SOCHUM II: Education in Indigenous Communities

Jason Hu

YMUN Taiwan
@ymuntaiwan

Letter from the DAis

Dear Delegates,


My name is Jason Hu, and I am very excited to be chairing the The Third Committee of the United Nations at the fifth annual Yale Model United Nations Taiwan conference (YMUNT). I am a junior at Yale, and I am majoring in psychology on the neuroscience track. I am also apart of Yale’s Education Studies Scholar program. In addition to being apart of the Yale International Relations Association (the parent organization of YMUNT), I participate in student government, do graphic designer for several publications on campus, tutor various subjects, and do psychology research.


Through the Yale International Relations Association (YIRA), I have been a part conferences such as the Security Council Simulation at Yale (SCSY), the World Scholar’s Cup (WSC), and Yale Model United Nations (YMUN). I served as a chair for SCSY and YMUN for three years. In this capacity, I worked closely with delegates to make sure debates ran smoothly. For WSC, I served to help coordinate hundreds of delegates, plan logistics, and organize events for delegates. With the experience that I gained from these conferences (and the prior experience that I gained from competing in model United Nations conferences in high school), I look forward to chairing the Third Committee: Social, Cultural, and Humanitarian, also called SOCHUM.


As the third general assembly of the UN, SOCHUM is quite an important player. I think that SOCHUM plays a special role in addressing human rights issues that affect people all over the world. I am excited to see how you, the delegates, tackle some of the world’s most pressing problems, covering issues such as development, governance, health care, environment, education, poverty reduction, and much more. Through the specific lens of the rights of women and indigenous people, I hope you will be able to see connections between various areas of the world and between marginalized peoples to find solutions that also recognize regional and group differences. To do so, teamwork as well as careful analysis of possible solutions is imperative. I cannot wait to see how you answer difficult questions about the unique and shared problems each member nation faces as well as provide possible, pragmatic, and enforceable solutions to those problems. Granted, the topics of empowering women and education in indigenous community present many challenges that will not necessarily be easy to answer—but that is just another reason I look forward to working with you all.


Best wishes,

Jason Hu

jason.hu@yale.edu


Topic History

Who are indigenous people?

The definition of indigeneity is complex. While the UN has outlined some general descriptions of what the term entails, there is no universally accepted definition. Moreover, the inclusion or exclusion of various groups as indigenous peoples changes over time. Adding a final layer of complexity is the fact that different terms are used. China, for example, uses the term “ethnic minority,” India uses the term "Adivasi,” and Russia uses the term “Saami.”


A broad overview of the definition is provided below, but your research should carefully consider the situation of your own country.


“Indigenous people are people defined in international or national legislation as having a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory, and their cultural or historical distinctiveness from other populations that are often politically dominant.”—Indigenous People’s Literature

Because the Universal Declaration of Human Rights reaffirms the dignity, equality, and inalienable rights of humans, it subsequently affirms the rights of indigenous people as well. By definition, however, indigenous people are “particularly vulnerable to exploitation, marginalization and oppression by nation states,” colonizers, or other dominant ethnicities. In response to this reality, the UN has set forth guidelines to guide and promote national policies that protect indigenous rights, including employment, health, education, and natural resources. This document is known as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (DRIPS). DRIPS mentions education in the following ways:

The UN has many times acknowledged the importance of education for indigenous peoples. However, the reality is that many indigenous children still lack quality education. In addition to the existing UN bodies that work towards solutions, the UN also established the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) in 2000 to “[provide] expert advice and recommendations on indigenous issues to the Council.”


Current Situation

Indigenous Peoples in the Canadian Residential Schools: RISE from VICELAND

Quality of Education

Note: This section generally refers to schools in which the primary population is indigenous, as opposed to the following section, which refers to schools which are predominately non-indigenous—different countries define these two ideas differently: in some, there is no difference; in others, indigenous groups autonomously run the former set of schools and the state runs the latter; in others still, the state runs both sets of schools.

“Education for indigenous people is as diverse as the cultures and societies in which indigenous people live, and a wide range of educational approaches and programmes currently exist throughout the world.”—UNESCO


While state education may be an option for many indigenous students, indigenous cultures often prefer to live near their communities, which encourage them to stay nearby. Some students who live in these communities thus attend nearby schools, which often receive very little funding and have poorly trained teachers. For example, in Australia, more than half of the schools with over 10% Aboriginal students had no professional development (training) for teachers.


The lower quality of indigenous schools is evident. In 2013, it was revealed that the United States’ Interior Department’s Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) had run schools so poorly that their standardized assessments had failed to meet federal requirements for other schools. Further hindering these schools is the fact that the government fails to provide them the funding to which they are legally entitled. As a consequence of poor school quality, 93% of Native Americans attend schools away from their reservation.


BIE-operated schools perform poorly for several reasons. To name a few, they struggle to attract and retain quality staff (including instructional staff and administration), they have a myriad of overlapping regulations that detract from their primary mission of education, and they lack quality infrastructure (e.g. the schools have broken walls, leaking roofs, mold, etc.). Recognizing the BIE’s failure, the United States government has recently (under President Barack Obama’s administration) allowed the Navajo Nation (a tribe of Native Americans) to take over the operation of some of the local schools.

