This report summarizes in 281 pages the shortcomings of global educational promises and then examines how the right to education fares in 170 countries. Developing and transitioning countries are divided into six geographical regions and 31 tables highlight the key findings derived from country-by-country surveys. The Report highlights the abyss between the domestic policies of wealthy creditor and donor governments which keep compulsory education free, and their external policies which have made it for-fee. All sources are indicated in 1,317 footnotes.
Abolishing School Fees in Africa is the product of a SFAI workshop, “School Fee Abolition: Building on What We Know and Defining Sustained Support,” held in Kenya in 2006. The book begins with a comparative overview of the processes, challenges, and lessons learned by five countries that had already abolished school fees: Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, and Mozambique. The subsequent chapters delineate the actual experiences of each of the countries in planning and implementing their policies.
The second edition of the Global Education Monitoring Report (GEM Report) presents the latest evidence on global progress towards the education targets of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
With hundreds of millions of people still not going to school, and many not achieving minimum skills at school, it is clear education systems are off track to achieve global goals. The marginalised currently bear the most consequences but also stand to benefit the most if policy-makers pay sufficient attention to their needs. Faced with these challenges, along with tight budgets and increased emphasis on results-oriented value for money, countries are searching for solutions. Increased accountability often tops the list.
The 2017/8 GEM Report shows the entire array of approaches to accountability in education. It ranges from countries unused to the concept, where violations of the right to education go unchallenged, to countries where accountability has become an end in itself instead of a means to inclusive, equitable and high-quality education and lifelong learning for all.
The report emphasises that education is a shared responsibility. While governments have primary responsibility, all actors – schools, teachers, parents, students, international organizations, private sector providers, civil society and the media – have a role in improving education systems. The report emphasises the importance of transparency and availability of information but urges caution in how data are used. It makes the case for avoiding accountability systems with a disproportionate focus on narrowly defined results and punitive sanctions. In an era of multiple accountability tools, the report provides clear evidence on those that are working and those that are not.
The report focuses on the legal obligations of states and private entities to mobilise all resources at their disposal, including those that could be collected through taxation or prevention of illicit financial flows, to satisfy minimum essential levels of human rights and finds that states who facilitate or actively promote tax abuses, at the domestic or cross-border level, may be in violation of international human rights law.
The report is based on a detailed examination of UN treaty bodies and special procedures’ views on the current interpretation of the scope and content of this obligation to mobilise resources. Further, it is published against the backdrop of increased awareness of the relationship between economic policies and human rights and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which committed all UN member states to ‘strengthen domestic resource mobilization, including through international support to developing countries, to improve domestic capacity for tax and other revenue collection’ and ‘significantly reduce illicit financial flows’.
In recent decades, governments have made considerable efforts to provide education for all. However, a large gap remains between international commitments, such as the Sustainable Development Goal 4, and the actual achievement of inclusive and equitable quality education for all. As a result, certain actors often critique public education as ineffective and inefficient, and thus incapable of addressing this issue. They argue for privatisation as a solution, deeming private providers as more innovative and effective than public ones. However, shortcomings in public education often arise not from lack of capacity, but lack of political will.
This review of examples of public education in low- and middle-income countries shows that, in direct contrast to widely disseminated (and empirically unvalidated) ideas, public education can be highly effective, efficient and transformative and, crucially, it is possible to develop quality public education everywhere.
En los países latinoamericanos, la necesidad de disponer de recursos adicionales para financiar los servicios sociales, la infraestructura y la inversión educativa ponen de manifiesto la urgencia de vincular fiscalidad y educación en las discusiones sobre las políticas públicas. Para incrementar la inversión social en educación es necesario que la comunidad educativa regional considere activamente la relevancia que la actual estructura tributaria y en específico el impacto que los flujos financieros ilícitos (FFI) tienen sobre el desfinanciamiento de la inversión social, ya que significan pérdidas cuantiosas en términos de ingresos tributarios no recaudados.
Synthèse commissionnée par l’Initiative pour le droit à l’éducation (RTE) dans le cadre de la préparation du rapport L’enseignement supérieur en France : un droit menacé face aux inégalités croissantes ? soumis à la conférence mondiale de l’UNESCO sur l’enseignement supérieur en mai 2022.
Le présent rapport de la Rapporteuse spéciale sur le droit à l’éducation, Farida Shaheed, est soumis à l’occasion du vingt-cinquième anniversaire de la création du mandat relatif au droit à l’éducation. Dans son rapport, la Rapporteuse spéciale passe en revue les résultats obtenus dans le domaine du droit à l’éducation et expose la manière dont on conçoit ce droit et les obligations qui en découlent, ainsi que les questions contemporaines et nouvelles dont il convient de tenir compte pour garantir le droit à l’éducation pour tous, aujourd’hui et à l’avenir.
Este informe de la Relatora Especial sobre el derecho a la educación, Farida Shaheed, se presenta con ocasión del 25º aniversario del establecimiento del mandato sobre el derecho a la educación. En su informe, la Relatora Especial examina los logros realizados en este ámbito, cómo se entiende el derecho a la educación y las obligaciones que conlleva, así como cuestiones tanto contemporáneas como emergentes que deben tenerse en cuenta para garantizar el derecho a la educación para todos, hoy y en el futuro.
In her first report to the Human Rights Council, 25 years after the establishment of the mandate on the right to education, the Special Rapporteur reviews achievements, particularly on how the right to education is understood today and the obligations it entails, as well as contemporary and emerging issues that need to be considered to ensure the right to education for all, today and in the future.
A/HRC/53/27