To Change This House: Popular Education Under the Sandinistas

Ross Willmot is Executive Director of the Ontario Association for
Continuing Education.

Popular education has been one of the main tools used in meeting the
needs of literacy students in Central and South America. In this
well-produced, well-researched, and well-written book, Barndt explains
that the process in Nicaragua was developed by the Sandinista political
party before and during the country’s successful literacy crusade of
1980. Popular education is still being used to transform all facets of
Nicaraguan life, even though the Sandinistas were defeated in the
country’s 1990 election.

Popular education is distinguished from traditional education, in that
the traditional ways do not help people participate actively in the
democratic process. Popular education, Barndt says, supports people in
organizing to change their situation for the better. Having rebelled
against and kicked out the corrupt Somoza, whose educational system
confirmed him in dictatorial power, the Sandinistas gave power to the
people to strengthen popular organizations and to contribute to the
construction of a new state. The National Consultation on Education of
1981, a massive participatory research project, was revolutionary in
that it involved most of the population in developing the new type of
education. Education is seen as a basic right for Nicaraguan citizens
and as a potential solution to their country’s major economic and
social problems. Responsibility for education is being shifted from the
traditional triangle of teacher-student- parent to a more dynamic model
in which community and worker organizations are contributing
substantially to the content and process of learning. In 1983 some one
million Nicaraguans (one-third of the population) were studying—twice
the number that could access education under Somoza’s system in 1978.
The number of teachers had also increased, from 12,975 to 41,422.

Barndt brings this review to life by including many of her revealing
photographs of, and interviews with, Nicaraguans of different ranks.
This book contains important information for all who are interested in
education.