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Distr.GENERAL E/CN.4/2000/6/Add.2 16 November 1999 Original: ENGLISH |
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Report submitted by Katarina Tomaševski, Special Rapporteur on the right to education Addendum Mission to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (England)
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1. The Special Rapporteur's mission to the United Kingdom followed her mission to Uganda from 26 June to 2 July 1999 (E/CN.4/2000/6/Add.1 of 9 August 1999), and was inspired by the United Kingdom's rights-based education, which had just been introduced. The Government invited the Special Rapporteur to visit the country on 12 August 1999 and the dates for the mission were settled for 18 to 22 October 1999. United Nations budgetary constraints limited the mission to five working days. This confined the Special Rapporteur, and a human rights officer of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights accompanying her, to London and its surroundings. With the exception of the international dimensions of the right to education and the United Kingdom's international human rights obligations, this report deals only with England and does not encompass Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales, which have legal and policy frameworks for education that are partially or wholly distinct from those of England. References to domestic educational law, policy or practice thus refer to England alone. 2. The present report reflects constraints of time and space: a five-day mission is a very short period in which to assess the human rights dimensions of such a complex subject as education, while the necessity to limit this report to 28 pages forced the Special Rapporteur to highlight only some of the issues she would have wished to address, dealing with each of them as briefly as possible. 3. The objectives of the mission arose from the Special Rapporteur's focus on the international and domestic facets of the right to education in conjunction, and were motivated by two important developments in the United Kingdom: On the international level, the United Kingdom's precedent-setting shift to rights-based education constituted a focus of the mission. Strengthened by the Government's debt relief initiatives, rights-based education represents a milestone in international development cooperation. Domestically, the Government has declared education to constitute its highest priority. Different from its development cooperation policy, the Government's domestic vocabulary has not included rights-based education, which provided an interesting theme for the Special Rapporteur to explore. 4. During her mission, the Special Rapporteur met with numerous officials of the Department for Education and Employment, the Department for International Development, the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED), the Social Exclusion Unit at the Cabinet Office, and the Commission for Racial Equality. She also met with Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons and officials of the Education Services at Her Majesty's Prison Service, as well as visiting the Orchard Lodge Resource Centre, an education-intensive institution for boys and young men who are (or are at risk of being) in conflict with the law. Besides these meetings, which were arranged by the Government, the Special Rapporteur met with representatives of non-governmental organizations working in education, development and human rights, and with representatives of teachers' and students' associations, as well as with individual child and adult learners. 5. The Special Rapporteur would like to acknowledge with gratitude the effort made by the Government to arrange the schedule according to her wishes, even if all could not be accommodated. 6. The Special Rapporteur's efforts to elucidate the human rights dimensions of education must have tested the patience of many or all of her interlocutors, and she would like to record her sincere appreciation of their willingness to look at education from the human rights perspective. The history of education is incomparably longer than the notion of the right to education and rights in education, and the Special Rapporteur is fully aware of the novelty of issues which her mandate has broached. She therefore deems that her mission and this report constitute the beginning of a dialogue rather than a self-contained activity. II. THE
CONTEXT: EDUCATION BETWEEN THE PASTAND THE COMING MILLENNIUM 7. At the time of the Special Rapporteur's visit, a sense of economic optimism was palpable. The inflation rate was the lowest since 1963, the unemployment rate the lowest since 1980. The notorious stagflation of the 1970s (a combination of high inflation and high unemployment) seemed relegated to history. Buoyant tax revenue was expected to result in a sizeable budget surplus and speculation was rife as to the use to which it would be put. Education was a much championed claimant for additional funding. Not a day passed without one or another facet of education being in the news - the shortage, stressful professional lives and low salaries of teachers; the extension of pre-school education to three-year-olds; the real or virtual improvements in school-leaving exams. This high visibility of education in public life fuelled constant questioning of any and every facet of education. The turn of the millennium triggers a look back and a look forward, further increasing interest in the past and future of education. The current English educational system has been shaped by its long historical tradition and by changes in the periods 1979-1996 and 1997-1999, rather than by new notions of the right to education and human rights in education. Its historical legacy has not been rights-based and this has influenced the vision of education for the next millennium. A.Historical legacy [ Go to Contents ] 8. The long history of education in England and the export of its educational models at their different stages to different corners of the world provide a fascinating background for studying the contemporary model of education. 9. Primary schooling draws its beginnings from the founding of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge in 1698, when it consisted simply of learning the catechism by heart. The expansion of what was subsequently termed "popular education" through Sunday schools reinforced the religious grounding of education. The 1802 Health and Morals of Apprentices Act institutionalized this practice, obliging all apprentices to attend religious education classes each Sunday and adding that they should receive some instruction in reading, writing and 'rithmetic (the three Rs) during their working hours. 