Low quality education, however, is not unique to the United States and Australia. A study conducted by Hernandez-Zavala et al. found that students of indigenous schools in Guatemala, Peru, and Mexico lacked textbooks, human resources, and facilities. In West African countries, the Maasai (Ethiopia) and the San (Namibia) suffer from lower levels of literacy as a result of lower quality schools. In India, while schools have made progress, indigenous schooling has consistently lagged behind. Moreover, it should be noted that indigenous education is also more susceptible to shock (i.e. the negative effects are greater on indigenous education in the event of war).

Access to State Education

Note: This section refers to schools which are predominately non-indigenous. See note above.

Many students across the world are denied a right to education; this fact rings especially true for indigenous peoples. Barriers to education include use of a non-native language in the school, inappropriate materials that do not relate to students, non-representative content, non-representative teaching staff, poverty, and lack of infrastructure.


In terms of infrastructure, many indigenous groups live in more remote or rural areas, which often receive significantly less funding for schools than in more urban areas. Consequently, the schools which they attend are often extremely underfunded and have insufficient teachers or space.


But even when indigenous children can access state education, many factor stack up against them. Consequently, more and more students drop out as they progress to higher levels of education. One potential reason for this trend is perhaps because they often face discrimination. For example, indigenous culture is very rarely depicted in educational materials; and when it is, it is often in a negative light (more information in the following section). This portrayal has direct effects: Ainu children in Japan, for example, are “at a much higher risk of dropping out of school” because of such discrimination.


One potential solution to this problem, advocated by the Ainu Association of Hokkaido, would be to teach Ainu culture and history in public schools to both Japanese and Ainu children. To do so, UNESCO recommends that indigenous people be provided the “possibility of participating in decision-making, the design of curricula, the selection of teachers and teaching methods, and the definition of standards.” In a similar vein, it is important to teach teachers about indigenous cultures; otherwise they may force indigenous children to have to choose between two worlds. Another example of discrimination, as a UNESCO report on indigenous education explained, is the fact that teachers often do not speak or even want to speak indigenous languages. Consequently, indigenous students may even be punished for speaking their native languages.


Many indigenous leaders call for the right for students to “enjoy their own culture [and] use their own languages.” This often requires a constitutional mandate to be achieved, as is this case in various countries in Latin America such as Colombia, Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, and Paraguay. Other countries have avoided a constitutional requirement by implementing other legislation for mother-tongue instruction. Still, the solution is complicated given the linguistic diversity of indigenous people.

Moreover, when indigenous students arrive at a state school, there are many preconceived expectations (both curriculum and social) for them. Unfortunately, some of these expectations assume that indigenous children have had access to preschool education, which is often not the case.

Representation in Educational Materials

As mentioned previously, representation of indigenous faces and stories is crucial to quality education. Various research has shown that when indigenous faces are not represented in books and films, it is harder for students to identify with characters. As a consequence, they perform worse in school.

Indigenous history also makes a very limited appearance in the textbooks. Their histories are often brushed over, appearing “only momentarily” or as a footnote. This marginalizes the roles of indigenous people and emphasizes the importance of other ethnic or colonizing groups. To many Australian Aboriginals, this has made it seem as though Australian history were only “the story of white Australians.”

In some cases, this erasure may be intentional. For example, in 1928, it was revealed that the United States was using its boarding schools to teach Native Americans (also known more informally as Indians) manual labor and “eradicate students’ ‘Indianness’ by teaching [them] that their cultures and languages were inferior.”

Economic Considerations

Education cannot be considered in isolation from other issues, particularly economic ones. On one hand, it is crucial to note that education is a powerful tool “for overcoming poverty and discrimination.” On the other hand, poverty keeps many indigenous children from attending school.


Although they only represent 5% of the world’s population, indigenous people represent 15% of the world’s extreme poor and around 33% of the rural poor. These statistics are globally representative—in a World Bank study, indigenous peoples were poorer in every country studied.


Investing in early childhood education has been found to be a “critical” key to help empower indigenous people. Education and skill attainment would increase the amount of money earned. Still, some critics argue that education alone wouldn’t be enough because of workplace discrimination.


While education can be beneficial, its impacts often take a long time to become apparent. As such, the poor living conditions of indigenous communities can result in child labor. Because of higher levels of poverty and “lack of access to basic services,” indigenous populations have a higher proportion of child labor. In their study, Hernandez-Zavala et al. found that in Guatemala, Mexico, and Peru, “indigenous students were more likely than non-indigenous students to work.” Despite this fact, the issue has received little attention because of a lack of comprehensive data regarding indigenous child labor. Nonetheless, child labor directly opposes the ability of indigenous children to go to school.





Questions to Consider

What groups of indigenous people live in your country? How is their relationship with your government?

What type of access do indigenous people have to schools? How has this changed over time?

What barriers to education do indigenous people face?

What is the economic situation of your nation’s indigenous people? How has the government dealt with this in the past?

What is education in your country like in general?


Note: If there are no native indigenous people in your country, that does not mean you do not get to participate. Think about the issues that indigenous people face and find parallels to your own country (e.g. how did your country improve the quality of schools, reduce poverty, etc.)


Further Resources

Glossary

DRIPS- the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Indigenous people- please see Topic History

Preschool education- any education formal or informal that comes before state school begins (e.g. any education before kindergarten)