregate data for Afro-Colombian and indigenous groups. Thirdly, I will briefly describe the national system of administration of education, noting that Colombia is the only country in Latin America where education is not free, in both law and in fact3, and how teachers and schools find themselves caught in an inefficient and unmonitored dynamic between local municipalities and the central government. Fourthly, I will

briefly describe the tremendous issue of displacement, and how the states (lack of) action in this area is related to its failures to support the rights of minority populations. The largest minority population in Colombia is the African descendant population, and this paper will focus largely on the right to education in relation to the Afro-Colombian community. However, issues facing Afro-Colombians also apply to indigenous and rom (gypsy) groups.

Tomasevski website: www.right-to-education

THE AFRO-DESCENDANT POPULATION AND THE QUESTION OF DATA

Patterns of settlement and migration of Afro-Colombians has changed over time. Historically, during the period of slavery, community manumission, and colonialism, Afro-Colombians occupied the entire pacific coast, including the Choc and Urab region of Antioquia, adjacent to Panama. They have also lived in the Cauca river valley, and along the Magdalena river and lower Cauca river. They have lived along the Atlantic/Caribbean coast, and along the Atlantic/Caribbean coastal areas savannah and marshes. Afrocolombians also lived in urban areas as well as in the Atlantic/Caribbean in Cartagena, Santa Marta and Mompx. This pattern of settlement changed towards the end of the 19th century, as Afro-Colombians began migrate to regional urban zones such as Quibd, Buenaventura and Tumaco. In the 2nd half of the 20th century, migration to larger urban centers started to occur to Cali, Medelln and Barranquilla. There was also migration to the oriente or eastern Amazonian departments to Arauca, Meta and Putamayo. Most recently, migration to the center of the country has occurred to Bogot and its suburbs (Estupin 2006). Cartagena and other cities in the Atlantic/Caribbean have always had Afro-Colombian urban populations.4 Surveys and censuses since 1993 have had yielded widely varying statistics on the Afro-Colombian population. The debate over data on the Afro-Colombian population has been part of an evolving politics of identity in a multicultural state, especially since the 1991 constitution created specific rights for minority populations namely afrodescendants, indigenous and rom (gypsy) groups.5 That censuses and surveys have failed to statistically construct the actual Afro-Colombian population has been argued to be part of a dynamic of invisibility, where the historical patterns of racism and racial hierarchy

Estupin, Juan Pablo. 2006. Afrocolombianos y el Censo 2005. Elementos para el anlisis del proceso censal con la poblacin afrocolombiana. La revista del Centro Andino de Altos Estudios CANDANE. 5 Ibid.

in the country have contributed to an underreporting of Afro-Colombian identity.6 Depending on the census or survey, the size of the Afro-Colombian population has varied, based on the words used to conduct the census or survey and whether they signified a racial-ethnic or cultural definition. 7 Since the early 1990s, censuses and surveys have worked to reconcile two conceptions of Afro-Colombian identity. The first is strict racial-ethnic identity based on Blackness as an appearance or phenotype. This identity can be self-ascribed, i.e. I am black or mulatto, or it can be the decision of the interviewer the interviewee appears to be black or mulatto.8 A second kind of identity is the recent Afro-Colombian identity based in part on a relationship to a culture and traditional practices. This cultural identity is associated with Law 70 of 1993 which set forth Afro-Colombian culturalethnic rights including the right to collective territory.9 Social surveys in Colombia have used one, the other, or a combination of these two identifications, depending on how census and survey questions have been worded. The first type is based on appearance (phenotype) and is considered to be a more racial the second is based on cultural practices and traditions and is more cultural-ethnic. In the 1993 census, for example, asked respondents to identify themselves culturally. Respondents were asked Pertenece a alguna etnia, grupo indgena, o comunidad negra? a question to which only 1.5% of the national population indicating that they were part of a black community. This was due to the specific connotation of the question tied to law 70 of 1993, of which many Afro-Colombians, at that time, were less aware.10 Certain academics criticized the 1993 census for failing to accounting adequately for the experience of Afro-Colombians in the Atlantic.11 In the Atlantic area

6 7

Ibid. ibid. 8 ibid. 9 Urrea-Giraldo 10 ibid. 11 Cf. Cunin, Elisabeth. 2004.

