Education begins in the cradle for young Peruvians

Abstract

An idea far more revolutionary than the drastic land reform decrees introduced in Peru by the military Government after the 1968 coup d'etat was one concerning children that education should start in the cradle and not in the classroom. So determined was the Revolutionary Government to introduce drastic educational reforms to parallel the sweeping agrarian reforms that it gave the measure equally high priority, despite the misgivings of some critics. In fact, the special Committee for Educational Reform, which began work shortly after the new regime was installed, had to endure many jokes at its own expense. Some teachers asked if they would have classes of new-born babies, other if they were expected to be nurses instead of educators. A few even mockingly inquired if they were expected to give toilet training in the new curriculum. The Peruvian Government soon showed it was no joke, but a policy to be applied in deadly earnest, as part of a deliberate strategy to wrest power from the landed oligarchy of that time and place it in the hands of the people, creating a more egalitarian society. The measures were aimed especially at bringing the Indian population of Peru more into the mainstream of public life and to ensure that they were no longer an under-privileged group, as had been the case ever since Pizarro and the Conquistadores crushed the Inca's power early in the 16th Century.