The report shows:
- Children’s basic needs for nutrition, adequate rest and good health are not met when they experience homelessness. The children featured in the report experienced frequent school absences attributed to poor diet, inadequate rest and poor living conditions. The parents surveyed described how infections – including chicken pox, ear infections and head lice – were common, and difficult to treat and manage while living in overcrowded and confined accommodation.
- Across all types of educational provision, parents reported that school was important to their children, not only because of friendships and learning experiences, but also because of the stability and predictability it offered amid the uncertainty and stresses that accompanied their experience of homelessness.
- The majority of parents (17 out of 20) spoke positively about their children’s relationship with teachers and school staff. They described how praise, authentic encouragement and access to in-school supports had assisted children during periods of transition.
- The parents and teachers surveyed repeatedly identified lack of access to a healthy diet as a factor impacting on children’s school attendance and learning. Parents described challenges in providing school lunches while living in emergency accommodation, with some reporting they had to choose between paying for transport to school and feeding their children.
- Thirteen of 19 families surveyed indicated their children had to get up each morning before seven, with three parents waking their children at 5.30am to ensure access to a communal bathroom and allow enough travel time to get to school. Children were said to be fatigued before arriving in school, often sleeping on their morning commute.
- Scarce financial resources, long journeys to and from school, significant transport costs, lack of appropriate facilities for food preparation and storage, and inadequate facilities for sleep and maintaining personal hygiene result in irritability, exhaustion, low self-esteem and feelings of social isolation amongst children experiencing homelessness. This impacts on their school attendance and results in reduced engagement and participation in school life.
- The uncertainty and displacement caused by homelessness result in changes to children’s behaviour, including refusal to eat, increased levels of agitation, crying and comfort-seeking behaviours – with negative repercussions for their education.
The recommendations in the Children’s Rights Alliance report include:
- A ring-fenced fund for schools to provide for the needs of children experiencing homelessness, including psychological assessment and support, extracurricular activities, homework clubs, additional tuition, or wrap-around services delivered within the school premises.
- Increased provision of the Home School Community Liaison programme, and extension of this service to non-DEIS schools with children experiencing homelessness.
- Expansion of the July Education Programme of the Department of Education and Skills – which provides funding to extend the school year by a month for children with severe learning disabilities or autism – to include children experiencing homelessness.
- All temporary and emergency accommodation centres should have appropriately trained staff, safe and secure spaces for rest and sleep, age-appropriate homework and study spaces, adequate facilities for food preparation and storage, and appropriate standards of sanitary accommodation, including private bathrooms and access to washing machines.
- A commitment from Government to provide a specific timeline in which it will end the use of emergency hotel and B&B type accommodation for families with children. The report recommends that families with children should not have to live in emergency or temporary accommodation for more than six months and figures relating to the type of provision and period of homelessness for families should be maintained and published on a monthly basis.
- All schools making provision for children experiencing homelessness should have access to resources and facilities to provide children with regular, nutritious food. Consideration should also be given to mechanisms to support children’s access to nutritionally adequate food outside of school hours – through the development of community-based meal provision within school settings.
- A review by the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection of the circumstances of families experiencing homelessness to determine whether an Exceptional Needs Payment would assist with additional education-related costs, particularly at the start of the school year.
The report also includes interesting questionnaires used for the research.
During the 38th session of the Human Rights Council, OIDEL and the Permanent Mission of Portugal, cohosted a side event on the privatization of education, with the participation of four experts: Delphine Dorsi (Executive Coordinator of Right to Education Initiative); Ignasi Grau (representative of OIDEL); Louis-Marie Piron (delegate in charge of international relations of the Secretary General of Catholic Education in France); and Dr. Maria Smirnova (University of Manchester and expert on education and private actors). The event was moderated by Nuno Cabral, the Permanent Representative of Portugal.
The purpose of the event was to discuss and address the challenges of the privatization of education, to distinguish the different actors involved, and to propose solutions from a human rights perspective.
