E/CN.4/2005/88 page 14 intercultural bilingual education as reflected in curricula adapted to indigenous peoples’ own language, needs, values and systems that are actually used in schools in small towns and villages. The prevailing model is one of education taught in Spanish. 51. It is important to note that the inclusion of indigenous languages in school curricula has not been enough to close the gap that exists between the academic performance of indigenous students and that of the non-indigenous population. Significant problems still exist in the standardization of spelling of indigenous languages, the teaching of indigenous languages as a mother tongue and the methodology for teaching second languages. 52. One serious problem is the lack of well trained indigenous teachers who are bilingual. Few countries have given the training of bilingual indigenous teachers the priority it merits. Instructors who are trained in traditional teacher-training institutions know little or nothing about indigenous cultures and generally do not speak any indigenous language. Even young indigenous teachers who are trained in such traditional institutions quickly learn to devalue their own culture and adopt the official assimilationist pedagogical model. Any effort to strengthen bilingual intercultural education must start with the training of the teachers who are to provide it. This often means overcoming institutional resistance, promoting a change in attitude among ministry officials and education departments and even among teachers’ associations and unions within the formal education system. 53. Another problem is the lack of teaching materials suitable for intercultural education and pedagogy. Bilingual intercultural education can only be successful when schools have textbooks, supplementary teaching and audiovisual materials, etc., that are prepared in indigenous languages and are adapted to indigenous cultures. The preparation of such materials cannot be improvized, but must be carried out by multidisciplinary teams over a period of years. Poor countries have not been able to allow themselves the luxury of carrying such projects to completion, even though several have tried. It is chiefly in the wealthiest countries that major progress has been made in this area. Pedagogical problems abound, and none of them have been solved. Indigenous communities increasingly assume responsibility for developing their own teaching methods and running their own schools. The right to education cannot be fully exercised until these obstacles are overcome. 54. Bilingual intercultural indigenous education is becoming widespread in the early grades of primary education; it then tends to spread throughout the whole basic education system, and there is even talk in some countries of setting up institutions of higher learning designed to meet the needs and address the cultural and linguistic situations of indigenous peoples. 55. During the colonial period, education in Greenland was very limited. With self-government, instituted in 1979, indigenous people began to demand more effective and appropriate education that would combine local culture with integration in the global society. In 2002 Parliament established the Atuarfitsialak programme, a sweeping educational reform that addressed these needs and is now being fully implemented. 56. The Alaska Native Knowledge Network is developing a school curriculum based on aboriginal knowledge. The Kativik school district in Nunavut is developing an innovative bilingual education programme in Inuttitut, English and/or French that integrates local knowledge with courses to prepare students for modern life.