National Education Plan 2030

The aim of the National Education Policy Aruba 2030 is to provide a vision and direction for a quality education that is future-proof. In this plan, a strategic vision is outlined for education in Aruba for the next 11 years, one that aligns with international developments benefiting the developments and commitment in Aruba towards the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This policy document forms the basis of the “Plan Educacion Nacional 2030” (PEN), commissioned by the Minister of Education, Science and Sustainable Development.

• [Summary National Education Policy Aruba 2030]

Strategic National Education Plan 2007-2017

In late 2005, the then Minister of Education, mrs. drs. Marisol Lopez-Tromp, supported the need indicated by the Department of Education Aruba (DEA) for a national plan for education. The minister subsequently initiated a participatory strategic planning process to create a national education plan – the first of its kind in the history of Aruba’s education:

• [National Education Plan “The Learner 2007-2017”]

The UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) is the official and trusted source of internationally-comparable data on education, science, culture and communication. As the official statistical agency of UNESCO, the UIS produces a wide range of indicators in UNESCO’s fields of action by working with national statistical offices, line ministries and other statistical organizations. The UIS also publishes information regarding education and literacy in Aruba:

• Education and Literacy in Aruba

• Dutch and [Papiamento] are the official languages​​ of Aruba, but most Arubans speak at least four languages​​, including English and Spanish.
• The Aruban education system is modelled on the Dutch system.
• Dutch is the language of instruction in most schools.
• The Prisma project: launched in the early 1990s with the aim of familiarising non-Dutch speaking lateral students with the Dutch language as soon as possible to enable them to follow the regular school program. Prisma started as a pilot program at a public primary school and was later extended to all public primary schools in Aruba. Now the Prisma project is running in all primary schools, supporting all children who need help with the Dutch language, including Aruban children. A group of teachers attended special training for the program.
• The 1999-2008 Strategic Plan for restructuring pre-primary, primary and special education includes a proposal to restructure language use in schools to reflect the current sociolinguistic situation in Aruba, where nearly 70% of the population have Papiamento as their mother tongue (Censo 2000), while still recognising the fact that Dutch is the language of instruction in secondary education and that this is likely to remain the case for some time to come. This has led to a proposal to introduce Papiamento as both a language of instruction and a school subject in primary education, retaining Dutch as the second language of instruction.
• The government approved introduction of Papiamento as a language of instruction up to and including 4th grade. The project started and has been implemented in three pilot schools for pre-primary and primary education.
• The EPI (secondary vocational) and the UA (higher education) have programs that are given in english.