10. A legislative proposal placed before the House of Commons in 1807 to provide two years of free primary education in parochial schools was rejected on two grounds: unwillingness to bear the anticipated costs and fears that education might make "the lower orders" discontented. Decades of disagreement about religion postponed adoption of the first Education Act until 1870. It introduced education for children aged 5 to 12 in two types of schools, non-denominational schools governed by school boards (with the parental right to withdraw children from religious education) and denominational voluntary schools. 11. Secondary schools reach much further back into history, to Winchester (founded in 1382) and Eton (founded in 1440). Such schools were alternatively called grammar schools (libera schola grammaticalis, originating from the teaching of classical languages) or colleges (stemming from establishment as a collegiate foundation). These earlier, elite, academic secondary schools (based on the values of elitism and excellence) and the later religious, popular schools bifurcated access to education; schools were segregated by religion and class. The pre-Second World War broadening of access to primary education and the post-war all-encompassing compulsory education did not go as far as equalizing the orientation and quality of education to which learners could gain access. Such a stratified system of schooling has continued ever since. Today's vocabulary retains unique features of Englishness: an English public school would be defined as private in all other countries; what is called a public school elsewhere corresponds to a State school in England. B. Changes in the period 1944-1996 [ Go to Contents ] 12. The 1944 Education Act introduced universal access to primary education for all, free of charge, four years before such a right was affirmed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. On this basis, the post-war education strategy initially prioritized equality of opportunity. Making education compulsory meant that parents had a duty to ensure that their children received education, and this understanding has continued ever since 1. The corollary emphasis on parental duties and rights has hampered the notion of the right of the child to education and the child's rights in education. 13. The post-war approach to education was affected by the economic crisis of the 1970s, when the previously constant increase in public investment in education was halted and then diminished. Priorities for education were diverted from the goal of equality of opportunity to that of reversing the United Kingdom's economic decline and enhancing national and individual economic competitiveness. Diminished public funding reduced both the availability and the accessibility of free-of-charge schooling. Market-based education broadened parents' choices; they were, alongside employers, defined as consumers of education 2. Private investment in education was stimulated by pursuit of excellence and by high rates of return to investment stemming from enhanced individual competitiveness 14. The year 1988 was marked by two big changes: the introduction of the uniform national curriculum 3, followed by uniform assessments of learners' performance. Attainment targets were (and are) specified and are verified through testing at ages 7, 11 and 14 (defined as key stages), culminating in the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE). The GCSE is a uniform examination for all learners, assessing all levels of performance on a common scale. The testing, grading and ranking of all learners was followed by the ranking of schools by examination results. School ranking is based on the percentage of pupils passing the GCSE examination in five subjects at the highest grades (A-C) and is accompanied by wide publicity in the mass media for school league tables. 15. Testing nudges (many would say pressurizes) schools to compete amongst themselves for their position in the league tables, thereby enhancing the overall performance. Individual schools whose learners perform excellently are ranked the highest and those whose learners are underperforming sink to the bottom. Research has shown that schools' prominent position in the league tables derives from their practice of selecting pupils whose family and social background, as well as their previous attainment, makes them likely to perform well. The consequence of the ranking of schools is huge parental demand for schools ranked high, whose limited supply enables them to determine and uphold criteria for admission. Parental preference is unlikely to favour "sink schools", which have to admit any learners, even those expelled from other schools. The relationship between poor schools and poor learners is only partially addressed by public funding because the key to funding (both private and public) is performance. 16. The result is a rigid stratification within the educational system. Although all resident children are encompassed by compulsory schooling, the type and quality of education they receive vary enormously. 17. A great deal of change was introduced into education in the period 1988-1996 along these lines. The 1996 Education Act aimed to bring together and systematically amend all statutory regulations relating to education. Subsequent to the change of Government in 1997, further amendments have been made. The pace of change between 1988 and 1996 was rapid, many changes were controversial and quite a few were resisted. The former Government promised a five-year moratorium on new initiatives, but the new Government has continued with rapidly-paced, highly demanding changes. C. Government strategy [ Go to Contents ] 18. Education is guided by the overall aim of achieving a knowledge-driven economy, favouring "science and innovation, creativity and enterprise, skills and knowledge", and moving towards commercialization of British science 4 to contribute to wealth-creation. The objective is to create a world-class education service so as to match the performance of those countries which the United Kingdom sees as its main international competitors. Alongside general economic competitiveness, the existence of a market in education enhances education-specific competitiveness. The estimated annual value of the United Kingdom's export of education varies between Ł5 billion and Ł12 billion, with all estimates pointing to its increase. Further increase is planned, with the ambition for the United Kingdom to conquer 25 per cent of the global market share in higher education 5. Education is also expected to contribute to the eradication of poverty in the country; it is seen as the key to employment and employment is seen as the path out of poverty. 