Opportunities to learn... ?

                       Factors such as the vision that Colombians have towards English, the conditions offered to teachers and students for  improving the language learning process  make the NBP (National Bilingual Plan) an idealistic project  that does not match with Colombian reality.  We know that for 2019 Colombians must be proficient English users in every level established by the MEN, but which opportunity does it offers to the low socioeconomic strata institutions? May be, it has provided teachers with training courses regarding teaching issues, but this is not offered to all of them, may be, it has made a change expanding school time for some minutes, but it has increased the amount of students per classroom, bringing as a side effect students’ lack of motivation.

            This governmental authority is almost making compulsory learning English for everybody and it is trying to implement new methods (above mentioned) to provide institutions with tools that permit to develop this plan satisfactorily, but are those new strategies fulfilling the expectations? Is the MEN providing opportunities for students to really learn a foreign language? Or is it just trying to accomplish international requisites to sell Colombian potential worldwide? Many questions arise when talking about MEN determinations concerning NBP, but here what made think out of the box were two aspects: equality and culture.

            In terms of equality, and based on what I have lived in my hometown, I would say that Colombia is a country where little attention is focused to small towns or marginalized areas, it is like if the government does not think that in those areas people with a lot of potential can be found, and it can be seen when just those changes to improve learning processes are made in big cities and capitals. I know that it also has to do with local administration but anyway I think that if the government sees that all the country needs to speak and understand English for business-related purposes, it must apply those changes to all schools, in this case the “autonomia institucional” is not helping to accomplish NBP objectives, How is it expected to achieve equal goals with same opportunities if institutions can do what they think is correct? We have to reword the expression “practice makes perfect” to “unity makes perfect”.

            Moreover, culture is another aspect that cannot be ignored when talking about NBP achievement. Frankly speaking and not generalizing, people have what they think, people are reluctant or not to the change depending on their background, and Colombia through its history has been a bad treated population, a nation that has always been under the thumbs of others and has acted as the obedient servant. A nation that is accustomed to ask for international help because it is not capable of solving its own mess, bearing in mind this, how does the government expect that institutions do what is correct without establishing general policies? What kind of psychological help is the government providing to Colombians? What kind of motivation is the government implementing to show Colombians that they do not have to beg for something that is a right as the equal and good quality education is?  We are not doing nothing, government is doing nothing, we can try to do better every day in our teaching practice, Colombians can work harder every day, but until we realize that what we have is not a gift but a natural right, this perception about globalization, the importance of learning foreign languages and bilingual plans will not become a matter of everybody’s concern.