Indigenous Peoples´ Perspectives on Quality Education
By
Mr. Ole Henrik Magga
Chairperson
of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
Education
is one of the six mandated areas of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous
Issues and an area on which we have much to say. The third session of the Forum
in 2004 will devote much time to education and culture in addition to human
rights and this publication will make an important contribution to that.
I
was an indigenous child myself once – a long time ago. I would like you to come with me on a journey
and to imagine the life experience of the indigenous child. You arrive at school with a rich cultural
background and find out that there is an expectation that you should have
accessed pre-school education but of course you had no access to such things –
even access to basic education is a luxury.
On
your first day you find that the teachers do not speak your language, in fact,
they don’t even want you to speak your language – you might be punished by
doing so. The teachers don’t know
anything about your culture – they say “look at me when I speak to you” – but
in your culture it may be disrespectful to look at adults directly. Day by day you are torn between two
worlds. You look through the many
textbooks and find no reflections of yourself or your family or culture. Even in the history books your people are
invisible – as if they never exceeded “shadow people” or worse – if your people
are mentioned they are mentioned as “obstacles to settlement” or simply as
“problems” for your country to overcome.
But
children are tough and somehow you survive in this environment. However, you notice as you reach secondary
school that many of your indigenous brothers and sisters have dropped out. Did they fail school or did the school fail
them? By senior high school you are the
only one left – and the teachers say “but you are not like the others” – but in
your heart you know that you are.
All
too often this is the educational experience of indigenous children – those who
have the luxury of access to formal schooling – many do not. In the Second Session of the Permanent Forum,
many indigenous representatives discussed common education issues including:
poor retention, attainment and graduation rates throughout the compulsory and
non-compulsory years of schooling. Many
also discussed overt and systemic racism and marginalization as root causes
faced by indigenous young people. Some
representatives emphasized the link between access to and success in early
childhood education and ongoing success in later schooling and life.
Indigenous communities face many
challenges in education. We live in a
world that is increasingly multicultural and the traditional understanding of the
content of curricula and ways of teaching even for those states that are
organized on the assumption that they are culturally homogenous (Rodolfo
Stavenhagen has coined the term ‘ethnocratic’ for these kind of states), does
simply not work anymore. The
world is more uncertain than ever before, as observed both by the World
Commission on Culture and Development (the de Cuéllar Commission) and the International Commission on Education
for the Twenty-first Century (the Delors Commission). Secondly, indigenous
peoples and minorities are largely
neglected in most countries in the designing of curricula and in the
organization of teaching. In fact, in
many countries almost nothing of the
basic principles about multilingual and multicultural education established by
UNESCO in this field , are implemented.
And thirdly, there is always the question of resources. We are poorest
among the poor. Even in developed countries indigenous communities are not able
to offer their children adequate education – and especially not an education
meeting the aspirations of our peoples themselves.
But indigenous peoples do not come to
you only with problems for you to solve – we come to you with our own answers
and we ask your assistance in ensuring these solutions are systematically and
fully implemented. Quality in education is not an absolute and static concept
because education relates to the culture and community it is supposed to serve. The aspirations of the worlds indigenous
peoples in the field of education is so far best reflected in Article 15 of Draft United Nations declaration on the
rights of indigenous peoples:
Indigenous
children have the right to all levels and forms of education of the State. All
indigenous peoples also have this right and the right to establish and control
their educational systems and institutions providing education in their own
languages, in a manner appropriate to their cultural methods of teaching and
learning.
Indigenous children living outside
their communities have the right to be provided access to education in their
own culture and language.
I will point to some of the aspects of
education in more detail.
Our cultures and our knowledge must be
included in the curricula on all levels of
education for indigenous children and youth. There is no quality in an
education where all is based on others cultures than ours.
We have a rich reservoir of knowledge as a part of our
cultures. We want to preserve it and to develop it – and we want to share it to the benefit of all
human kind.
For indigenous peoples, it is the knowledge of the
interconnectedness of all that was, that is and that will be, the vast mosaic
of life and spirit and land/water forms, of which are an intricate part. It is
the knowledge of all this that is known as Traditional Knowledge.
Indigenous
cultural heritage involves a holistic approach where traditions and knowledge
are embodied in songs, stories and designs as well as in the land and the
environment – the intangible inter-linked with the tangible. For Indigenous peoples sacred sites and
intangible cultural heritage are intimately woven together and cannot be easily
separated. These allow us to balance development in the environment that we
have occupied since time immemorial. This knowledge is indeed the pillars of
our culture and the posts that sustain the Earth. Deviation from our knowledge has grave
dangers for the world and for mankind.
