WILLEMSTAD – Teacher and entrepreneur Eugène Maduro is calling for a fundamental rethink of Curaçao’s education system, arguing that an autonomous country should determine for itself what knowledge, skills and values its children need rather than continuing to rely heavily on educational models inherited from the Netherlands.
Maduro, who has previously written about examination requirements, entrepreneurship, financial literacy and the inclusion of Caribbean history and thinkers in the curriculum, is now bringing those issues together into a broader discussion about education and autonomy.
His central question is whether Curaçao’s current education system has been sufficiently designed around the island’s own needs.
According to Maduro, education should be one of the first areas in which Curaçao demonstrates its ability to determine its own future. He argues that since becoming an autonomous country within the Kingdom on October 10, 2010, Curaçao has had greater room to develop policies based on its own social, cultural and economic circumstances.
“If we are not conscious that, as an autonomous country, we can and must create, design and decide our own future, nothing will change,” Maduro said. “Your education system is your catalyst. That is where you must first demonstrate your autonomy.”
His criticism is not directed primarily at the Netherlands itself, but at what he considers the automatic use of Dutch standards and approaches as the benchmark for Curaçao.
Maduro argues that Curaçao has its own history, culture and multilingual society and should therefore determine more deliberately what students need to succeed both locally and internationally.
Among the areas he believes should receive greater attention are critical thinking, entrepreneurship, financial literacy, digital skills, artificial intelligence, communication and problem-solving.
Maduro also describes parts of the current education system as a colonial legacy. In his view, colonial structures can continue not only through history but through assumptions about which forms of knowledge are considered valuable, which languages are associated with intellectual authority and whose perspectives are treated as authoritative.
He stressed, however, that this does not mean Dutch should disappear from Curaçao’s schools.
Instead, Maduro considers multilingualism one of Curaçao’s strengths. He advocates a strong position for Papiamentu alongside high-quality instruction in Dutch, English and Spanish.
He also said his argument should not be interpreted as an attack on individual politicians, policymakers or the Netherlands. Maduro said he is deliberately trying to focus more on solutions and alternatives rather than blame.
His broader argument is that political autonomy has limited meaning if a society continues looking elsewhere for its knowledge, standards and solutions.
For Maduro, Curaçao therefore needs intellectual independence alongside political autonomy, with education serving as one of the principal instruments for achieving it.