of the country, for example, it is often the case that people self identify using the term moreno rather than negro. On the other hand, as noted above, Afro-Colombian advocates12 have contended that there is an invisibility of the Afro-Colombian population, due to the character of racism in the country where people do not necessarily self-identify as being black. And this is in part due to the legacy of slavery and colonial domination, the historical character of racism and a hierarchical social structure in Colombia in the Atlantic where multiple permutations of identity have historically existed along a racial scale. Thus, part of the challenge has been to adequately address the racial component in demographic data. The following quote is from Documento CONPES 3310, Politica de Accin Afirmativa para la Poblacin Negra o AfroColombiana, de 2004:
Tal como se seal en el Conpes 3169 de 2002 Poltica para la poblacin Afro-Colombiana uno de los principales problemas para focalizar, cuantificar y diagnosticar la poblacin AfroColombiana es la carencia de estudios y de informacin precisa que permitan estimar y conocer las condiciones de vida y en general sus caractersticas sociodemogrficas, socioeconmicas y culturales, su peso demogrfico, o su dinmica migratoria, debido a que no se dispone de una lnea de base poblacional y de indicadores desagregados por grupos de poblacin. Adicionalmente los intentos de cuantificacin de la poblacin Afro-Colombiana se han visto afectados por la forma como ha sido incluida la variable tnica en los diferentes registros de poblacin y de censo que no reflejan adecuadamente las particularidades tnicas y por lo tanto inciden en que las personas sean clasificadas o ellas mismas se autoclasifiquen, de acuerdo con su apreciacin generando direncias considerables en los resultados. Por ejemplo el Censo de 1993 pregunta: la persona pertenece a alguna etnia, grupo indgena o comunidad negra. Por su parte, la Encuesta Continua de Hogares de 2000 introduce un mecanismo de autoclasificacin donde las personas deben responder a cual de las siguientes fotografas se asemeja su color de piel? Por ltimo, en la Encuesta de Calidad de Vida de 2003 se pregunta De cul de los siguientes grupos tnicos se considera usted?, si las personas responden alguna de las siguientes opciones: raizal del archipilago, palenquero o negro, mulato (afrodescendiente) entonces es considerado AfroColombiano.13

The surveys mentioned in the quote above have used a combination of racial and cultural-ethnic identification, and have indicated that between 10% and 20 or 22% of the total population of the country is Afro-Colombian.

Cf. Arocha, Jaime. 2005. Documento CONPES 3310. Consejo Nacional de Poltica Econmica y Social. Departamento Nacional de Planeacin. 2004. pp. 18-19.
13

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Today, as a whole, the Afro-Colombian population is predominantly urban. Between 62% and 70% of all Afro-Colombians live in urban areas14. The degree of urbanization varies with region, and is as high as 90% in the department of Valle del Cauca, where the cities of Cali and Buenaventura are situated.15 There are large AfroColombian populations in the large metropolitan areas (Bogot, Cali, Medellin, and Cartagena) but also in the smaller regional cities, such as Quibd and Buenaventura. There has been a large degree of rural urbanization where migration (or forced displacement) has occurred within departments, rather than between departments and the larger metropolitan areas.16 It is argued that one factor behind urban migration of families to cities is the lack of educational opportunities in rural areas with a high concentration of AfroColombians.17Another factor is the increasing impact of the armed conflict in the Pacific. There are significantly fewer young adult men, either because men stay behind in rural areas to work, have been victims of massacres in the context of the expanding armed conflict, or have faced voluntary or forced conscription into armed groups.18 Heads of urban Afro-Colombian households in regions with a large Afro-Colombian concentration (the Pacific, the Urab region of Antioquia, Bolivar, the city of Cali) are more likely to be women. Afrocolombian feminization of urban households is especially notable when the head of household is very young (under 20) or over 60. The former is argued to be a result of early marriage; the later to the important role of older women in urban migratory networks. 19

Urrea-Giraldo, Fernando. 2006. La poblacin afrodescendiente en Colombia. In Pueblos indgenas y afrodescendientes de Amrica Latina y el Caribe: informacin sociodemogrfica para polticas y programas. Comisin Econmica para Amrica Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL). Santiago del Chile: Naciones Unidas 2006 15 ibid. 16 CODHES. 2004. Choc: agua y fuego. Consultora para los Derechos Humanos y el Desplazamiento / CODHES. Bogot D.C., Colombia: 2004 17 Urrea-Giraldo 18 ibid. 19 ibid.

