E/2005/43
E/C.19/2005/9
which do not reflect indigenous educational specificities and are culturally
inappropriate and insensitive.
Recommendations to Member States
48.
States should:
(a) Endorse intercultural education as national policy priority to ensure equal
access for indigenous children to quality and culturally appropriate primary
education, as stipulated in the Convention on the Right of the Child;
(b) Increase substantially State budgetary allocations in order to meet
Millennium Development Goal 2 for indigenous children;
(c) Increase funding for Goal 2 for indigenous children through bilateral and
multilateral cooperation;
(d) Review current national curricula and textbooks to erase culturally
discriminatory materials and enhance knowledge of indigenous cultures;
(e) Establish effective arrangements for the participation of indigenous
parents and community members in decisions regarding the planning, delivery and
evaluation of education services for their children, including in the designing and
implementation of their own education at all levels, including developing
appropriate teaching materials and methods;
(f) Ensure an increase in the number of indigenous persons in the
educational sectors, including in policy, administration, teaching indigenous culture,
history and contemporary society, indigenous languages and production of
educational materials;
(g) Ensure that indigenous children have access to free primary quality
education;
(h) Eliminate national policies and practices that create further difficulties
for indigenous children to enjoy their right to education, such as the request for birth
certificates for the enrolment of children and the refusal to accept indigenous names
and traditional dress in schools;
(i) Develop bilingual and culturally appropriate primary education for
indigenous children to reduce dropout rates. The mother tongue must be the first
learning language and the national language the second language; curricula should
reflect indigenous peoples’ holistic worldviews, knowledge systems, histories,
spiritual values and physical activities, physical education and sports;
(j) Recognize that isolation is a major obstacle that prevents indigenous
peoples from fully enjoying their right to education. States should establish best
practices, such as residential or boarding schools, where they have worked
positively, and mobile and seasonal schools or the use of technologies, such as
remote teaching and the Internet, to reach the most isolated and remote indigenous
communities;
(k) Support enrolment of indigenous persons in
programmes, colleges and relevant higher educational institutions;
teacher-training
(l) Develop school curricula for indigenous peoples in cooperation with
other Governments at the regional level in order to maximize the sustainable use of
resources in this area;
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