Analysis of the Education of the Waorani Population and Its Global Threats in Nuevo Amanecer, Shell (Ecuador)

Abstract

The Waorani population of 4,000 individuals covers a large area of the Ecuadorian Amazon. The wide dispersion of their communities, the orography, and the variety of globalized environmental and legal issues that they face make historical cohesion and social relationships difficult. Education is a key area of dispute and disaffection in the Waorani lands furthest from Quito, in which stark asymmetries are evident. In this study, a recently constituted community was analyzed, together with a diversity of associated elements. Data from this study suggested that students schooled in cities do not necessarily have better educational outcomes than those from schools in remote areas. Also evident was the lack of educational resources and their arbitrary deployment by the Ecuadorian government. The marginalization of ancestral characteristics and ways of life contradict the undertakings set out in the Ecuadorian constitution and in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.