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Municipalities that have high concentrations of Afro-Colombians (and indigenous concentration) are often (52%) rural.20 However, this should not be taken to mean that the Afro-Colombian population as a whole is rural, only those areas where AfroColombians are concentrated are often rural. As described above, Afro-Colombians live in rural and urban areas, along the Pacific and the Atlantic coasts, and in the larger cities. The urban rural distinction is important because the right to education plays out differently in these two contexts. In rural areas, often a municipality will be majority Afro-Colombian. In this case, discrimination in education may be tied to collective discrimination against the locality in terms of services and protections provided (or not provided) by the state, and in terms of the effects of forced displacement to or from that district. The experience of education is likely a shared experience for the community in a rural area. In urban areas, on the other hand, discrimination in education may involve how individuals negotiate and interact with urban society. Here, Afro-Colombian may experience poor levels of availability, access, acceptability and adaptability, but the discrimination may occur based on the fact that the student has been displaced from another region of the country, or because of high school costs, or due to racial discrimination against individuals. Thus, in certain municipalities and departments where the Afro-Colombian (or indigenous) population is the majority, focusing on the overall data for that locality may be a viable means to prove or demonstrate exclusion in education. In urban areas, however, tracing the individuals experience is more important, where exclusion in education may be tied to that individuals history and to specific obstacles she or he faces.

Documento CONPES 3310. Consejo Nacional de Poltica Econmica y Social. Departamento Nacional de Planeacin. 2004

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THE STATISTICAL PICTURE OF EDUCATION FOR AFROCOLOMBIANS

National enrollment rates for primary education, by themselves, do not reveal disparities for ethnic groups. According to UNESCO data for the year 2004, 84% of girls and 83% of boys are enrolled in primary school. At the secondary level, 58% of girls and 52% of boys are enrolled in secondary school. At the tertiary or higher education level, 27% of the population of tertiary age is enrolled. 21 A study from the United Nations Development Programme draws on the National Household Survey22, which was carried out in 2000 in 13 large cities. This survey used the phenotype identity based on appearance with the four photographs. Even though the response rate for self-classification as black was not as high as expected, the data revealed that it is still possible to show that persons of African descent in Colombia have lower attendance rates at the secondary and tertiary levels of education, and higher illiteracy rates. Where illiteracy rates for olive-skinned and white persons is 5.5%, for persons of dark skin color the figure is 10%23 The survey also revealed that attendance rates for Afro-Colombians decrease relative to non-Afro-Colombians in secondary and higher education. The disparity is highest at the tertiary or higher education level. This data also revealed that the average age of black students is 9.4 years versus 8 years for the rest of the population. In terms of health insurance, 59% of the black population is insured versus 75% of whites. In a separate study published by CONPES, data is taken from the Encuesta de Calidad de Vida (ECV) in 2003 which occurred in 68 municipalities with AfroColombian populations, in the departments of Antioquia, Caldas, Cauca, Choc, Nario, Risaralda y Valle de Cauca. This data also reveals that disparities and exclusion of
UNESCO: http://www.uls.unesco.org/profiles/EN/EDU/1700.html DANE, Encuesta Nacional de Hogares, December, 2000 23 United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report Office, 2003. Colombia: Human Develoment Progress towards the Millennium Development Goals.
22 21

persons of African descent increases with educational level. At the primary level, there is an 86% enrollment rate for persons of African descent, versus 87% for the rest of the population.24 At the secondary level, 62% of African descent persons are enrolled versus 75% of the rest of the population.
25

At the tertiary level the disparity is especially clear

for Afro-Colombians, as only 14% of Afro-Colombian persons are enrolled versus 26% of the rest of the population. In the department of Valle de Cauca, the disparity is much higher, with only 12% of Afro-Colombian persons enrolled in tertiary education, versus 34% of the rest of the population.26 Also based on the ECV survey, schools are of significantly lower quality in municipalities where Afro-Colombians live. In Afro-Colombian municipalities, 65% of the schools are in inferior or extremely inferior conditions, where for the rest of the population only 24% of the schools fit this category. Municipalities with the highest concentrations of Afro-Colombians also experience the greatest poverty indicators. 19% more of the Afro municipalities experience Unsatisfied Basic Needs (Necesidades Bsicas Insatisfechas), or a lack of minimum adequate drinking water, shelter, etc. Afro municipalities have a 13% higher illiteracy rate than non-Afro municipalities.27 Looking at 4 departments, Choc, Cauca, Nario and Crdoba all with high concentrations of Afro-Colombians reveal disparities in education and in other sectors. Choc, Cauca and Nario have low health insurance rates.28 Choc and Crdoba have very low coverage of adequate drinking water or sewer systems. Choc, Nario and Cauca had the highest rates of extreme poverty.29 The Choc department, which is

24 25

CONPES 3310 http://www.dnp.gov.co ibid. 26 ibid. 27 ibid.

