E/CN.4/1996/72/Add.1 page 14 43. Such practices can be explained by the generally negative image of Blacks within Brazilian society. Being black is synonymous with being poor or a criminal, which is in itself discriminatory. The disparity between the town centres where Whites live and the outskirts, between town centres and smart residential districts, and the favelas where most of the inhabitants are black, testifies to a certain type of spatial segregation. The subtle nature of methods of subordination and social control also permits the preservation of unequal social relationships which marginalized populations have apparently interiorized and accepted as having a kind of fatal inevitability. The fact that modern education has not been available to them has deprived them of the intellectual tools with which to assert themselves. C. Education 44. At the annual World Bank Conference on Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, held on 13 June 1995 at Rio de Janeiro, the Brazilian First Lady, Mrs. Ruth Cardoso, criticized the Brazilian education system which she described as "discriminatory". She drew attention to the fact that education reproduced a "racist form of society". 19/ The discrimination experienced by Afro-Brazilians in education is part of the vicious circle of poverty in which many of them are trapped and which takes the following form: material poverty - low level of education, failure at school, lack of training, unemployment or unskilled work, low wages - material poverty. 45. There are in fact private schools for rich people that provide a better education than State schools with their huge classes, although Afro-Brazilians are unable to attend them for lack of means. There are those who believe that the Brazilian education system fails to take into account the presence, history and culture of Afro-Brazilians and tends to pass on to them a sense of inferiority. This is attributable, in particular, to the fact that teaching materials fail to portray Afro-Brazilians favourably: they are only mentioned as former slaves, servants or manual workers. Afro-Brazilian culture is presented as folklore. As a result, Black children are unable to identify with the education provided and do not enjoy attending school. There is a tendency to train them for football, music and the arts, in which, one is unhesitatingly informed, they excel. So what would be the point of trying to prepare them for anything else? 46. Among children aged from 10 to 14, 87.9 per cent of White children are able to attend school, 80.8 per cent of children of mixed parentage and 77.6 per cent of Blacks. 20/ Even if they obtain a place at school, many Black children are compelled to abandon their education and do odd jobs in order help their parents meet the family’s needs. 47. There are also disparities in levels of illiteracy: although 18.2 per cent of the Brazilian over-15 population is considered illiterate, in 1992 the figure was 30 per cent among Blacks; in the North-east, it may be as high as 36.4 per cent. In 1988, 87 per cent of Brazilians who had completed higher education were White. Currently, 12 Whites out of 100 attend university whereas barely one Black out of 100 does so. 21/