When Andean Family Education is Interrupted by Initial Education: the PRONEIs (Programas no Escolarizados de Educación Inicial) in the Sierra de Ancash (Peru)

Abstract

In Peru, initial education programs named PRONOEIs (Non-School Programs of Initial Education) for children aged 3 to 5 have been rolled out to the communities over the last decades. They are still widespread in the Andean communities of Ancash, but are little known in the literature on education in Peru.
The present article relates a classroom experience in a PRONOEI of an Andean Quechua language community in Ancash and emphasizes the importance of demonstration classes in Quechua. It argues that improved levels of training provided to the promoters would include informing them about the linguistic, psychological and cognitive advantages of using the first language for the development of children. Thus, the promoters would be more inclined to use Quechua in the classroom and to share the importance of this language with parents.