United Nations Development Programme. 2003. Colombia: Human Development Progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. Human Development Report Office. Occasional Paper. Background paper for HDR 2003.
29

28

ibid.

historically the most Afro-Colombian department in the country, has the highest poverty indicators in the country.30 Thus, while surveys and censuses have struggled with difficulties in accounting for the Afro-Colombian population, surveys since 2000 have indicated disparities in education for Afro-Colombians. In municipalities and departments that have high AfroColombian populations, socio-economic data clearly reveals that the Colombian States lack of policy that is specifically geared toward equality for the Afro-Colombian population. While the State has ratified and articulated numerous anti-discrimination measures (including the Convention Against Racial Discrimination (CERD), article 13 of the national constitution, Constitutional Court sentence T-422/9631), the lack of an affirmative action policy is commensurate with the rudimentary state of socio-economic data on the Afro-Colombian population. In the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, the areas with the largest concentrations of Afro-Colombians, there is a notable poorer quality of state services in education and other areas. Likewise, surveys that have concentrated on municipalities with high percentage of Afro-Colombians have also revealed disparities across several sectors education, health and development. While these departments and municipalities not represent the experience of all Afro-Colombians, or of urban populations in Medellin, Bogot or Cartagena, the socio-economic data from these departments and municipalities reveal clear disparities in education, especially in terms of school quality and enrollment rates at the secondary and tertiary levels.

LAW 70 AND AFRO-COLOMBIAN COLLECTIVE TERRITORIAL RIGHTS

Afro-Colombians have specific rights as a cultural group in the national legal framework, based on Law 70 of 1993 and associated legal regulations. While Law 70
30 31

ibid. CONPES 3310 http://www.dnp.gov.co

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does contain an article referring to non-discrimination in the national education system, most of Law 70 focuses on the creation of collective rural territories and the jurisdiction of community councils over those rural territories, based on cultural identity and traditional practices of Afro-Colombian communities in the Pacific region. Law 70 emerged in the context of the 1991 Constitutional Assembly, in the establishment of rights for indigenous resguardos. Law 70 is mainly a law addressing the right to collective territory. The law creates the conditions for collective use and enjoyment of lands. Along with regulations (decretos) 1745 and 1320, it establishes conditions for the environmental protection of these lands, and the right of the community to be consulted (consulta previa) before any action involving the exploitation of natural resources in the territories. The law also stipulates that the state should support Afro-Colombian collective territories development, and integrate development plans, including vocational education rights, drafted by Afro-Colombian communities, into regional and national development plans. In actuality, the amount of land that has been collectively titled under law 70 is immense. The law has been part of a growing awareness about Afro-Colombian identity, and has mobilized communities to organize themselves. Finally, law 70 has been invoked in the spirit of protecting human rights, especially those rights afforded to ethnic communities under ILO 169, which is incorporated into the Colombian constitution.32 The right of consulta previa or prior consultation before natural resource exploitation or infrastructure development by outside interests is invoked. Also the right for development plans, short term and long term, drafted by these communities, to be included in regional and national development plans. Law 70 is a law about the stewardship and the protection of nature and biodiversity, and as such Afro-Colombian identity politics has also taken on an environmental character, especially as lands in the Pacific region have been attractive to
32

Law 21 of 1991 ratifies ILO convention 169

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large scale, capital intensive agribusiness and the increased economic value placed on biological resources. Even though the law is mainly concerned with the protection of collective territory, and on specific rights afforded to collective territorial governance, law 70 includes an article regarding non-discrimination in the national educational sector (article 33). At the same time, the law includes a provision for ethnic education. The law has not been implemented or supported by the State, especially in relationship to what it stipulates about development and ethnic education. This has affected the right to education for rural Afro-Colombian communities. Nonetheless, the law has also been part of the shifting politics and awareness of Afro-Colombian identity in Colombian society, and has influenced public debate over public policy and the lack of adequate data that could be used to design policies to ensure the equal rights of Afro-Colombians. Law 70 has been implicated in tutelas issued by the Constitutional Court against discrimination, in the case of Afro-descendants being prevented from entering public establishments in Cartagena. In cases where AfroColombian communities have suffered collective violations, such as in the case of armed groups violently usurping legally titled territory, the law is especially relevant. However, law 70 is less focused on the rights of Afro-Colombians in relation to universal State provided services such as education and health. Law 70 calls for nondiscrimination (via article 33), but it does not make specific reference to affirmative action in the sense of positive measures designed to ensure equal access to and enjoyment of services provided by the State.

