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10.2. THE qUALITy Of INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ EDUCATION
Education can be a means to address two of the most fundamental concerns and rights of indigenous
peoples: respect for their cultural and linguistic diversity.
Indigenous peoples constitute the vast majority of the world’s cultural and linguistic diversity. This
cultural and linguistic diversity is a resource, made up of unique and complex bodies of knowledge,
know-how and practices that are maintained and further developed through extended histories of
interactions with the natural environment and other peoples and transmitted to future generations.
The links between language, culture and the environment suggest that biological, cultural and
linguistic diversity are distinct but closely and necessarily related manifestations of the diversity of
life. Indigenous cultures are therefore crucial to the efforts of achieving sustainable development.
UNESCO estimates that over 50 of some 6700 languages spoken today are in danger
of disappearing: 96 of the world’s languages are spoken by
• 4 of the world’s population
One language disappears on average every •
two weeks 80 of the African languages have no
• orthography
http:www.unesco.orgcultureichindex. php?pg=00136
In addition, in order to overcome discrimination and marginalisation, indigenous peoples need to gain the
knowledge necessary to fully and equally participate in the national society, including by knowing their
rights and mastering the national language.
In response to this situation, Convention No. 169 provides a number of articles speciically concerning
the content and quality of indigenous peoples’ education:
ILO Convention No. 169 Article 28
1.
Children belonging to the peoples concerned shall, wherever practicable,
be taught to read and write in their own indigenous language or in the language
most commonly used by the group to which they belong. When this is not practicable,
the competent authorities shall undertake consultations with these peoples with a view
to the adoption of measures to achieve this objective.
2.
Adequate measures shall be taken to ensure that these peoples have the
opportunity to attain luency in the national language or in one of the oficial languages of
the country. 3.
Measures shall be taken to preserve and promote the development and practice of
the indigenous languages of the peoples concerned.
Article 29 The imparting of general knowledge and
skills that will help children belonging to the peoples concerned to participate fully and on
an equal footing in their own community and in the national community shall be an aim of
education for these peoples.
These provisions relect indigenous peoples demand for intercultural and bilingual education, which is
based on the respect for cultural and linguistic diversity and promotes education as an instrument
for the advancement of democracy, tolerance and human rights. Some of the key principles of such
intercultural and bilingual education, in line with Convention No. 169 are:
Incorporation of indigenous peoples’ knowledge, history, values and aspirations in
the curriculum. The development of diversiied, culturally appropriate
and locally relevant curricula that build relevant qualiications and take into consideration the needs
of both boys and girls are key to ensuring the respect for indigenous cultures and the preservation,
transmission and development of indigenous knowledge. In some countries where indigenous
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peoples constitute a minority of the population, indigenous education will be a minor component
within the general educational sector, while in other countries it will be a main feature of the entire
sector. In some countries, indigenous peoples are themselves developing locally relevant curricula in
order to respond to the problem of alienation while in others, the curricula have been integrated into
the national education policies and strategies. In order to build the necessary technical capacity,
the development of policies and strategies for training, recruitment and deployment of indigenous
teachers – including access of indigenous students to secondary and higher education – is a necessary
starting point. In some countries, the provision of scholarships or other special measures may be
necessary in order to promote indigenous students’, and particularly girls’, access to education. In
addition, school designs are often deined according to mainstream norms and preferences that ignore
indigenous values and practices. Programmes that support the development of educational
infrastructure should diversify school design in different cultural contexts.
Access to general knowledge and skills. Intercultural education implies a mutual learning
process as it relates to schools and curricula to account for the challenges of cultural diversity,
using education as an instrument for advancing the participation of all groups in the shaping of
the national society. In this regard, it is crucial that indigenous peoples have access to education that
encompasses the skills and knowledge that are necessary in order to fully participate and contribute
to the broader society. This is even more important in the context of urbanization and economic
globalization, where more and more indigenous people compete for jobs in the labour market.
Bilingual education and literacy in indigenous languages.
Although bilingualism and multilingualism are the way to prevent languages from becoming
endangered, paradoxically, it is not encouraged among most of the major language groups,
whose speakers regard monolingualism as the norm and the preferred state for human language
UNESCO: Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger of Disappearing, 2001. Many countries
have constitutional and legislative provisions regarding linguistic rights but these are often not
implemented in the context of formal education. The challenge is thus, in line with Convention No.
169, the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the UNESCO Universal Declaration
on Cultural Diversity, to offer bilingual education to indigenous children, allowing them to fully develop
their skills in both their indigenous and the national languages. While there is a need to generally provide
for bilingual education in the broader sector, some numerically small and educationally disadvantaged
groups are speciically vulnerable to losing their languages and being marginalised in the education
sector. These groups should be identiied and targeted through special measures. Further, in order
to offer bilingual education and contribute to the preservation of indigenous languages, education
programmes should, where necessary, elaborate alphabets, grammars, vocabularies and didactic
material in indigenous languages.
6
6 See also: Tool Kit: Best Practices for Including Indigenous Peoples in Sector Programme Support, DANIDA, 2004.
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The Education for All Framework: The vast majority of the World’s countries
have adopted the Education for All EFA framework, which speciies six education
goals for meeting the learning needs of all children, youth and adults by 2015. The six
goals, which also form part of the Millennium Development Goals MDGs, are:
Goal 1: Expand early childhood care and education.
Goal 2: Provide free and compulsory primary education for all.
Goal 3: Promote learning and life skills for young people and adults.
Goal 4: Increase adult literacy by 50 percent. Goal 5: Achieve gender parity by 2005,
gender equality by 2015. Goal 6: Improve the quality of action.
The EFA framework acknowledges the need for a special focus on the most vulnerable and
disadvantaged children, including indigenous children; the need to use the learners’ own
language and introducing other languages that they need; and the need for relevant and
useful curriculum, based on the learners’ local environment and focused on broader
knowledge and competencies which they can apply in their lives. It is further acknowledged
that quality for everyone will mean special approaches, including for indigenous peoples,
as “[m]any of these will not be able to receive a quality education without special measures
and attention to address their needs”.
It is thus of the utmost importance that governments, indigenous peoples, donors
and civil society organisations work together to ensure that special approaches are devised
to reached the Goals for indigenous peoples, within the context of national EFA strategies.
See: http:www.unesco.orgeducationefa
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child also recognizes that the indigenous
child’s right to education is not only a matter of access but also of content. The Committee
recommends that state parties, with the active participation of indigenous peoples, review
and revise school curricula and textbooks to develop respect among all children for
indigenous cultural identity, history, language and values.
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Moreover, the Committee is of the view that indigenous children have the right to
be taught to read and write in their own indigenous languages, or in the language
most commonly used by the group to which they belong, as well as in the national
languages of the country in which they belong. This recommendation echoes article
281 of Convention No. 169, and makes it applicable to all states parties to CRC. The
Committee also recommends that state parties take effective measures to increase
the number of teachers from indigenous communities, and allocate suficient inancial,
material and human resources to implement indigenous educational programs and policies
effectively.
8
7 UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, Recommendations on the Rights of Indigenous Children,
3 October 2003 Day of General Discussion on the Rights of Indigenous Children.
8 John Henriksen: Key Principles in Implementing ILO Convention No. 169, ILO, 2008.
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10.3. DImINISHING DISCRImINATION AND PREjUDICES THROUGH EDUCATION.
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