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BOE, CCBETA forge partnership for local language
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Posted on Apr 05 2005
The Public School System and Chamorro and Carolinian Bilingual Education Teacher’s Association have agreed to work together to continue strengthening the local languages in the CNMI.
Board of Education chair Roman Benavente and CCBETA president Arlene Chalymay signed a resolution last month to jointly apply for a grant from the U.S. Department of Health, Administration for Children and Families, Administration for Native Americans. The grant is intended to support the establishment of Chamorro and Carolinian Languages and Cultures Learning Centers in the CNMI.
The joint resolution was presented to the board during its special board meeting last week at the Pacific Islands Club.
Benavente said that language is essential to the culture and the advancement of the community’s social being and development. The board and the teacher’s association identified the need for Chamorro and Carolinian languages and cultural learning centers.
The resolution said both groups contributed to the planning of the proposal to revive and maintain the Chamorro and Carolinian languages and cultures among young and future generations.
Benavente said the proposed project, which seeks to establish language centers in schools, would take 36 months and that non-federal matching is required through exemptions granted to the Commonwealth. The amount being asked for was not immediately available.
Early reports said a large of number of indigenous students are not capable of speaking and writing in the native languages and that 66 percent of indigenous students do not speak the native languages.
PSS is mandated by law to establish a Chamorro and Carolinian Languages and Cultures Curriculum and maintain them in schools. CCBETA is a non-profit organization founded to support the program in the CNMI.
