A/HRC/24/52 68. States should also: (a) Ensure accessible and available education, particularly in areas where people of African descent live, including in rural and marginalized communities, paying attention to improving the quality of public education; (b) Take measures to ensure that students of African descent are protected from direct or indirect discrimination, stigmatization, symbolic and physical violence, and racist bullying. The education system should ensure that all students learn in an environment free from racist and hostile attitudes of teachers and peers, and are protected therefrom. Negative stereotypes and imagery in teaching materials should be removed; (c) Institute a compulsory human rights teacher-training programme at the national level, covering, among other areas, multiculturalism, equality, nondiscrimination and gender sensitivity at a national level; (d) Take into account the cultural and ethnic diversity of the communities served when selecting teachers. The teaching profession should include highly qualified teachers of people of African descent; (e) Revise and develop specific curricula and corresponding teaching materials which respect and recognize history, including the transatlantic slave trade. Such curricula should be incorporated into formal and informal education at the early childhood, primary, secondary, post-secondary and adult education levels. People of African descent should have the opportunity to contribute to the development of such curricula; (f) Make history a compulsory subject at the primary and secondary educational levels, thereby giving children of African descent a connection with their past and a sense of cultural identity; (g) Support the study and recognition and promote greater knowledge of and respect for the history of people of African descent. All students and teachers around the world should be taught about African and African diaspora history, culture and contribution to progress, the impact throughout the time of the movement and settlement of diverse populations, as well as the nature and effects of colonialism and the slave trade, emphasizing people of African descent as survivors or resisters, whilst also recognizing them as victims of human rights violations under international human rights law; (h) Ensure that people of African descent are provided with adequate means to undertake research to speak about themselves and their role and contribution to the development of society, including industrialization; (i) Ensure that national curricula include the history of Africa before European contact in history education, in order to empower people of African descent about their past before the transatlantic slave trade. Similarly, history education should feature the liberation struggles during and after the colonial period. History education should also be about the development of world civilizations and should stress the contribution of people of African descent to global economic development, especially that of Europe. This will help the recognition of people of African descent as world actors; (j) Promote a collective vision and strategy for improving the conditions of people of African descent by empowering them through the right to education. In this context, a database on information pertaining to the status of education of people of African descent should be developed; 15