This report provides an analysis of support to private sector engagement in Global Partnership for Education (GPE) recipient countries, building off a prior study focusing on GPE decision-making on private schooling. This review includes an analysis of 101 documents relating to the 40 GPE recipient partner countries with active Education Sector Program Implementation Grants (ESPIGs). Country profiles of Haiti, Pakistan, and Uganda are provided in an Appendix, each of which highlights important trends with implications for GPE support to private participation in education.
The report contextualizes private engagement in education from a human rights perspective. Based on a descriptive analysis of Education Sector Plans (ESPs) and ESPIG project documents, it finds that GPE projects include far less private sector engagement in education than do country-designed ESPs. The report also gives a brief account of GRA grants and the single GRA project that engages the private sector.
Summary reflections on private sector engagement in GPE recipient countries note trends and areas for further investigation including issues concerning the ambiguous descriptions of private schools within the documents; the range of rationales provided for support to private schools; tax/fiscal incentives for private engagement; PPPs in early childhood education; private participation in policy-making; the role of the private sector as an education funder; and the widely agreed-upon need for regulation of private schools.
The analysis concludes that while a notable presence and expansion of private participation in GPE recipient countries is clear, this engagement cannot be attributed directly to GPE. In fact, the discrepancy between private school support in ESPs and ESPIGs reflects a GPE prioritization of public education. Yet some significant tensions emerge between GPE’s commitment to the right to education and particular forms of private participation as identified in the project documents and ESPs.
The Global Partnership for Education treads a fine line relating to private engagement in education, navigating its dual mandate to both support education as a human right and a public good, while simultaneously promoting country ownership and nationally identified priorities. And so while GPE is in a position to maintain its course in predominantly supporting public education, this current stance may come in tension with the goals of recipient governments and other stakeholders within countries.
This report is presented pursuant to Human Rights Council resolutions 8/4 and 35/2. In it, the Special Rapporteur examines how the right to education, and the commitments made in the Sustainable Development Goals, provide guidance for governance in national education systems.
This report considers how the right to education must be mainstreamed into the governance in education. Governance in this context can be thought to include the laws, policies, institutions, administrative procedures and practices, monitoring and accountability mechanisms, and judicial procedures that are related to education. These must incorporate a rights-based approach to ensure not only that non-discrimination and equitable access for all are mainstreamed, but that learners who have been the hardest to reach, including members of vulnerable groups, are prioritized, even if such decisions are counter to the traditional emphasis on efficiency.
Children in Afghanistan – and their households may face war, displacement, migration and natural disasters in trying to access education, in addition to more common difficulties such as poverty and lack of access. This study, part of the Global Initiative on Out-of-School Children launched by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Institute for Statistics (UNESCO UIS), seeks to identify the barriers preventing children in Afghanistan from attending school, identify gaps in the current approaches to addressing these barriers and provide policy recommendations to move forward effectively. This is in line with the studies conducted elsewhere at the country and regional level for the out-of-school children initiative (OOSCI), based on existing data.
Under the law, all Lebanese children should have access to education free from discrimination. Lebanon’s Law 220 of 2000 grants persons with disabilities the right to education, health, and other basic rights. It set up a committee dedicated to optimizing conditions for children registered as having a disability to participate in all classes and tests.
In reality, the educational path of children with disabilities in Lebanon is strewn with logistical, social, and economic pitfalls that mean they often face a compromised school experience—if they can enroll at all.
Under the law, all Lebanese children should have access to education free from discrimination. Lebanon’s Law 220 of 2000 grants persons with disabilities the right to education, health, and other basic rights. It set up a committee dedicated to optimizing conditions for children registered as having a disability to participate in all classes and tests.
Du 23 au 26 octobre s’est tenue la deuxième Rencontre francophone sur la marchandisation et la privatisation de l’éducation à l’Institut de la Francophonie pour l’Éducation et la Formation à Dakar. Cet événement a réuni 107 délégués issus de 25 pays. Le rapport fournit un état des lieux de la privatisation et de la marchandisation dans l’espace francophone, sur la base des discussions qui ont eu lieu lors de la rencontre, ainsi qu’un résumé de la consultation francophone sur les principes directeurs des droits de l’Homme relatifs aux obligations des Etats concernant les acteurs privés dans l’éducation.
The African continent has the highest adolescent pregnancy rates in the world, according to the United Nations. Every year, thousands of girls become pregnant at the time when they should be learning history, algebra, and life skills. Adolescent girls who have early and unintended pregnancies face many social and financial barriers to continuing with formal education.
All girls have a right to education regardless of their pregnancy, marital or motherhood status. The right of pregnant—and sometimes married—girls to continue their education has evoked emotionally charged discussions across African Union member states in recent years. These debates often focus on arguments around “morality,” that pregnancy outside wedlock is morally wrong, emanating from personal opinions and experiences, and wide-ranging interpretations of religious teachings about sex outside of marriage. The effect of this discourse is that pregnant girls – and to a smaller extent, school boys who impregnate girls– have faced all kinds of punishments, including discriminatory practices that deny girls the enjoyment of their right to education. In some of the countries researched for this report, education is regarded as a privilege that can be withdrawn as a punishment.
In 2018, the international community will meet to adopt a new Global Compact on Refugees; a product of the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants. The Compact promises that ‘all refugee children will be in school and learning within a few months of arrival’ and commits to ‘prioritise budgetary provision to facilitate this, including support for host countries as required’. The opportunity to advance this agenda is now. However, commitments without actionable plans do not deliver results.
The report ‘Time to act: a costed plan to deliver quality education to every last refugee child’ sets out a realistic, global plan to ensure refugee children get to go to school. Save the children challenges governments and international agencies to deliver on the promises they have made with practical action.
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.