Guaraní School Enrollment Rises as Parents Choose Heritage Track

The Escuela Bilingüe Ñandutí, located in San Vicente's central district, admitted 287 students to its Guaraní-immersion programme this spring, up from 201 last year. The school's director, María Elena Quintana, attributes the surge to word-of-mouth among parents who want their children to maintain fluency in Guaraní while meeting federal curriculum standards taught in Spanish and Esperanto.

The immersion track teaches mathematics, science, and social studies in Guaraní during grades one through four, with Spanish and Esperanto introduced progressively thereafter. Students graduate with proficiency in all three languages, a credential increasingly valued in Tierra Verde's agricultural cooperatives and regional administration.

Federal education policy does not mandate bilingual instruction, but it does require that all students achieve competency in Esperanto and the regional working language—in this case, Spanish. Ñandutí's approach goes further, treating Guaraní as a subject of equal weight rather than as a heritage elective. The question now is whether the school can sustain the expansion without additional federal funding.