ABSTRACT
In the previous chapter we saw how the indigenous communities of Latin America are only slowly being recognised as having rights that might be advanced through the state education systems. Whilst a few countries are beginning to pursue educational goals of bilingualism and biculturalism, most are still mainly concerned with providing efficient routes to integration and assimilation into the national core culture. In Spain, however, the radical changes brought about with the arrival of a democratic government following the Franco regime, and the introduction of the estado de las autonomías have meant that there is now general acceptance of the right to have educational provision in the minority languages-as long as the local government is prepared to facilitate and promote these. It also means, as we have mentioned earlier, that local governments can use the education system to promote new awareness of and respect for their community’s identity in general, including linguistic features which while not actually amounting to separate languages, mark particular varieties of Spanish. The level and the quality of this educational provision does vary fairly widely.
