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Leyes y políticas nacionales sobre derechos de escolaridad o enseñanza gratuita – Guinea-Bissau

Importa si el Estado facilita la enseñanza gratuitamente o si cobra derechos de enseñanza. Todos los Estados del mundo han firmado por lo menos un tratado internacional que les obliga a hacer que la enseñanza primaria sea gratuita y obligatoria y que la educación secundaria llegue a serlo progresivamente. Pero la educación no puede ser obligatoria si no es gratuita también y esta contradicción suele ser ignorada con demasiada frecuencia. Además, ¿qué significa realmente la enseñanza gratuita en un mundo lleno de costos evidentes y ocultos para los estudiantes, los padres y las comunidades locales? Según los resultados de una encuesta realizada por Katarina Tomasevski en 2006, la enseñanza no era realmente gratuita en la gran mayoría de los países del mundo. La información que figura a continuación sobre su país, fue sacada de este importantísimo estudio.

 

Las leyes y políticas nacionales son las aplicaciones de la constitución, aunque pueden ser más avanzadas, porque son examinadas y elaboradas de nuevo con más frecuencia. Las leyes son hechas por el gobierno, los parlamentarios y los burócratas, a menudo en consulta con la sociedad civil. No obstante, esto también las expone a la vulnerabilidad y el retroceso, pues pueden convertirse en instrumentos de la política y las prioridades a corto plazo. Las leyes y las políticas son accesibles al cambio y la influencia por medio del proceso democrático y las campañas de la sociedad civil. Y sus violaciones deben, si es posible, ser impugnadas en los tribunales o mediante la revisión judicial.

 

 

 

 

El Estado es el actor principal en cualquier reclamo del derecho a la educación, es el principal detentor de obligaciones, el principal ejecutor, es el garante, la firma respecto a las normas internacionales que lo obligan a respetar, proteger y realizar el derecho a la educación. El Estado debe, por lo tanto, ser juzgado o cuestionado sobre la base de su texto principal sobre el derecho a la educación, sea éste la constitución, las leyes o las políticas.

The Constitution stipulates that “the State is responsible for the promotion of free and equal access of all citizens to different educational levels”. This could imply that education is free throughout public institutions at all levels of the educational pyramid but the government has admitted that 90% of education is externally funded. In consequence, creditors’ and donors’ policies shape education.

The trend of privatizing financial responsibility for education has been reflected in the law, whereby children have a right “to formal, private and cooperative schools”. Obviously, children cannot have ‘a right’ to private education because access depends on their ability to pay the required cost. ‘Formal’ schools should be free of charge but a variety of charges are levied due to insufficient public funding for education. The government has acknowledged in 2001 that “more than half of the population of school age” remain out of school. Those who enrol often get too little schooling. At least one third of rural schools offer one or two years of primary education. Moreover, it is not known how many children remain out of school because the registration of children at birth is fragmentary:

 A large number of Guinean children, especially of single mothers and in rural areas, are not registered at birth. Only when it is time to go to school, aged six or seven (for those who have access to school), are they registered.

Reasons for this educational under-performance do not revolve only around poverty but include biased budgetary allocations. While poverty is the key obstacle for much of the population, this is not the case for the government. In examining Guinea-Bissau’s PRSPs, the World Bank and IMF have noted “fiscal slippages associated with heavy defense spending”. On-going conflicts in the region have affected Guinea-Bissau and distorted budgetary allocations. The IMF and the World Bank pointed in 2004 to the financial gap of $18.3 million needed to pay the salaries of civil servants. In addition, Alex Vines reported in November 2005 that the salaries of civil servants are paid with an average delay of three months.

In such conditions, it is impossible to imagine that education would function. Indeed, overlapping political and armed conflicts have paralysed education and other basic services. Their re-starting requires shifting priorities from military expenditure to civilian investment, which is difficult even to design while the global attention focuses on conflicts. Prioritizing education as a pillar of peace-making is as difficult as it is necessary: 

If the elected leaders are unable or unwilling to shoulder their sovereign responsibilities, especially in the absence of viable and accountable State structures, neither peace nor development can emerge or endure.