School district offers its first Navajo language immersion program

Monday, January 31, 2011  

A public school district in New Mexico is offering its first Navajo language immersion program.

The Central Consolidated School District started the effort at the start of the current school year. It's currently limited to one kindergarten class but it's expected to expand to all grades at the Eva B. Stokely Elementary School in Shiprock.

"There was a lot of need in the community from parents who wanted their children to learn Navajo, teacher Marlena Shepard told The Farmington Daily Times. "Studies said that it was disappearing, and there was a really need to revitalize it."

Only 50 percent of Navajos under the age of 17 can speak the Navajo language, the paper said, citing data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

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District offers first Navajo immersion program (The Farmington Daily Times 1/31)