But
we do not want to limit ourselves to only our own knowledge. We want to combine
the best from our own traditions with the best of the western and European
traditions. This is quality in a true sense.
The
Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental
freedoms of indigenous people, Mr. Rodolfo
Stavenhagen, has pointed out that our
“cultural specificies are also contributions to a universal culture and not
mere relics of a disappearing past” (from 1. report). This means that elements from
our cultures and our knowledge
should be included in education for
other people as well as our own.
Traditional indigenous education and its structures should
be respected and supported. Our knowledge
has not been written by us - on the contrary: we dance it, we draw it, we narrate it, we
sing it, we practice it. There is a need for a
deeper understanding of what knowledge
and learning is and the many paths to knowledge. This is in line with
what was observed by the the Delors
Commission: western formal education systems
tend to emphasize the acquisition of knowledge to the detriment of other
typoes of learing (Learning, 97). I think indigenous peoples can contribute in
a very significant way both to our own education systems and to the renewal
of education systems of other people.
We need to
-establish
effective arrangements for the participation of indigenous parents and
community members in decisions regarding the planning, delivery and evaluation
of education services for their children, young people and other community
members.
-increase
the number of indigenous peoples employed as education administrators,
teachers, coaches, curriculum advisers, teachers assistants, home-school
liaison officers and other education workers, including community people
engaged in teaching indigenous culture, history and contemporary society, and
indigenous languages.
-provide
education and training services to develop the skills of indigenous people to
participate in educational decision-making.
-develop
arrangements for the provisions of independent advice from indigenous
communities regarding educational decisions at all levels.
-achieve
the participation of indigenous children, young people and adults in education
for a period similar to that for other students.
We
must ensure that indigenous children, young
people and adults have access to all levels of education (including adult
education) on a basis comparable to that available to other citizens.
We
must enable indigenous students to attain skills and graduation rates to the
same standard as other students throughout the compulsory and non-compulsory
schooling years.
We
must further
-Develop
programs to support the maintenance and continued use of indigenous languages.
Every individual should have have a right to her or his own language, one of
the national languages and an international language. Language teaching should
be based on the results from research and UNESCO recommendations in this field (UNESCO has recently published a
Position Paper: Education in a multilingual world UNESCO Education Position
Paper , 2003, which is supposed to replace UNESCO’s classic book, The use of
vernacular languages in education
(Paris, 1953))
-Develop
writing systems for indigenous languages. Writing is a basic skill for learning
and it is a prerequisite for preserving and developing a language.
-Our
languages should be used in teaching, research and administration because the use of
a language in different fields of society is the most efficient way of
developing a language.
We
need to provide community education services, which enable indigenous people to
develop the skills to manage the development of their communities.
And
we need to promote anti-racism education, including strategies to empower young
people to deal with racism in the compulsory schooling curriculum.
Indigenous
peoples should be resourced and supported to establish their own education
systems, including schools, should they so choose.
The
right to preserve and to develop our own reservoir of knowledge is
a fundamental aspect of self-determination.
This resource is equally important
to the “natural wealth and resources”
referred to in the human rights conventions ( cf, CCPR Art. 1). We have a
collective right to determine our own path of development. For that purpose, we
need a firm basis of knowledge of the consequencies of our choices and decisions. Education is the door
to new knowledge. Therefore, education can not be limited only to primary and
secondary education. Higher education and research are a necessary source both
to society at large and as a basis for the education system itself.
These
are some of the strategies of which we
believe the full and effective
implementation will lead to equitable educational attainment for indigenous
children and young people.
1.
Expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care
and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children;
2.
Ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls,
children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities,
have access to and complete free and compulsory primary education of good
quality;
3.
Ensuring that the learning needs of all young people and
adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life skills
programmes;
does
not highlight the specificity of indigenous people’s education.
I
want to stress that we are not simply “living in difficult circumstances” or
“ethnic minorities” - we are the original inhabitants of our traditional lands
and waters – we are proudly “indigenous”.
I ask that we all strive together to ensure that indigenous peoples are
visible and that we participate in matters that affect us. Most of all we must insure that these goals
are achieved for indigenous children.
Quality
in education for indigenous peoples means that our education in principle is
based on our own culture, our knowledge,
our own languages and learning/teaching traditions. From this platform
our peoples will be able to reach for the best in the global garden of
knowledge.[1] This
book is one step in the right direction.
[1]Amartya Sen, "Culture, Economics and Development," a paper contributed to the World Commission on Culture and Development, May 1955. See also Mahbub ul Haq, Reflections on Human Development, New York, Oxford; Oxford University Press, 1995. Our Creative Diversity 1996, p. 22.