This report explores a range of innovative education budget work initiatives from Bangladesh, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi and Uganda, where civil society has monitored and challenged their governments over education expenditure in order to hold themaccountable for commitments to EFA and the MDGs. It examines the significance and impact of civil society budget initiatives by drawing on interviews and focus group discussions with a range of education stakeholders, including education coalitions, government officials, nongovernmental organisations (NGOs), teaching staff and school pupils; and by reviewing research reports and budget manuals developed by civil society organisations (CSOs).

 

This report examines the right to education of children in detention in thirteen countries: Albania, Belgium, Colombia, Ecuador, Italy, Lebanon, Netherlands, Niger, Nigeria, Palestine, Pakistan, Sierra Leone and Uganda.

Alternative Report submitted by ISER-Uganda and the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, with the support of the Privatisation in Education Research Initiative, the Right to Education Project, Education International, the Global Campaign for Education, the Africa Network Campaign on Education For All, Forum for Education NGO's in Uganda and the Girls Education Movement Uganda Chapter to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights at its 54th Session for its consideration of the List of Issues for Uganda. This report highlights the issue of privatisation in education in Uganda.

 

 

This report begins by examining some of the explicit and implicit causes of attacks on girls’ education during peacetime and in situations of crisis, including settings of armed conflict, political instability and widespread criminal violence. It looks at the impact of attacks against girls accessing education on their rights to and within educational systems as well as the broader consequences of these attacks on the promotion and protection of human rights through education by focusing on the linkages between education and a host of other civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. The applicable international legal and policy framework is then outlined and the situation of girls accessing education within settings of crisis, political instability and conflict is analysed in greater detail. The final section of the report provides several recommendations to States and other stakeholders aimed at preventing and redressing violations of girls’ rights to, within and through education.

 

This edition of the Economic and Social Advocacy Brief looks beyond the increased enrollment figures and provides a qualitative assessment to determine if the current basic education system in Uganda is directed to the full development of the human personality.

Education Minister Hon. Jessica Alupo sets the scene in a Q&A by voicing her support for the increment of the UPE Capitation grant and implementation of other measures aimed at motivating teachers.

Uganda Human Rights Commission writes about the states obligation in relation to the right to education, veteran journalist and Observer Education Editor, Moses Talemwa, writes about the state of public education in Uganda as well as the implications and impact of privatised education on the broader right to education.

UNESCO makes the case that quality education requires a commitment to invest in teachers.

The Brief features the views of six Members of Parliament from the Education Committee on how to improve the quality of universal basic education such that it adheres to an acceptable standard. The Brief also provides excerpts and highlights from the alternative reports on education submitted to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights ahead of Uganda’s review by the Committee in June 2015.

The following articles relevant to the justiciability of the right to education can be found in this INTERIGHTS Bulletin:

  • Diokno, MSI (2007) Short-changing the Right to Education in the Philippines,
  • Ribeiro, RM (2007) Securing the Right to Education in Brazil: A Brief Overview of the Role of the Courts
  • Courtis, C (2007) The Right to Education in the Jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights
  • Cojocariu, C (2007) Racial Discrimination against Roma Children in Schools: Recent Developments from Courts in Bulgaria and Hungary

The following article is relevant to the right to education of minorities:

  • de Varennes, F (2007) Language Rights in Education

The Right to Education Project, with the support of international and British organisations as well as teachers' unions have submitted a report to the Committee on the Rights of the Child about the UK's support of the growth of private actors in education through its development aid: questioning its responsibilities as regards its human rights extra-territorial obligations.

The report raises concern about the increased use of British aid money to support for-profit schools, in particular so-called ‘low-fee’ private schools, which are fuelling inequality, creating segregation and undermining the right to education.

The report finds that the UK’s policies in support of private education through its development aid are problematic and that the country could be violating its extra-territorial obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in two regards:

  • Firstly, the UK’s support for for-profit, fee-charging private schools that do not reach the poorest is questioned in light of the UK’s obligations to fulfil the right to education, including the right to free quality education without discrimination;   
  • Secondly, the UK’s responsibility is questioned in particular in relation to its own impact assessments that have been conducted on its policies of providing support to private schools and which have concluded that projects supporting private education providers are less likely to target the most marginalised, and that more research needs to be carried out on the impact of private schools in developing countries on, among other elements, the efficiency of “low-fee” private schools.

Alternative Report submitted by ISER-Uganda and the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, with the support of the Privatisation in Education Research Initiative, the Right to Education Project, Education International, the Global Campaign for Education, the Africa Network Campaign on Education For All, Forum for Education NGO's in Uganda and the Girls Education Movement Uganda Chapter to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights at its 56th Ordinary Session for its consideration of the List of Issues for Uganda.

This report highlights the issue of privatisation in education in Uganda. 

This paper highlights key concluding observations adopted between 2014 and 2016 by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), and the UN Committee on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) regarding the role of private actors in education in Brazil, Chile, Ghana, Haiti, Kenya, Morocco, Uganda and Zimbabwe. These add to more than 50 other concluding observations previously issued by these committees on the topic.

This report assesses the PPP policy in education in Uganda and its compliance with the human rights standards as well as the right to education for all children. In addition, the report examines issues of regulation and supervision of PPP schools, equitable geographical access to education, access by vulnerable groups, financing and costeffectiveness, as well as quality of education and value for money.

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