Liberation through education
	Prisoners are among the most excluded from education, according to a UNESCO study

	Bancha is 40 and has been in prison for six years. His daily routine begins at 8.30 a.m. in a class where he and twenty other inmates at the Klong Prem Central Prison outside Bangkok are attending a two-year architecture course. Using textbooks and computer graphics, the students learn the art of building, planning and interior decorating. Introduced in mid-May 2005, the architecture course is part of an education in prison programme being run for more than fifty years in some 130 prisons by Thailand’s Corrections Department. “Education promotes prisoners’ self-confidence, which will stand them in good stead when they leave prison,” says Nathee Jitsawang, Director-General of the Corrections Department. A second chance for an inmate in Thailand According to government statistics, over 37,000 Thai prisoners are now enrolled at all levels of formal education, less than a quarter of all prisoners. Roughly 4,000 inmates are attending undergraduate courses provided by the state-run Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University. A project, launched in 1997 by Thailand’s Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, providing computer skills to inmates at Bangkhen Central Women’s Prison in the eastern suburb of Bangkok is an example of innovative approaches. Already, 343 inmates have graduated from the course. Global trends But education in prison in not as buoyant in other Thai prisons or in other parts of the world, according to a study based on data from some sixty countries to be released at the International Conference on Education in Prison organized by the UNESCO Institute for Education (UIE), in Bucharest (22-25 September). Many of the 10 million prisoners worldwide have dropped out of school, and in developing countries the large majority have never seen the inside of a classroom, the study reveals. Prisoners’ educational level is low – usually below the national average. In Canada, 87 per cent of prisoners have completed high school, but in many countries the majority of inmates have not even finished the primary cycle. The proportion is 60 per cent in Portugal, 50 per cent in Romania, and 75 per cent in Brazil’s State of Sao Paulo. “While most countries claim that education is available to all inmates, the reality is quite different,” says Marc De Maeyer, researcher at UIE and co-author of the study. Out of a population of 10,500 inmates at Thihar Jail in New Delhi, hardly 500 are enrolled in courses. For the Guarulhus prison in Brazil, the figure is 350 out of 1,200, and in the United Kingdom only 30 per cent of inmates are in learning activities. The reasons are multiple, says De Maeyer. Insufficient funding, lack of teachers, security problems, over-population and inmates’ own lack of interest. “This is understandable,” says De Maeyer, “since prisoners’ main preoccupation is getting released.” And when courses are provided, inmates tend to drop out early on. Women fare worse than men. Learning activities directed to them are often limited to such activities as knitting and cookery, thus reinforcing stereotypes. This is the case in Malaysia, Brazil, Mexico and Benin. The study’s message is that education for all is a right and restriction of one’s freedom does not suspend that right. The authors call for more investment by governments, international organizations and NGOs so that prisons become places of continuous and informal learning rather than schools of crime. What education in prison? Literacy is fundamental, and basic education and professional training are essential elements, according to the study. “Education in prison,” says Hugo Rangel, researcher at the International Watch on Education in Prison and co-author of the study, “must not be conceived as mere skills for jobs but as a path to personal empowerment, enhanced citizenship and better health. Non-formal, innovative approaches must be used. “It is crucial to provide activities that can reconcile prisoners with learning,” he adds. The study also guards against private companies subcontracting to prison inmates. The risk is that this practice could constitute a partial privatization of the prison environment and jeopardize the right to good quality, lifelong learning. Bancha has embarked on the path of lifelong learning. He is banking on his certificate in architecture and a degree in law that he hopes to get before leaving prison nine years from now to find his place in society. But what of the millions of inmates worldwide for whom prison is not a second chance? Contact: Marc De Maeyer, UNESCO Institute for Education E-mail: m.demaeyer@unesco.org Website: Website
	Publication date 2005