3.4.1 Education rights and identity: Education is a key component of the protection of minority identity. Issues of particular concern are access to education, the language of educational instruction and the cultural content of education. Minorities often lack equal access to education. This may be seen by lower levels of educational attainment, fewer resources to schools in areas where minorities live, and segregation of minority children from mainstream schools. Both direct and indirect discrimination play a role. The curriculum and textbooks used might perpetuate discriminatory attitudes towards minorities. Minorities with low incomes could suffer indirect discrimination where school fees are required or tax revenue to fund schools is lower in their areas of residence. The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) calls upon States to prohibit and eliminate discrimination in access to education (article 5(e)(v). States are required not only to ensure equal access for all to education, but to ensure non-discrimination in the quality of education provided as well. Where financial obstacles to accessing education disproportionately affect minorities, States are required to take special measures to overcome this barrier. Minorities have a right to educational instruction in their mother tongue. Minorities may be disadvantaged because they do not speak the language of instruction in state schools. The UN Declaration on the Rights of National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities says “States should take appropriate measures so that, wherever possible, persons belonging to minorities may have adequate opportunities to learn their mother tongue or to have instruction in their mother tongue” (article 4.3). Minority groups could establish their own educational facilities for providing instruction in their language (the State may also require these facilities to teach the state language). The State may also provide mother tongue education in public schools. States may be supported in providing courses and/or instruction in the minority language at the secondary and tertiary levels, in particular where the minority group has expressed a need for it and is sizeable enough to justify the provision. Even where minority languages are not written languages, there is potential to integrate them into the education system by engaging community members in classroom activities to share cultural knowledge, skills and arts. The cultural content of education is a key concern for minorities. Minority cultures, history and contributions do not necessarily reflected in the national curriculum and textbooks. For religious minorities, the manner in which religion is taught is very important, including whether there is compulsory religious instruction in the religion of the dominant group or whether there is an option for minorities to be instructed in their own religion. According to the UN Declaration on the Rights of National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, “States should, where appropriate, take measures in the field of education, in order to encourage knowledge of the history, traditions, language and culture of the minorities existing within their territory” (article 4.4). The Convention on the Rights of the Child states that education of the child shall be directed, inter alia, to the child’s “own cultural identity, language and values, for the national values of the country in which the child is living, the country from which he or she may originate, and for civilizations different from his or her own” (article 29.1 (c)). Similarly, the ICCPR holds that States should respect the freedom of parents “to ensure the religious and moral education of their children in conformity with their own convictions” (article 18.4). If the content or practice of education perceived to be discriminatory towards minorities, this may make minority parents less willing to send their children to school. The inclusion of cultural Chapter 3: Fundamental Rights and Principles 19