A/HRC/11/8 page 12 invigilate; of poor timetabling; cases of inconsistent and poor quality tuition; of too basic, irrelevant and/or inappropriate curriculums; of vocational courses that are dated paths to nowhere; of teaching skills that are no longer in demand; of absence of safe and stable spaces in which to learn; indifference to needs associated with specific disabilities; of the withdrawal of educational “privileges” as a punitive measure; of the absence and/or withdrawal of public funding for, particularly, higher education together with the prohibitive costs of self-funding; of financial “penalties” incurred if education is pursued in place of prison employment; of discriminatory access to education based on place of detention, sentence length, and/or security category; and, as will be detailed below, discriminatory, inappropriate and inadequate education for women, minorities and those with learning difficulties.3 34. Individual States should recognize which of these practices pervade their prison estates. Some efforts to this end have already been made. For example, prison educational staff in Latin America are already questioning the relevance of much of the current curricula and its teaching to the specific educational needs of those in detention.21 In Colombia, a new educative model for the penal system has been introduced with the express purpose of encouraging transformation in the learner, with respect for human dignity, rights and obligations.22 C. Learning disabilities and learning difficulties in prisons 35. People with learning disabilities and difficulties face stigma and discrimination generally, and in education specifically.23 They are made even more vulnerable by penal systems that invariably fail to recognize, understand or support their specific needs. This is not surprising: research into learning disabilities and difficulties in prisons is limited to a handful of States, is often inconclusive and, on occasion, contradictory, and rarely touches upon education. 36. What is clear is that many prison systems are not aware that they hold people with learning disabilities and learning difficulties,24 currently estimated at between 20 to 30 per cent, or even 52 per cent.25 Consequently, no special provision is made for them, despite their complex 21 See Rangel, Hugo, “Mapa regional Latinoamericano sobre educación en prisiones: notas para el análisis de la situación y la problemática regionales”, Eurosocial-Centro internacional de estudios pedagógicos (CIEP), 2008. 22 For example, see Pieck Gochicoa, Enrique, El Caso de México: Actores, Escenarios y Estrategias, OCDE-FCE, Mexico, 2005. 23 See A/HRC/4/29. 24 Hayes, S. (University of Sydney), paper presented at the fourth International Conference on the Care and Treatment of Offenders with a Learning Disability, 2005. 25 See Hayes, S., Shackell, P., Mottram, P. and Lancaster, R. (2007). “Prevalence of intellectual disability in a major UK prison”, British Journal of Learning Disabilities, 35 (3), and Millán Contreras, A.L. y Medina Baez, S. (2008), Causales de Deserción Escolar en el Sistema Intrapenitenciario, Revista de Estudios Criminológicos y Penitenciarios, No. 13, Diciembre 2008, Santiago, Chile.