Equal Access to Quality Education for Minorities (Section IV of Draft Recommendations on Minorities and the Right to Education) Input from Helen Pinnock, Save the Children Thank you, Madam Chair, for the opportunity to speak on the topic of access to education for minority children, which is a key priority for Save the Children. I would like us to consider the principle of non-discrimination in access to equitable, quality education for minorities - to suggest some ideas from Save the Children’s experience on what it means to deliver on that principle in practice across education systems. It is our experience that several governments have strong policy commitments to minority education, often expressing similar ideas to the very strong recommendations drafted by Professor Thornberry. However, these are often not implemented. Why is this the case? And why is the principle of access to education without discrimination so often not realised? When thinking about these questions, it is useful to think about the motivations and drivers which affect those individualts with the power to make significant change within the education system. This means thinking about the education policy framework in terms of which messages are communicated through the system by powerful people. These messages are sometimes written down, but are often not written down – they are tacit policy messages. One of these key motivations could be described as the drive to assimilated. Often those running education at various levels are anxious to get minority people to become more similar to the dominant group and see education as a key means to achieve this. This anxiety can override other expectations fo reducation, particularly in situations of conflict or fragility, or where a country is struggling to assert a unified national identity. It can lead, for example, to refusal to include minority histories in the curriculum, or to anxiety about enabling minority people to become teachers. Another strong factor in discriminatory effects in minority children’s access to education is a lack of of understanding among those with power of what it means to deliver education equitably for diverse groups of people. Often our contacts with Ministry of Education staff and local education officials reveal strong assumptions that delivering quality education requires one fixed and detailed national curriculum, delivered using the same methods, using one language, across the country. Basing education delivery on either or both of these motivations is going to result in exclusion and failure for large numbers of children; i.e. discriminatory education systems. One example of how access to education for minorities is affected by the imperatives outlined is the increasing and alarming trend, particularly in Asia, for young minority children from remote areas to be put into boarding hostels far from home. This is taking place under the banner of expanding access to primary education under Education For All and the