Good practice on education Some of the good practices states have used to ensure minorities access education include:  Offering education in minority languages;  Providing disaggregated data on children able to access education in their mother tongue;  Adopting additional MDG targets for minorities in relation to education;  Providing education that is sensitive to the cultural identities of minority students and that promotes inter-cultural understanding  Reviewing national laws to help eliminate discrimination against minority children in access to education. In order to ensure universal enrolment and educational attainment, marginalised minority children and schools will need additional support. Many governments will be concerned about resource implications for improving enrolment of minorities. With pressure to achieve MDG 2, using resources to achieve maximum gains towards the MDGs will be the priority. It is important, however, that efforts to reach the MDGs in the short-term are consistent with long-term sustainability of development interventions. Support to minorities could include: more teacher training for minority teachers or for teaching in/of minority languages; incentives for teachers to teach in areas where minorities live; the provision of more schools in minority areas; exemption or subsidisation of school fees for the poorest minorities; and review of safe access to schools for minority children. On identity issues, consideration may be given as to how the curriculum reflects minorities and whether there are identity barriers that may impede minorities from staying in school. In many cases, sending children to school can weaken the ability of families to meet their basic survival needs; where parents do not see that the education offered will be of use in the long-term economic and cultural survival of their communities, enrolling children becomes 40 a low priority. These concerns are best discussed in consultation with minority community members. Education should not undermine cultural identities but rather should help to protect those identities, while also enabling children to participate effectively in the wider community. Protecting the right to mother tongue education is key. As the 2003 Human Development Report on the MDGs confirms, “[i]n countries where several languages are spoken, teaching in the mother tongue in the early years dramatically improves the learning experience” (UNDP 2003, p. 7). The UN Declaration on the Rights of National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities provides, “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). Mother tongue education in the early primary years can ease transition into schools of majority languages and sustain enrolment for minority children, thus improving overall figures for educational attainment. In some cases the child’s mother tongue may not be a written language. Efforts could be made to involve members of that linguistic community in the schooling process, for example, by inviting community members to share cultural M A R G I N A L I S E D M I N O R I T I E S I N D E V E LO P M E N T P R O G R A M M I N g