Back in 2002 the government of the Netherlands Antilles decided to implement “Enseñansa di Fundeshi” (Foundational Teachings)for the elementary schools on the island of Curaçao. They simply changed the entire educational system. I grew up in Curaçao and believe me when I say that the system was just fine the way it was.

In short Curacao’s educational system was mainly in Dutch and Papiamentu (the language spoken by the native islanders). Papiamentu was given as a side subject. Besides Papiamentu, the pupils will learn English and Spanish but not until they get in the 4^th grade.

Since 2002 they changed the whole system, instead of Dutch acting as the primary language, they made the educational system entirely in Papiamentu. Consequently, Dutch became the side subject. In my opinion that was the dumbest thing they could’ve done! A majority, if not all of the teachers objected against the new implemented system but no one listened. Till this day I just can’t believe why they didn’t stop the nonsense after the many complaints from the very people who experienced the much anticipated failure at firsthand. Instead they tried to fix it by making it worse! It’s a shame though because we all as a society will be affected by this idiotic judgment! Keep in mind that today’s children are tomorrow’s future.

I am very proud to have been born on such a lovely island. I mean there isn’t a place in this world that most of its inhabitants can speak at least 4 languages! There just isn’t. Now don’t get me wrong, I love Papiamentu. Papiamentu has all the existing vowels one can pronounce which makes it easy for one to speak other languages with their normal accent without sounding like an outsider or foreigner. But let’s be realistic with Papiamentu, as a professional, you can’t further progress no place else but the ABC islands. (Aruba, Bonaire & Curaçao)

In reality with Dutch you can’t progress that far either but due to the fact that we are part of the Dutch Kingdom and to further study one must go to the Netherlands to specialize in certain a field that the island doesn’t possess in its Universities. Sure we can go the States instead since the schools are in English but, the problem is that you will paying tens of thousands of dollars per year for a University Degree while in the Netherlands it will only cost around 2,000 Euros’ per year. That’s actually why Dutch is quite important to be the primary language in the elementary schools. Even with Dutch being the primary language during my school years, I haven’t been able to quite dominate it like I do with English and Spanish. I do understand it quite well when I’m spoken to but when I have to hold an conversation is a whole other story. I truly believe that it’s absolutely not the schools fault but WE as a society.

Why?

It’s simple, we learn Dutch in school but when we go home, we don’t watch Dutch spoken channels on TV or listened to Dutch radio shows at all! We don’t even practice it with our siblings, parents, relatives, friends or neighbors. What do we do? We watch Spanish spoken “Telenovelas”, “Hollywood Action Movies”, “Cartoon Network”, “Nickelodeon”, “Disney Channel”, “MTV”, “BET” and many other crap that only delays our general development.

Last year the local cable company T.D.S. added 4 Dutch channels to its list. As a probable future mother I really applaud their needed support in making a difference. Now it’s up to us to point our children in the correct direction. May I add that reading books is also an excellent notion for one’s general development and the expansion of one’s lexicon.

Similar Articles: