Kriol in Caribbean Nicaragua schools

In this paper I review the role of Kriol in the education system of the Nicaraguan Caribbean Coast. I briefly describe the place of Kriol in the classroom in the pre-2007 period and discuss the process of introducing Kriol as a medium of instruction for children of Creole, Garifuna, Rama and Miskitu origin in the new Intercultural Multilingual Education curriculum which is based on the Regional Autonomous Education System (SEAR). The paper discusses the normalization process of Kriol, teacher training, the elaboration of textbooks, language attitudes among the Kriol-speaking community and the preliminary results of the pilot phase which was initiated in the 2007 school year and included 5 schools in the Kriol-speaking areas. Keywords: Nicaraguan Kriol; Intercultural Bi- and Multilingual Education; Regional Autonomous Education System SEAR; Kriol in the classroom