Over half of world’s children out of school are from minorities or indigenous peoples by UNICEF / Minority Rights Group International 7:07am 15th Jul, 2009   16 July 2009    Of the world''s 101 million children out of school, between 50 and 70 per cent are from minorities or indigenous peoples, Minority Rights Group International (MRG) says in a new report released today.    The State of the World''s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2009 details how minority and indigenous children have been systematically excluded, discriminated against, or are too poor to afford an education.    In developing countries with the largest number of children out of school, such as Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Nigeria and Pakistan minority and indigenous populations enjoy far less access to schooling than majority groups.    MRG''s flagship annual report, prepared this year with UNICEF''s collaboration, says that the Millennium Development Goal on education will not be met in 2015 if policies are not properly targeted on the needs of minorities and indigenous peoples.    "Education authorities need to recognize that it is not just lack of resources that is keeping so many children out of school worldwide. Tens of millions of children are systematically excluded from school or receive only a second-rate education because of ethnic or religious discrimination," says Mark Lattimer, MRG''s Executive Director.    Providing adequate education for minority and indigenous children is not a choice, but a legal obligation on the part of states, yet statistics reveal that the costs of failing to provide education for all are massive: holding back economic growth and sowing the seeds for inter-ethnic and inter-religious conflict.    In a Foreword to the report, the UN Independent Expert on Minority Issues, Gay McDougall, argues, "When I ask people who belong to disadvantaged minorities to tell me their greatest problem, the answer is always the same. They are concerned their children are not getting a quality education. Worldwide, minority children suffer disproportionately from unequal access to quality education."    The Chairperson of the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, John Henriksen, adds, "Deprivation of access to quality education is a major factor contributing to the social marginalization, poverty and dispossession of indigenous peoples. The content and objective of education in some instances contributes to the eradication of their cultures, languages and ways of life."    The report shows that in African countries such as Burundi, Rwanda and Sudan, exclusion from school and the lack of educational opportunities for young people have been critical factors in fuelling conflict over past decades.    The study cites numerous cases which demonstrate a world of exclusion and discrimination against minorities and indigenous peoples. The most discriminated against of all tend to be poor girls, living in poor families in rural areas who belong to a minority community. In Guatemala, for example, only 4 per cent of ‘extremely poor'' indigenous girls attend school by the age of 16.    Globally, more than half of out-of-school girls have never been to school and might never go to school without additional incentives. The report finds that reducing the gender gap paves the way to a more democratic, balanced and stable society.    The report makes a number of key recommendations to address these significant inequities in education for minorities and indigenous peoples, including building more schools in rural communities, recruiting more local, bilingual and minority-language teachers and abolishing segregation in classes.    The following is a list of some specific cases of educational issues affecting indigenous and minority children.    Iraqi Mandaean refugee children may never know their unique culture    Small religious and ethnic minorities constitute some 20-25 percent of Iraq''s refugee populations living primarily in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. Minorities are disproportionately represented in the refugee population, and some are significantly less likely to have their children enrolled in school than other Iraqis: in early 2007, only 15 per cent of Mandaean-Sabean families said their children were enrolled.    The shortfalls in education for children and employment for young people risk creating a generation of Iraqis that feels it has no future at all. Displaced minorities suffer particular problems from losing their community links. Mandaean-Sabeans in Jordan are unable to practise their religious rituals, which demand the presence of bodies of water. With their community scattered, and becoming more so through resettlement, they risk the loss of their way of life altogether.    Large number of displaced Kurds out of school    The Turkish Constitution defines ‘Turkish'' as the language of the state, and prohibits teaching of any language other than Turkish as ‘mother tongue''. Turkey recognizes only Armenians, Rums and Jews as minorities and, accordingly, no other minorities have the right to open their own schools. Turkey''s most disadvantaged communities, including displaced Kurds and Roma, remain marginalized in education.    While Turkey still welcomes diversity by allowing dozens of private or public schools and universities to teach in languages such as English, French, German and Italian, paradoxically Kurds, the largest ethnic minority in Turkey, and many other minorities, are not entitled to open and manage schools teaching in their own languages. No public school uses a minority language as the language of instruction and no minority language is taught, even as a foreign language at public schools.    According to a recent MRG report more than 30 per cent of the children of internally displaced Kurdish families living in Diyarbak?r and Istanbul do not attend school, mainly due to poverty and the need to work.    Batwa children discriminated and marginalized in schools    Though Batwa adults and children across the region have identified education as one of their most important priorities, the vast majority have had little, if any, chance to go to school. Poverty and hunger, and the long distances they often have to travel to access schooling, prevent children from enjoying what is a fundamental human right.    For Batwa, access to education means change at the most basic level, such as being able to read public signs and notices.    Even when Batwa children do access school, they experience direct and indirect discrimination. Many suffer verbal abuse and Batwa women and girls report being sexually harassed by male teachers and pupils at school, and being ambushed on the way home from school.    Batwa identity has been historically misrepresented in school curricula in the region, and this continues today. Batwa children in Burundi report being told by teachers that because they are Batwa, they are ‘worth nothing''.    Segregation in schools seriously affected educational standards of Roma children    Roma children are particularly affected by segregation in education. This could take the form of segregated schools in segregated settlements, or a clear, unjustified over-representation of Roma children in classes for children with special needs.    Although Roma account for only 2.6 per cent of the population in Macedonia, in 27 special schools 30-70 per cent of students are Roma. During his visit to Macedonia the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities warned of the negative consequences that increasingly segregated education will have on the society. Another problem, faced often by Egyptian (as in Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian - RAE) children is their poor school attendance due primarily to extreme levels of poverty, which forces children to seek work instead of attending school. The government''s response has been to impose high penalties on parents, which is highly counterproductive and has discriminatory effects.    Illiteracy major problem for Dalits in India    India''s latest national census, in 2001, found that around 300 million Indians were illiterate. Of these, extrapolation from other statistics shows that around 120 million come from scheduled castes (Dalits) and scheduled tribes (Adivasis).    Dalit children in India are often segregated in classrooms and during school meals, and disproportionately subjected to corporal punishment by teachers; likewise, Dalit teachers are often discriminated against, frequently being segregated when eating or drinking. Although the Indian government operates a system of ‘reservation'' or quotas for Dalits in education as well as in government jobs, the policy is poorly implemented.    While 65 per cent of the general population can read and write, only 55 per cent of Dalits and 47 per cent of Adivasis can do so. Around 37 per cent of Dalit and Adivasi girls aged 7-14 do not attend school, compared to 26 per cent from the majority population.    Discrimination and displacement affect education of African Colombian children    In 2008 African Colombian and indigenous populations had an illiteracy rate of 33 per cent and 31 per cent respectively - nearly three times that of the rest of the population.    Seventy-two per cent of Colombia''s indigenous people and 87 per cent of African Colombians over 18 years of age have not completed primary education.    At the postgraduate levels, less than 1 per cent (0.71) of enrolled students are indigenous and just 7.07 per cent are African Colombian.    African Colombian and indigenous peoples have been forced into extreme poverty and driven into displaced person camps, and are now part of the highest number of internally displaced persons (IDP) in any country in the Western Hemisphere. Indigenous and African descendant children''s schooling is disrupted or permanently abandoned by displacement. In addition, paramilitary groups enter low-income areas and refugee camps with cash offers and/or threats with the aim of recruiting children.    * Minority Rights Group International (MRG) is a non governmental organisation working to secure the rights of ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities and indigenous peoples worldwide. Visit the site for more details and for contacts for news interviews. Visit the related web page
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