19. This emphasis on a knowledge-driven economy requires altering the heritage of adult illiteracy and innumeracy, higher in England than in other Western European countries - 7 million people are estimated not to have any qualification whatsoever 6. This heritage is attributed to the neglect of public education in the previous decades. Investment in basic education and the insistence on enhanced performance by all learners is seen as the foundation for both individual economic self-sustenance and international competitiveness. The White Paper entitled "Excellence in schools" (issued 67 days after the electoral victory in May 1997) outlined the Government's design for change. Emphasis on education-as-investment and on competitiveness tends to undermine education which is defined by the objective of strengthening the ties which bind people 7. The planned introduction of citizenship education (see section IV.D.2) is expected to remedy this slant. III. INTERNATIONAL DIMENSIONS: RIGHTS-BASED EDUCATION [ Go to Contents ] 20. The Government's definition of education, both domestically and internationally, emphasizes its role as the pathway out of poverty. The 1997 white paper "Eliminating world poverty: a challenge for the 21st century" committed the Government to refocusing international cooperation on pro-poor policy and allocations and it also introduced a rights-based approach. The Special Rapporteur is very much appreciative of this precedent, which gives hope for elevating human rights from the margins of international development cooperation into its core. The Government's commitment to rights-based development is accompanied by its concerted effort to increase resources for the poorest countries, especially through debt relief. The rights-based approach can only be meaningful if a rhetorical recognition of the basic rights of the poorest people in the poorest countries is reflected in the availability of resources necessary for the implementation of governmental human rights obligations and the Special Rapporteur welcomes the Government's emphasis on resource allocations in any plans for the attainment of anti-poverty or development goals 8. The realization of such goals is a necessary foundation upon which the recognition and promotion of human rights can be built. 21. Ensuring that debt relief has a positive impact on human rights requires redirection of funds earmarked for debt servicing towards long-term investment in education. Much as it is generally known that such a redirection benefits the poorest people and the poorest countries, it has not been made a priority until recently. The Government has taken a leading role in debt relief and has been instrumental in facilitating the agreement reached during the Group of 8 Cologne meeting (in June 1999) and the subsequent one in September 1999 at the annual IMF/World Bank annual meeting. At the time of the Special Rapporteur's visit, the prospects for eliminating obstacles to debt relief seemed good but it was much too early to discern whether promises would be converted into commitments, and commitments into allocations. She will report to the Commission on further developments in her forthcoming annual report (in December 1999) and her statement to the Commission (in April 2000). 22. The common Treasury and Department for International Development policy made possible tackling all major determinants of financial inflows and outflows with regard to developing countries, including debt servicing, trade and investment as well as aid. The Government's commitment to increase aid (by more than one quarter) represents a welcome departure from the recent trend of diminishing aid flows. The Government's new approach also entailed a merger between foreign and development policy, evidenced, for example, in the joint publication of annual human rights reports by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Development. The affirmation of human rights as guidance for foreign policy has been accompanied by a pledge to make it ethical, while development policy is to be remoulded by the rights-based approach. 23. The Government has emphasized that it gives "social, economic and cultural rights the same weight as civil and political rights" and further committed itself to "using Britain's influence to seek the realization of the social and economic rights contained in the Universal Declaration for all the people in the world" 9. An immediate implication of this rights-based approach is the recognition of beneficiaries of any development intervention as subjects of rights, requiring the acceptance of their right to make decisions for themselves. In education, this entails balancing the rights and freedoms of relevant adults (primarily parents and teachers, alongside the main State actors) against the rights and best interests of the child. Children are given a formal right to decide for themselves only after they become adults. The shift to rights-based education thus promises a long-overdue change. 24. In May 1999, the rights-based approach was applied to education in "Learning opportunities for all: a policy framework for education", which linked education (defined as acquisition of knowledge and skills) to the principal objective of poverty eradication. The conceptual underpinning was the vicious circle in which poverty was seen to be caused by lack of access to education, and lack of education then caused the perpetuation of poverty. Rupturing this vicious circle necessitates long-term investment in education so as to enable its beneficiaries to become economically self-sustaining and to generate revenue needed for investment in the education of the coming generations. 25. The "Policy framework" affirms that Governments have the primary responsibility for financing primary education, thus explicitly reaffirming one of their principal human rights obligations. Its additional rationale is to enable children to become economically productive adults and to prevent them from being economically exploited as children. The linkages between education and employment and the role of education in the elimination of the exploitation of child labour require thoughtful design. Rights-based strategies ought to adapt education to the circumstances prevailing in the countries, communities and families where the children are. This requires resisting the temptation to export models of education suited to industrial or industrializing countries, or to assume that secondary education is accessible to children who complete primary school, or to found education upon a vision of access to employment, in circumstances where the fate of most school leavers is what is alternatively called self-employment or the informal sector. 26. The Special Rapporteur is fully aware of the novelty of rights-based education and the conceptual challenges which its operationalization entails and welcomes this pioneering effort. |