This guide presents ideas and methodologies to put a human rights-based approach to education in practice. It focuses on six strategic areas that are central to (and provide a framework for) a HRBA to education including: understanding and securing the right to education working with excluded groups; financing education; promoting citizen participation in education securing rights in education; advancing a full "Education for All" agenda. Each section begins with a brief overview of key issues to be considered and then discusses a range of activities which could be developed within a scheme of work. Short practical examples are given, from a wide range of countries. The majority of the activities focus on work at the local level, but national and international links are also discussed. Within each section two or three areas are analysed in more detail.

Spanish

Este paquete desarrolla una serie de ideas y metodologías para poner en práctica un planteamiento de la educación basado en los derechos humanos. Se concentra en seis sectores estratégicos, que son esenciales para trabajar en educación con un planteamiento basado en los derechos humanos y que proporcionan un marco para este trabajo. Estos sectores son: Comprender y asegurar el derecho a la educación; Trabajar con grupos excluidos; Financiar la educación; Promover la participación ciudadana en la educación; Conseguir derechos en educación; Promover un programa completo de “Educación para Todos”. Cada capítulo empieza con una breve presentación de los aspectos más importantes a ser analizados y sigue con una explicación de las actividades que podrían realizarse dentro de un esquema de trabajo. También se incluyen ejemplos prácticos de numerosos países. La mayoría de las actividades se centran en el trabajo a nivel local, pero también se analizan los vínculos nacionales e internacionales. Dentro de cada capítulo, hemos escogido dos o tres áreas que se analizan con mayor detalle. 

 

Overview of the measures supporting the rights, status and working conditions of the teaching profession reported on by Member States.

In many countries, the quality of education is undermined by a severe deficit of teachers. The UNESCO Institute for Statistics estimates that to achieve universal primary education by 2020 countries will need to recruit a total of 12.6 million primary teachers. By 2030, the total demand for teachers would rise to 27.3 million. The shortage of qualified teachers is hampering efforts in many countries to achieve good quality education for all. Furthermore, there is also a qualitative challenge: teachers are often lacking good resources, such as teaching materials and textbooks, or proper training. The quality of teaching is essential to good learning outcomes. This implies an education system that attracts and retains a qualified teaching staff and that supports teachers in the classroom, as well as in their continued professional development.

Aimed at actively engaging parents, children, teachers, unions, communities and local civil society organisations in collectively monitoring and improving the quality of public education PRS offers a set of practical tools that can be used as a basis for mobilisation, advocacy and campaigning. The pack provides four key resources:

1) A charter of 10 rights which, when fulfilled, will enable all children to complete a good quality education;

2) A participatory methodology for: using the charter; collecting, analysing and using data; and consolidating information into ‘citizens reports’ that could be used for the development of Action Plans or to encourage discussions and reviews at local, district and national levels;

3) A series of education- and rights-based indicators organised in a survey format to enable users to capture information in a systematic manner;

4) A compilation of key international human rights references providing the foundations and legitimacy of the charter and reports

PRS builds on education and human rights frameworks to describe an ideal school that offers quality education. Its methodology supports links between programme work at the school level and advocacy and policy efforts in national and international forums. The process is as important as the outcome: it is only through engaging all stakeholders in the process - from developing the charter to collecting and analysing the data and debating the findings - that we will promote greater awareness of what needs to change and how.

Español  French

These Guidelines set out principles for the promotion of decent work for early childhood education (ECE) personnel as a means of ensuring universal access to high-quality ECE services. In this respect they cover conditions of work and employment of ECE personnel and related issues, including ECE financing, curricula and learning practices, social security, professional ethics and ECE governance systems. The Guidelines are meant to serve as a reference tool on principles that should be reflected in the design and implementation of ECE measures such as policies, strategies, legislation, administrative measures and social dialogue mechanisms, including collective bargaining agreements. The Guidelines can be implemented progressively to achieve their objectives so as to take account of different national settings, cultures, and social, economic and political contexts.

 
 
Key resource

Education is a fundamental human right of every woman, man and child. In states’ efforts to meet their commitments to making the right to education a reality for all, most have made impressive progress in recent decades. With new laws and policies that remove fees in basic education, significant progress has been made in advancing free education. This has led to tens of millions of children enrolling for the first time and the number of out of school children and adolescents falling by almost half since 2000. Important steps have also been taken with regard to gender parity and states have made efforts to raise the quality of education through improved teacher policies and a growing emphasis on learning outcomes. 

Despite these efforts, breaches of the right to education persist worldwide, illustrated perhaps most starkly by the fact that 262 million primary and secondary-aged children and youth are still out of school. Girls, persons with disabilities, those from disadvantaged backgrounds or rural areas, indigenous persons, migrants and national minorities are among those who face the worst discrimination, affecting both their right to go to school and their rights within schools.

To respond to the challenges, the Right to Education Initiative (RTE) with UNESCO have developed this handbook to guide action on ensuring full compliance with the right to education. Its objective is not to present the right to education as an abstract, conceptual, or purely legal concept, but rather to be action-oriented. The handbook will also be an important reference for those working towards the achievement of SDG4, by offering guidance on how to leverage legal commitment to the right to education as a strategic way to achieve this goal. 

FRANCAIS

Key resource

The ten rights defined in this PRS framework describe what should be included in the approach of an ‘ideal’ school that offers quality inclusive public education and supports our work to secure and strengthen free, compulsory inclusive quality public education for all.

This collaborative approach between ActionAid and the Right to Education Initiative aims to secure free, compulsory, quality public education for all.

This is version two of the framework replacing the first version produced in 2011.

Quality education is fundamental to sustainable development. Education is the one of the most powerful tools by which people can lift themselves out of poverty and fully participate in their communities. SDG 4 sets specific targets to address the challenges of achieving quality education universally, and provides a comprehensive framework to reaching inclusive and equitable quality education for all. Beyond enrolment rates, SDG 4 puts a welcomed emphasis on quality education and learning outcomes. This Guide takes a deep dive into how the law can play a large role in achieving SDG 4.