E/CN.4/2005/88 page 9 23. This situation has several aspects. First, there are the difficulties many indigenous people experience in gaining access to academic institutions. Secondly, many problems exist with regard to the institutionalization of educational services for indigenous people. Most problematic of all, however, is the fact that throughout much of history the fundamental goal of education has been to assimilate indigenous peoples in the dominant culture (“Western” or “national”, depending on the circumstances), a culture that is alien to them, with the consequent disappearance or, at best, marginalization of indigenous cultures within the education system. To a large extent, this is still the prevailing view in some countries’ education systems, despite the existence of legislation that sets specific objectives in this area. Some of these issues will be considered further on. B. Factors impeding the access of indigenous peoples to education: discrimination and lack of equal access 24. The World Conference on Education for All, held in Jomtien, Thailand, in 1990, set as a goal universal primary education for all children, and UNESCO has made this proposal one of its principal areas of work. Many countries subscribed to this goal and launched programmes to make it a reality. Indigenous peoples have frequently been the specific target of such policies. Many Governments have pledged to bring education to indigenous peoples and communities, and to improve their performance in this area. Many States have set up special institutions to promote and implement educational policies relating to indigenous peoples, through their ministries of education or other bodies that deal with indigenous peoples. 25. Significant progress has been achieved in many countries in terms of increased school attendance by indigenous children. The Government of Canada, for example, provides funding so that 119,000 First Nations children can attend grades K-12 (computer-assisted instruction) and another 26,000 First Nations and Inuit children can pursue higher education; the Government is nevertheless aware that there are still major challenges to be met. In Mexico the Government provides assistance to 1,145,000 pupils from 47 indigenous groups in the form of 50,300 teachers in 19,000 educational centres through its bilingual and intercultural education programme; the academic performance of indigenous pupils, however, falls far below that of the non-indigenous population. In Chile the levels of education attained among the indigenous population are significantly lower than those attained by the non-indigenous population; twice as many indigenous people lack any formal education at all (6.3 per cent as compared with 3.1 per cent) or have not completed basic education (21.3 per cent as compared with 10.2 per cent). 26. The goal of having all indigenous children attend and complete primary school is still far from being universally achieved. This is due to a number of factors. First, the geographical dispersion or isolation of many small rural or nomadic indigenous communities makes it difficult to provide them with educational services, and many studies have shown that the presence of such services among this population falls below the national average. In many cases it is also hard for indigenous children to travel long distances (often on foot and under difficult environmental conditions, with no adequate transport) to attend school with regularity. The Special Rapporteur was informed that this situation existed in several of the countries he visited.