“In the school books, there were never black children,” says Gabrielle Márquez, an 18-year-old student who admits that she felt underrepresented in school materials. Today she studies medicine, but she admits that many times she “felt that she couldn’t make it” to finish school.
Your sentiment is not unique. In Latin America there are 34 million Afro-descendants of school age. However, statistics indicate that seven million of them will drop out of the educational system before finishing primary school, double the regional average compared to their non-Afro-descendant peers.
“School textbooks are one of the many pedagogical tools that teachers and students have,” says Germán Freire, a senior human development specialist at the World Bank and author of a new report. The books “allow us to understand the type of visions, prejudices or omissions that affect the school experience of Afro-descendant children and adolescents”, he explains.
The World Bank study Afro-descendant inclusion in education continues an exhaustive research work on Afro-descendant populations in Latin America carried out in recent years, and reveals new data on the quality of education and educational returns for this population. In addition, it delves into one of the possible reasons for exclusion – racism in education – by identifying exclusion from education as one of the main factors that makes the regional educational crisis deeper for the Afro-descendant population.
All of this is verified in interviews with Afro-descendant children and adolescents who share their reactions and tell their experiences first-hand.
Neither teachers nor school books
An important factor behind the exclusion of Afro-descendants is racism, whether explicit or implicit, since children and young people receive negative messages and stimuli about themselves and their life prospects.
“Most of the teachers are white,” says Maybell Serrano, a 14-year-old student, reflecting on an image in a school book. An unsupported faculty and a small number of Afro-descendant teachers—who could be more sensitive and serve as role models—limit academic achievement in these populations.
On the other hand, the representations in school books often do not promote recognition of the identity of Afro-descendant communities and, on the contrary, contribute to foster folkloric representations and stereotypes.
The World Bank study includes the review of 5,121 images from 40 primary and secondary books from ten Latin American countries. In them, there was only representation of people of African descent in 15% of the images, mostly in activities associated with music, sports, rural, manual or industrial work.
“School textbooks in the region rarely represent the contributions and desires of the Afro-descendant population,” says Freire. “More frequently, they tend to strengthen visions that may not be negative in themselves, but that reproduce a limited and stereotyped vision of their contributions to society, and that impact the aspirations and perception of opportunities of Afro-descendant boys and girls.”
Roniel Mesa, an 18-year-old student, says that “everything starts at school.” And he explains it clearly: “Books need to change so as not to repeat the same stereotype.” He concludes that with that small change from one generation to the next, a permanent change will be achieved.
Changing the way race relations and racism are treated in textbooks is a first step in the broader process of crafting an anti-racist educational agenda. “That I can give my niece a book and open it and see a black woman, a lawyer,” proposes Márquez.
In the region, children and young people receive negative messages and stimuli about themselves and their life prospects.
Education without racism in Latin America
Although Latin America is experiencing a widespread learning crisis, Afro-descendant students are among the most affected. In Brazil, for example, almost half of Afro-descendant children cannot read or understand age-appropriate text, compared to 39% of non-Afro-descendant children.
In Colombia, the situation is just as worrying. Nearly seven in 10 Black children were unable to comprehend age-appropriate text in 2019, compared to around four in 10 of their non-Afro-descendant peers.
A crucial step to advance inclusion in education is to recognize and address the factors that cause and perpetuate exclusion. The report proposes a number of strategies:
Create racially inclusive books and teaching materials that deconstruct discriminatory imaginaries about Afro-descendants and adequately represent their history and culture. Recognize and address structural racism, creating and expanding mechanisms to denounce and redress discrimination. Engage the community and the school in conversations on the subject and create more inclusive school curricula.Support teacher training and development programs on diversity and inclusion to create safe environments that welcome and value students by applying a policy of zero tolerance towards discrimination.Improve the collection and analysis of data on race to create and strengthen policies aimed at reducing educational inequality.
Eliminating the exclusion of Afro-descendant children and adolescents in Latin America is vital for the development of the region. A quality education without racism is the most powerful tool to achieve this. In the words of 10-year-old Yomairy Vásquez, the change is necessary so that “the new generation can see that there is a new opportunity for people of African descent.”
Cecilia Martinez Gomez She is a communicator at the World Bank.
