On October 26th, 516 public school teachers from indigenous communities in Ecuador began a continuing education program at UPS that will keep them abreast of current knowledge from an intercultural bilingual context. 330 class hours will taught by UPS-Quito professors through a part time study mode. These are some of the subjects students will have: Indigenous cosmovision, the history of nationalities, Mathematics, and Intercultural psychology. 

At 7am, hundreds of teachers from indigenous communities gathered at the UPS-Quito-Giron Campus for the opening ceremony. Authorities from the University and the Ministry of Education also attended the event; Viviana Montalvo, UPS-Quito Vice president, Sebastian Granda, the Intercultural Bilingual Education director, and Lola Vasquez, the community involvement director. Rosa Cecilia Baltazar, the National Intercultural Bilingual Education director and Luis Males, the undersecretary on Intercultural Bilingual Education attended on behalf of the Ministry of Education. 

The UPS-Quito Vice president talked about the University's arrangements for this program and thanked the Ministry of Education for considering UPS a leader in higher education in Ecuador.

Granda said this type of program has been one of the university's research lines since its foundation in 1994, and that it is aimed at preparing teachers from indigenous communities. 

Baltazar, from the Ministry of Education, thanked the attendees in Quichua and said that this program will change people's perspectives on Intercultural Bilingual Education.

Read this story published by Diario El Comercio on Monday, October 27th here:  http://www.elcomercio.com/tendencias/docentes-fiscales-capacitacion-intercultural-educacion.html