A/HRC/30/41 Right to education 24. Indigenous peoples, in particular women, tend to have low levels of educational attainment and literacy compared with non-indigenous populations. That situation is a violation of the right to everyone to an education. Such violations of the rights of indigenous persons to an education are multi-dimensional and brings into consideration the issues of access, quality and inclusion. 25. Indigenous children’s inability to access education is generally caused by the geographical and political marginalization of indigenous communities. When education is available, it is often blind to the specific needs of indigenous children. Curricula are often not taught in indigenous languages, which undermines indigenous children’s ability to achieve school readiness and express their cultural identity in school. National school curricula tend to have very little, if any, focus on indigenous peoples, their issues and histories. Some national curricula even reinforce negative cultural stereotypes about indigenous peoples and indigenous students frequently find that the education provided by the State promotes individualism and a competitive atmosphere, rather than communal ways of life and cooperation. It is also common for indigenous children to experience racism and discrimination and ethnically motivated bullying in school. Furthermore, the education available to indigenous children is not always of adequate quality. The physical buildings in which indigenous children are educated can also fail to be fit for purpose, and teaching staff and materials may also be of poor quality. 4 26. Some indigenous peoples prefer to set up their own indigenous schools, which ensure that traditional knowledge holders are involved in teaching and their culture is valued. In some countries, indigenous peoples initiate the setting up of schools because the State does not provide schooling in their communities owing to the remoteness of the location or the small population size. The Special Rapporteur noted that in some indigenous territories which have become sites of armed conflicts, the army or paramilitary personnel occupy schools, which are therefore required to close down. 27. As a result of those factors, indigenous children often experience significant gaps in educational attainment compared with non-indigenous populations and dropout rates are high among indigenous children. For example, in Bolivia (Plurinational State of), Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico and Peru, there is an average gap of three years between indigenous and non-indigenous children in relation to the schooling undertaken by those aged 15 or older. Those trends are mirrored in other countries with indigenous populations. The gaps between indigenous and non-indigenous educational attainment are also reflected in the proportion of those attending post-secondary education institutions.5 28. In that connection, indigenous girls tend to be more disadvantaged than indigenous boys.6 In additional to the factors impacting overall indigenous dropout rates, girls can experience a number of additional barriers. Firstly, their role within communities often means that they are expected to help with domestic and care responsibilities. Secondly, indigenous girls may also be subjected to child marriage, so that their roles as wives and 4 5 6 8 See UNDP, Human Development Report 2014 (see footnote 2); Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, State of the world’s Indigenous peoples, 2010; and United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), International Labour Organization (ILO) and Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children, Breaking the silence on violence against indigenous girls, adolescents and young women: a call to action based on an overview of existing evidence from Africa, Asia Pacific and Latin America, May 2013. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, State of the world’s Indigenous peoples, 2010. Ibid.