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION FOR AFRO-COLOMBIANS

The National Commission on Social and Economic Policy ( Consejo Nacional de Poltica Econmica y Social (CONPES)), of the Department of Sustainable Territorial

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Development, in the Ministry of Justice and the Interior, has advocated for affirmative action in Colombia, and for the integration of development plans tailored to the AfroColombian community, into national development plans. CONPES has pointed out that affirmative action does not mean preserving the cultural singularity of a human cultural group, but rather is a policy that seeks to eliminate the barriers that oppose material inequality and to confront the causes that generate that inequality.33 CONPES has created short term and long terms plans that specifically address the rights of Afro-Colombians, and has called for these plans to be incorporated into national development plans. Affirmative action has a legal basis in Article 13 of the national Constitution: The State will provide the conditions for the effective and real equality and will adopt means in favor of marginalized or discriminated groups. In addition, the Constitutional Court stated in T-422/96 that the positive differentiation will correspond to the recognition of the situation of social marginalization of which the black population has been subject and the negative repercussions in access to opportunities in economic, social and cultural development. The Colombian state is also a signatory to the Convention for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). The Colombian state has incorporated this law via Law 22 of 1981. These affirmative action laws have not been implemented. That the number of Afro-Colombians attending public universities is minimal compared to the size of this community, is one indicator of the lack of an affirmative action policy in Colombia. Afro-Colombians are discriminated against in education, and this discrimination takes different forms. The State does not provide services to ensure that this disadvantaged group overcomes these difficulties.

33

CONPES 3310 http://www.dnp.gov.co

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THE STATISTICAL PICTURE OF EDUCATION FOR INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES

The indigenous population in Colombia is a rural population, and is much smaller in comparison with the Afro-Colombian. Colombia, in this sense, is quite dissimilar demographically from countries like Guatemala, whose indigenous population is actually a majority. The indigenous population in Colombia, based on the 2005 census, is 3.4% of the total. Similar discrimination patterns in education emerge for indigenous persons. Inequality increases with the educational level, and for rural areas that are majority indigenous. The 1991 Constitution stipulated that indigenous communities had the right to an education in accordance with their cosmo-vision and that would affirm their cultural identity. This stipulation for ethnic education is similar to what occurred for the AfroColombian via law 70. According to the 1993 census, the enrollment rate (escolaridad) of indigenous communities (between 5 and 24 years) is 31.2% versus 56.9% for the rest of the population. The attendance rate for indigenous children between 5 and 14 years old is similar for boys and girls. After 15 years old, the attendance rate declines for girls relative to boys (7.4% for boys and 5.4% for girls). 33.4% of the indigenous population over 5 years old is illiterate (24.6% in urban areas and 33.7% in rural areas). Illiteracy in the rest of the country is 12.7% (8.5% in urban areas and 23.4% in rural areas). This is to say that the illiteracy rate is almost triple in the case of indigenous communities and is higher for girls. 34

34 Yolanda Bodnar C. Universidad Externado de Colombia. 2006. Pueblos indgenas de Colombia: apuntes sobre la diversidad cultural y la informacin sociodemogrfica disponible. En Pueblos indgenas y afrodescendientes de Amrica Latina y el Caribe. Santiago del Chile: ECLAC (CEPAL)

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In rural areas, the situation worsens. The illiteracy rate is 42.4% in the department of Meta and 62.8% in the department of Antioquia.35 Finally, also according to the 1993 census, 35.8% of the indigenous population does not have any level of education.36 According to ECLAC, there is no disaggregated data for indigenous groups concerning completion rates, retention or repetition.37 The ECLAC document pointed out that specific attention should be paid to the quality of schools.

