E/CN.4/2005/88 page 11 interrupted fairly often. There are also many instances in which girls do not attend as a result of gender prejudice within the family. Poverty and poor nutrition among indigenous children are other factors that often limit school attendance. Comparative data show that indigenous girls attend school less often than boys do. All of this leads one to conclude that there are still serious obstacles impeding indigenous children’s access to schools. The Special Rapporteur recommends that States members of the Commission redouble their efforts in the short term to improve indigenous children’s access to education. 34. There is also evidence of various types of discrimination against indigenous children in schools, particularly when they live alongside non-indigenous populations, and especially in urban centres where recent indigenous immigrants live in precarious conditions. Because they are not fully competent in the language of instruction, indigenous children are ignored in classes and their performance tends to be lower. Later on they are often classified as “problem children”, which makes the situation worse. If teachers are ignorant of the indigenous culture they cannot communicate well with indigenous pupils, who are stigmatized from the outset. 35. In Thailand, for example, it is reported that education is offered only to students who hold Thai nationality, thereby excluding many members of minorities and indigenous peoples who are immigrants, and that indigenous languages are not used in schools. Such a situation impedes indigenous peoples’ access to education, with consequences for social and economic life. Likewise in Japan the education system does not recognize or promote the history, language or culture of the Ainu, the original inhabitants of Hokkaido, even though the law acknowledges the importance of Ainu culture to the country’s heritage. 36. In Latin America 25 million indigenous women constitute the population group having the fewest opportunities to obtain work, land, education, health care and justice. From a very young age girls spend at least five hours a day doing domestic chores, and most of them do not set foot in a school until the age of 10. In Guatemala indigenous girls reportedly end up with 0.8 years of education, as compared with 1.8 years for indigenous boys and higher levels for non-indigenous children. 37. Also in Guatemala there are reports that indigenous girls and young women are sometimes subjected to discrimination because they wear traditional dress to school, despite Ministry of Education Agreement No. 483, which prohibits such discrimination. In a 2003 report to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Guatemala’s Human Rights Procurator said that a mechanism to monitor the implementation of the Agreement did not exist. 38. In Kenya’s Masai community indigenous girls occupy a transitional position between their parents’ family and that of their husbands. Here the need to educate girls is not considered to be very important, since many families feel that there is no point in making an economic investment in a woman’s education if the fruits of the investment are to be enjoyed by her husband’s family. Most families prefer for women to remain at home to carry out domestic chores and take care of children and siblings. Because of these duties girls cannot attend schools that in most cases are located hours away from their communities.