A/HRC/7/36 page 8 had made most news carriers follow the same news flow lines. He elaborated further by stating that there was a huge concentration of media and that was a problem, but it became even worse, because it served to propagate the images spread by the media of Africa as a dark and backward continent. Item 5 (a) (iii): Access to education 41. Ms. Irina Moroianu-Zlătescu, member of the Working Group on People of African Descent, made her presentation on access to education. She emphasized the link between the themes of the Working Session and international tools such as the UNESCO Convention against Discrimination in Education. It was certain that equal access to education and the decrease and eradication of the disadvantages accumulated by people of African descent throughout history because of racism and discrimination was a prerequisite for equality in the exercise of other human rights, be they economic, social and cultural, or civil and political, including access to all levels of decision-making. That was the reason why the recommendations on education were an inseparable part of the whole set of conclusions and recommendations adopted by the Working Group during its mandate. 42. Ms. Alma Jenkins, one of the invited panellists for the Working Group, made a presentation on intercultural education in Latin America and the Caribbean. Ms. Jenkins conducted a brief analysis of the impact of education in race relations in Latin American countries. For Ms. Jenkins, there was no way of talking about the right to education without a reflection upon the issue of funding, which needed to be not only increased but also equitable. 43. A comment was made that educational inequalities in South America were also seen in the United States of America. A commentator argued that the educational system in the United States has been directed in such a way so that black children, when they left school, were not equipped to have skilled jobs. 44. There was also comment on the inconsistency in terms of dealing with the two international covenants and that bridges had not yet been built between the two. 45. Further comments were made that, in some instances, the problem was not so much access to education as the quality of it. These comments highlighted that fact that a majority of school curricula failed to teach important issues to children of African descent, such as the history of their culture and the transatlantic slave trade. As education ultimately led to better employment, commentators believed that the problems of racism and access to education were intimately linked to those of racism and employment. 46. Ms. Jenkins stressed that youth of African descent had to be empowered. Attention had to be paid to young males, as there was growing evidence of empowered and active females of African descent without male counterparts. 47. She also mentioned that programmes designed to assist in the education of children of African descent were generally at the primary school level and diminished as the age of the child increased.