ISSUES INVOLVING THE ADMINISTRATION OF EDUCATION IN COLOMBIA

Colombia is the only country in continental Latin America where education, by law, is not free.38 Law 715, which regulates State education and health, and Legislative Act 012, which regulates fiscal transfers for education and health to departments, together introduced the concept of costo educativo which assumes that there is a basic minimum charge for education.39 The Colombian Constitution affirms that compulsory public education (9 years long, from age 5 to 15) should be free without prejudice to the possibility of charging school fees to those able to pay.40 The Colombian State spends 4.9% of GDP on education, and 11.7 % of the States total public expenditure goes to education. 40% of the public expenditure goes to primary, 29% goes to secondary, and 13% to tertiary. The ration of pupils to teachers is 28.3 to one for primary, 26.2 to 1 for secondary. 41 Special Rapporteur Katarina Tomaseski recommended in 2003 that the budgetary allocation for education be increased from 4 to 6%, given the fact that education is

35 36

ibid. Ibid. 37 Ibid. 38 http://www.right-to-education.org 39 CODHES: Desplazamiento Forzado y Polticas Pblicas, p. 64 40 Tomasevski report. Mission to Colombia. 1-10 October, 2003. Also World Bank 41 UNESCO: http://www/uls.unesco.org/profiles/EN/EDU/1700.htm

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neither free nor all-encompassing.42 School costs disproportionately affect minority populations like the Afro-Colombian, indigenous and rom (gypsy), because households from these populations tend to be of lower socio-economic status. The States administration of education is largely decentralized. The central government provides fiscal transfers each year to departments and municipalities. These allocations (el situado fiscal) are first transferred to the departments, which then transfer the amounts to the municipalities. The situado fiscal has formed 70-80% of the total local budgets for education.43 A report published by the Economic Commission on Latin America (ECLAC) reports that there is extraordinary inequality in territorial assignment of resources in regards to teaching.44 The document implies that an incremental increase in educational transfers, from the central government to the departments and municipalities, tends to diminish in real terms due to the inflexibility of the transfer system as well as through increase in local debt. This transfer is designated for teaching expenses, but often localities have siphoned off what is designated for teaching for use for other expenses.45 Also, the transfers have not created an incentive for local investment in education, because territorial financing has declined. Rather, the ECLAC document argues that there is an excessive tendency of the territorial entity to use debt to finance fiscal gaps between the amount of the transfers and the amount actually required. There is a great deal of waste and inefficiency in the system. According to the ECLAC document, there is 50% waste for the primary school years. The waste needs to be corrected, in order to improve the level of teaching, to strengthen support for teaching, to provide for libraries and textbooks. Poor municipalities, in addition, spend a great deal

Tomasevski report. Mission to Colombia. 1-10 October, 2003 Comisin Econmica para Amrica Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL). 1998. La Descentralizacin de la Educacin y la Salud: Un Anlisis Comparativo de la Experiencia Latinoamericana. Decentralizacin de los servicios de educacin y salud en Colombia. 44 Ibid. 45 ibid.
43

42

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on efforts to contract teachers, such that they end up having less to spend on textbooks, audiovisual materials, libraries and pedagogical materials. In the process of decentralization, the central Ministry of Education was downsized and its staff was reduced by 35%. Today, the Ministry of Education does not provide direct services. It can provide pedagogical design and planning services, evaluation and impact studies. However, in the current system, no one entity is responsible for administering public education. The ECLAC study notes that the majority of mayors from municipalities in the study considered that their main problem in administration was the lack of knowledge and direction of how to administer a local system such that they can convert objectives into real action. In particular, they noted the lack of facility with information, and the difficulty in recuperating left-over technical systems. Teachers, imply the document from ECLAC, seek to be paid for their services and are frustrated in a decentralized system. Meanwhile, the private sector and the church hope to maintain their freedom in providing their own forms of education and to reduce the interventions of the state. In some cases, municipalities have sometimes used the central government transfers to help finance school grants or vouchers for private schools.46 These dynamics, I suggest, should be taken into account when looking at the right to education in Colombia. School quality and support for teaching, at the municipal level in areas where minority populations live is affected by a decentralized administrative system. While it would seem that this system would empower departments and municipalities to maintain good education and other services, in effect decentralization has in some sense weakened local services by encouraging fiscal sloth, inefficiencies, a lack of incentives for local investment in public services, and increased public debt at the local level.
46

ibid.