Global Education Monitoring Report (GEM Report) has produced a summary of content related to disability and education from their reports dating back to 2010. This summary provides background to those aiming to take part in the ongoing online consultation for the 2020 GEM Report on inclusion and education.
The summary gives ten key messages with accompanying evidence:
- Most countries have committed to protect the right to education for people with disabilities, which offers a basis for accountability.
- But assessing compliance with this right is complicated by blurred definitions and a lack of monitoring mechanisms.
- Organizations of persons with disabilities, as well as families and communities, can play a significant role in monitoring country commitments to the right to education.
- There is a lack of concrete data showing the true scale of disabilities worldwide and its link to education, although this should improve soon.
- We know that marginalization is more acute for children with disabilities.
- A relatively larger share of children with disabilities live in poorer countries.
- Children with disabilities are less likely to attend and complete primary school
- Those with disabilities are more likely to be without basic literacy skills
- Disability intersects with other disadvantages to exacerbate children’s disadvantage.
- Poverty is both a potential cause and a consequence of disability
- Girls and those in conflict with disabilities can be especially vulnerable.
- Different disabilities create very different education-related challenges
The summary also lists ten recommendations on education policies highlighted in previous GEM Reports as being able to counteract marginalization caused by disabilities:
- Governments should fulfil Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities commitments to set up mechanisms for coordination, independent monitoring, enforcement, complaint and reparation.
- Measuring progress in education for children with disabilities requires also having measures based on nationally representative household surveys, rather than only on children who are in school.
- Governments should develop inclusive curricula to help break down barriers faced by children with disabilities in the classroom.
- Separating children from their peers or families is detrimental to their development and potential.
- Teachers must be supported with training and pedagogical tools to reach children with special needs.
- More teachers with disabilities should be hired.
- Multiple sectors should provide early childhood services to reach children comprehensively.
- Approaches to support people living with disabilities should involve the community to alleviate societal barriers to progress.
- Countries should enforce minimum standards on school accessibility for children with disabilities.
- Additional funds are required to meet the education needs of children with disabilities.
The publication highlights the low funding of public education which is leading to its decline and consequent growth in privatisation of education. The study also focuses on the private schools’ failure to follow the norms and regulations set out by the Nepali Constitution, as well as the government’s failure to ensure the implementation of these requirements. It also warns that private schools are leading to greater segregation and gaps within the society, between rich and poor, and boys and girls.
The 51-page report, “‘Without Education They Lose Their Future’: Denial of Education to Child Asylum Seekers on the Greek Islands,” found that fewer than 15 percent of more than 3,000 school-age asylum-seeking children on the islands were enrolled in public school at the end of the 2017-2018 school year, and that in government-run camps on the islands, only about 100 children, all preschoolers, had access to formal education. The asylum-seeking children on the islands are denied the educational opportunities they would have on the mainland. Most of those who were able to go to school had been allowed to leave the government-run camps for housing run by local authorities and volunteers.
This report tells the stories of some of the world’s 7.4 million refugee children of school age under UNHCR’s mandate. In addition, it looks at the educational aspirations of refugee youth eager to continue learning after secondary education, and highlights the need for strong partnerships in order to break down the barriers to education for millions of refugee children.
Education data on refugee enrolments and population numbers is drawn from UNHCR’s population database, reporting tools and education surveys and refers to 2017. The report also references global enrolment data from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics referring to 2016.
This paper highlights key concluding observations adopted between September 2014 and November 2017 by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), the UN Committee on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) regarding the role of private actors in education in Ghana, Chile, Morocco, Uganda, Kenya, Philippines and Brazil. These add to more than 50 other concluding observations previously issued by these committees on the topic.
The Right to Education Initiative's Annual Report 2017 includes information about us, the activities we have undertaken as well as our key achievements and impacts in four thematic areas: Privatisation and human rights; Monitoring of the right to education; Education 2030; and the right to education of migrants.
This is the first edition of the CESCR Yearbook for 2017. This annual publication provides a concise overview of the accomplishments of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Right’s each year. The first edition covers the Committee’s work in 2017.