Objectives

Developing a standard format of school language policy for the Primary and Secondary Education (Funderend Onderwijs) and the Special Primary and Secondary Education (Voortgezet Speciaal Basisonderwijs) to be used in the Antillean situation. In the Antillean context most of the schools do not use the mother tongue as the language of instruction. With the implementation of the Primary and Secondary Education and the innovations in the Special Primary and Secondary Education, this will change. To this end a standard format is developed that can be interpreted and applied at every school’s discretion.

Supporting training days during which it is taught how this School Language Policy should be interpreted and applied and making sure that the policy is implemented. On the basis of the direct school environment and the composition of the student population, choices are made for the instruction language and other languages which are taught. During the training days the consequences of these choices are discussed.

Description

In cooperation with Antillean experts, the co-workers of APS International provided a basic structure for a school language policy format. This format will be further developed and presented to the Agency for Educational Innovation Process Management (Bureau Procesmanagement Onderwijsvernieuwing) in Curacao.

In August/September 2005 training will be provided by the instructors of APS International to school directors and teaching assistants. After these training sessions the format will be interpreted and applied at the schools. In October 2005 the experiences with the format will be discussed with the instructors, allowing for the final versions of the school language policy plans to be prepared.