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The weakening of central government authority, the ECLAC document implies, is part of a political strategy in Colombia where the central government seeks to remove itself from direct (and difficult) involvement in local affairs. In this scheme, the central educational administration, while it still is involved in maintaining the system of transfers, can do very little to ensure availability, access, adaptability and acceptability at the local level. At the same time, the transfer system, it would seem, leaves the Ministry of Education out of administrative tasks, such as administering teacher salaries, or in keeping adequate data. The ECLAC document also implies that decentralization helps to weaken the national teachers union efforts. Decentralization assures maximum political neutrality in the relationship between the central educational authority and local stakeholders. 47 Tomasevskis report notes that during her 2003 mission to the country, the National Trade Union School for teachers provided a list of 691 teachers who had been killed during the previous decade. 48 Amnesty International has argued that the tendency to ascribe these killings to the armed conflict disguises their true cause, namely the retaliation for protests against economic policies, particularly privatization.
49

The

database of the National Trade Union School reveals that, in 76% of the cases in 2002, the human rights of trade unionists were violated because of their trade union work. The Colombian office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has diagnosed anti-union violence and criminal attacks on teaching staff, principally in universities 50(E/CN.4/2002/17, paras. 290-292). If teachers are threatened and forced to move, without the status of a threatened teacher they face disciplinary proceedings for abandoning their posts.51

47 48

Ibid. Tomasevski report. 49 ibid. 50 ibid. 51 ibid.

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DISPLACEMENT AND THE RIGHT TO EDUCATION

The right to education in Colombia needs to be seen against the background of violence and forced displacement in that country. By any account, the number of displaced persons in Colombia is huge. It is by far the largest displaced population in the Western hemisphere and one of the largest in the world.52 As with education, precise data does not exist on internally displaced persons in Colombia, with estimates ranging from 1.6 to 4 million persons.53 The Red de Solidaridad Social (RSS), has registered 1.692.000 persons as displaced, while for the Consultora para los Derechos Humanos y el Desplazamiento (CODHES) the total number of displaced is much higher, at 3.679.328 persons.54 The data is even more chaotic in terms of characterizing this group, whatever its size for the 70.7% that report their age as a displaced person, 36% are between 5 and 17 years old.55 According to RSS, 90% of the displaced population is of rural or semirural origin. Of those who declare their race / ethnic group, 9.2% are Afro-Colombians and 3.4% are from indigenous communities, according to RSS data. According to a report by the Procuradura General about the right to education, there are between 800,000 and 1,600.000 displaced children of school age.
56

These

figures are based on figures for the total number of displaced persons (ranging between 1.6 and 4 million). National education policy has steered clear of issue displaced children and young adults. The Procuradura report estimates that 70% of displaced children fail to access education.
57

The Constitutional Court issued a sentence T-025, in 2004, against

the Colombian Government, that it has not adequately addressed the issue of displaced

http://www.unhcr.org/statistics.html Anlisis de la Poltica Educativa de Atencin a la Poblacin en Situacin de Desplazamiento en Desplazamiento Forzado y Polticas Pblicas. Anlisis Sectorial. Consultora para los Derechos Humanos y el Desplazamiento (CODHES). Bogot, D.C. 2006 54 ibid. 55 El Derecho a la Educacin. La educacin en la perspectiva de los Derechos Humanos. Procuradora General de la Nacin, p. 186-88. Bogot. 2006 56 ibid. 57 ibid.
53

52

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persons, and that it should consolidate and disaggregate data on the displaced. To date, it appears that, at least in the education sector, this has not been accomplished. The Ministry of Educations website indicates that the Ministry is taking into account vulnerable populations, but to date it does not publish any data on displaced students.58 School costs prevented 54% of school age displaced children from attending school, according to a 2002 study by the International Organization for Migration.59 Other issues include the need for documentation (school children who are displaced must obtain a nationally authorized document in order to attend school in a new district.60 Displaced families and children face extreme hardship, and the additional costs of school which are based on a native populations ability to pay prevent displaced children from realizing an education. Other factors include the need for uniforms, books and school materials. Furthermore, decentralized administration in education creates additional difficulties for displaced students. As noted in the previous section, municipalities rely on fixed transfers from the central government. The municipalities wish to avoid being stigmatized as a destination for displaced persons, or do not want to create conflict in their local district in terms of the educational needs of their native population.
61

Therefore, municipalities, with rare exceptions, do not plan for spaces for displaced students. This problem is more acute in rural municipalities. 62 There is an invisibility of the displaced student age population, similar to the invisibility of the Afro-Colombian population. As the State has discriminated and

http://www.mineducacion.gov.co/1621/article-114108.html Diagnstico sobre la poblacin desplazada en seis departamentos de Colombia. Organizacin Internacional para las Migraciones OIM. Bogot. 2002. 60 Based on conversation with Ingrid (NOMADESC collegue) June, 2007. Also based on conversations with youth involved in an AFRODES related youth culture center in Soacha, March, 2007. (Notes for this later conversation are on file with Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice, University of Texas School of Law) 61 CODHES: Desplazamiento Forzado y Polticas Pblicas, p. 64 62 ibid. P. 65
59

58

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excluded ethnic minority communities in its national education policy, so too has it discriminated against and excluded displaced students.

