OPINION
Some reports reveal the truth. Others do the same but just don’t go far enough, failing to offer any real added value. The recent report from the Education Council regarding education in the Caribbean Netherlands falls into that second category.
It points out issues, adds nuance, and analyzes the situation. But when things get serious – when the system itself should be questioned – it retreats. Essentially, it just proposes more of the same. And that is exactly the problem. Because on Bonaire, it’s no longer about nuance. It’s about justice.
Can ignorance be fair?
The core question the Council avoids is as simple as it is uncomfortable: How can an education system be fair if it structurally ignores the native language, culture, and daily reality of most children? Papiamentu is not a side issue or a cultural decoration to be included ‘wherever possible.’ It is the language in which children think, dream, learn, experience culture, and develop. It is also a rich source of local knowledge and wisdom. It is a complete language that serves every purpose, including that of language of instruction at all levels of education.
In short: it’s the language of life itself. When you push that language to the margins of the classroom, you push the child to the margins too. Denying the role of the mother tongue in learning – both inside and outside of school – weakens children in critical areas of development: cognitive, emotional, social, and cultural. On top of that, it creates unnecessary stress, frustration, and fear (of failure). A school like that is not an emotionally safe place for a child.
A teaching necessity
The Education Council knows this. International research leaves no doubt: teaching children in their mother tongue is not an ideological position – it is a teaching necessity for the full and high-quality development of the child. And yet the Council continues to rely on careful wording and small, gradual improvements.
Why? Who is that caution meant to protect? Because let’s be honest: the current language policy has all the hallmarks of a system that was historically designed not for the island, but about it.
Dutch remains the dominant language of instruction, even though it is a completely foreign language to most students, their parents/caretakers, and the broader community – far removed from the way people live and think in this society. That choice is not neutral: it’s political. It’s a choice that consistently leads to disadvantages, lower academic performance, and a sense of alienation for generations of Bonairean children.
Yet, the Council doesn’t dare to say what needs to be said: this system needs a fundamental overhaul. Not an adjustment. Not an optimization. An overhaul.
Colonial power dynamics
Instead, they choose the safe middle ground: improvement within the existing framework. But what if the framework itself is the problem? What if holding on to Dutch as the standard is not only ineffective, but also a continuation of old, colonial-principled power dynamics in a new outfit? On that question, there is only a deafening silence.
By doing this, the Education Council passes the buck. Who is supposed to make the final call? Politicians in The Hague? Local authorities on Bonaire? School boards operating within a system they didn’t design? By failing to choose a clear direction, the Council leaves the very people who depend most on clear policy out in the cold: the children.
A High Price
Meanwhile, time is ticking. Every generation that goes through this system without the fundamental language question being resolved pays the price. Not only in terms of lost talent and creativity, but in the ongoing, structural disadvantage imposed on children – cognitively and emotionally – through teaching methods that essentially silence them, disrupt meaningful learning, and treat Bonairiaan children as fundamentally lacking.
The price is also paid in terms of lost identity. Education is never neutral. It doesn’t just build knowledge – it shapes self-image: it can support development, or it can put up structural roadblocks. What does it tell a child when their mother tongue is not recognized as a language of knowledge, progress, and success?
Full and mandatory
It is time to stop avoiding that question. What Bonaire needs is not a cautious report, but a bold position – one grounded in justice and solid scientific principles. A clear choice for Papiamentu, the mother tongue of most children, as a full, mandatory subject throughout the entire school system and as a full language of instruction in primary education on Bonaire.
With Dutch, Spanish, and English as important but secondary languages that build on that foundation. This is not a radical demand. It is the international standard and the logical choice from the perspective of learning and developmental psychology, as well as positions based on Human Rights.
Who Dares?
The real question, then, is not whether it’s possible. The question is: who dares to say it out loud and create the conditions to make it happen? As long as the Education Council doesn’t do that, its analysis remains what it currently is: an attempt at a sharp diagnosis that overlooks important considerations – and therefore offers no real treatment. In the end, it’s the child on Bonaire who gets sacrificed. And in the world of education, that may be the most painful betrayal of all.
S.B. Marten, Bonaire, April 27, 2026
Sedney Marten is the chairman of the Papiamentu Position Working Group Bonaire and a former education inspector.
