Costs and benefits of bilingual education in Guatemala: A partial analysis

Abstract

The benefits of compensatory bilingual education for a disadvantaged, poor indigenous population as an investment in human capital is significant. Students of bilingual schools in Guatemala have higher attendance and promotion rates and lower repetition and dropout rates. A very important finding is that bilingual students receive higher scores on all subject matters, including mastery of Spanish. The efficiency of bilingual education in Guatemala is confirmed by a crude cost-benefit exercise. A shift to bilingual schooling in Guatemala would result in considerable cost savings as a result of reduced repetition. The higher quality of education generating higher promotion rates will probably help students to completed the primary education cycle, and will substantially increase total educational levels at a lower cost. The costs savings due to bilingual education are equivalent to the cost of providing primary education to about 100,000 students per year.