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Bibliography
The right to education, Report submitted by Special Rapporteur, Katarina Tomasevski. Mission to Colombia. 1-10 October, 2003. United Nations Economic and Social Council. Documento CONPES 3310. Consejo Nacional de Poltica Econmica y Social. Departamento Nacional de Planeacin Direccin de Desarrollo Territorial Sostenible. Ministerio del Interior y de Justicia. Repblica de Colombia. Politica de Accion Affirmativa para la Poblacion Negra o Afrocolombiana. Bogot, D.C. Septiembre 20 de 2004. http://www.dnp.gov.co/ Arocha, Jaime and Friedemann, Nina S. 2005. in No longer visible: Afro-Latin Americans Today. Minority Rights Group (ed.) London: Minority Rights Publications Consultora para los Derechos Humanos y el Desplazamiento (CODHES). 2004. Choc: agua y fuego. Bogot D.C., Colombia: 2004 Consultora para los Derechos Humanos y el Desplazamiento (CODHES). 2006. Desplazamiento Forzado y Polticas Pblicas. Anlisis de la Poltica Educativa de Atencin a la Poblacin en Situacin de Desplazamiento Escobar, Arturo. 2001. Culture sits in places: reflections on globalism and subaltern strategies of localization. Political Geography 20 (2001) 139-74 Estupin, Juan Pablo. 2006. Afrocolombianos y el Censo 2005. Elementos para el anlisis del proceso censal con la poblacin Afro-Colombiana. La revista del Centro Andino de Altos Estudios CANDANE. Jelin, E., 1996. "Citizenship Revisted: Solidarity, Responsibility, and Rights," pp. 101-119 in Jelin, E and E. Hershberg (eds.), Constructing Democracy. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Urrea-Giraldo, Fernando. 2006. La poblacin afrodescendiente en Colombia. In Pueblos indgenas y afrodescendientes de Amrica Latina y el Caribe: informacin sociodemogrfica para polticas y programas. Comisin Econmica para Amrica Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL). Santiago del Chile: Naciones Unidas 2006 Yolanda Bodnar C. 2006. Pueblos indgenas de Colombia: apuntes sobre la diversidae cultural y la informacin sociodemogrfica disponible. In Pueblos indgenas y afrodescendientes de Amrica Latina y el Caribe: informacin sociodemogrfica para polticas y programas. Comisin Econmica para Amrica Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL). Santiago del Chile: Naciones Unidas 2006 Cunin, Elisabeth. 2004. De la esclavitud al multiculturalismo: el antroplogo entre identidad rechazada e identidad instrumentalizada. In Conflicto e (in)visibilidad: Retos en los estudios de la gente negra en Colombia. Cali, Colombia: Editorial Universidad.

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Arocha, Jaime. 1998. Inclusion of Afro-Colombians: Unreachable National Goal? Latin American Perspectives. 25(3): 70-89. Comisin Econmica para Amrica Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL). 1998. La Descentralizacin de la Educacin y la Salud: Un Anlisis Comparativo de la Experiencia Latinoamericana. Decentralizacin de los servicios de educacin y salud en Colombia. Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadstica (DANE) http://www.dane.gov.co/index.php?option=com_content&task=category&sectionid=35& id=391&Itemid=887 United Nations Development Programme. 2003. Colombia: Human Development Progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. Human Development Report Office. Occasional Paper. Background paper for HDR 2003.

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Vita

Robert B. Davenport was born on October 7, 1970 in Winchester, Virginia. He is the son of Thomas Reckard Davenport and Miriam McDaniel Davenport. Attended, as an undergraduate, Tulane University, Reed College and the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) from 1989 to 1993. Awarded a BA in Anthropology from the University of Mississippi in 1993. Attended, on a part time basis, the London School of Economics in the summer of 2002 and Georgetown University in the fall of 2005. His professional experience is as a multimedia and film/television documentary producer, cameraperson, and editor, both in the broadcast television industry in New York City and in institutional settings in Washington, D.C.

Permanent address: Robert B. Davenport, 11324 Pearlstone Lane, Delaplane, Virginia 20144 This report was typed by Robert B. Davenport.

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