This present document, produced by the Brazilian Campaign for the Right to Education (Brazilian Campaign) and the NGO Ação Educativa, aims to present a brief overview of the ongoing privatization processes in education in Brazil and its negative impacts on the achievement of the human right to education of children and adolescents, as a contribution to the II Alternative Report on the Situation of the Rights of the Child in Brazil organized by the National Association of Centers for the Defense of Child Rights (Associação Nacional dos Centros de Defesa da Criança e do Adolescente - Anced).
Part of a law which allowed the Colombian government to charge for primary education was deemed unconstitutional after a pair of Colombian lawyers, collaborating with the law faculty at New York’s Cornell University and a coalition of civil society organisations, brought a direct challenge against its discriminatory provisions.
A lo largo de las últimas décadas, las políticas pro privatización han cobrado un lugar central en muchos procesos de reforma educativa a escala global (Burch, 2009). El avance de estas políticas se explica parcialmente por el impacto de una serie de factores comunes de carácter externo –incluyendo presiones derivadas de la globalización económica o el rol de organizaciones internacionales con una preferencia por las soluciones de mercado. Sin embargo, en su implementación, estas políticas no responden a un modelo homogéneo en cuanto a sus fines, sentidos, diseños y temporalidades. Por el contrario, diversos condicionantes de carácter interno, sociopolíticos, institucionales, demográficos e históricos propios de cada contexto nacional y/o subnacional han dado como resultado distintas trayectorias de privatización educativa con características específicas (Verger, Fontdevila, & Zancajo, 2016).
En América Latina, las políticas pro privatización han asumido un rol protagónico singular en los procesos de reforma educativa, especialmente a partir de la década de 1990 (Bellei & Orellana, 2014). La consecuencia más evidente –aunque no exclusiva– de estos procesos ha sido la creciente participación de agentes privados en la provisión educativa bajo diversos arreglos institucionales. En las últimas décadas, de hecho, América Latina ha sido la región del mundo en la que la privatización de la provisión educativa ha crecido de forma más acusada y constante (Verger, Moschetti, & Fontdevila, 2017). A su vez, como rasgo particular y paradójico, los procesos de privatización en la región corrieron en paralelo al creciente ingreso a la educación pública de sectores sociales largamente excluidos del acceso a este derecho (Bordoli & Conde, 2016). El interjuego de ambos procesos no ha hecho más que poner de manifiesto las contradicciones y desafíos que enfrentan los estados de la región en materia de integración e igualdad.
El informe "Educación privada de bajo coste en el Perú: un enfoque desde la calidad" ha sido realizado conjuntamente por un equipo de investigación de la Universitat
Autònoma de Barcelona y del Grupo de Análisis para el Desarrollo de Lima y ofrece un panorama actual de la distribución de la oferta privada en el Perú, con especial atención a Lima Metropolitana y, en particular, al distrito de San Juan de Lurigancho.
In this decision, the eighth chamber of review of the Constitutional Court of Colombia found that the State had violated the fundamental rights to education and equality of four children who lived outside the urban centre by not providing transportation to the closest secondary education institution.
In this action brought by a transgender student against the National Service of Education (SENA), the Constitutional Court defended the right to education and the free development of the person by ordering that the student be allowed to wear a male uniform, that he be treated in accordance with his identity as a transgender man, and that the SENA implement a plan that promotes the respect and free development of the person, particularly regarding expressions of gender identity and sexual orientation.
In this decision, the Court found that the right to education of a disabled child had been violated when the educational institution did not award an official certificate of completion for his secondary education, even after the student had met all the requirements of his personalised education project (proyecto pedagógico individual or PPI) because his PPI did not comply with the minimum requirements under local regulations. The Court concluded that people with disabilities have the right to an inclusive education on an equal basis with others, and this includes the right to have their capabilities and accomplishments certified under equal conditions. ‘Equal conditions’ does not necessarily mean identical requirements but rather, making reasonable adjustments to ensure that individuals are treated as equals. Namely, the Court explained that the plaintiff, having met the specific requirements of his PPI and having attended and passed 5 years of courses at the institution, had the same right as his classmates that had met the requirements imposed on them to receive a certificate.
In this case, petitioners supported by the Colombian Coalition for the Right to Education filed a claim with the Constitutional Court of Colombia challenging a provision in the General Education Law (Law No. 115 of 1994), which allowed the government to impose fees for primary education. The Constitutional Court found that the provision of law that allowed the charging of fees for primary education was unenforceable and in violation of the Colombian Constitution and international human rights treaties. This decision reaffirmed that Colombian laws must be interpreted in light of the provisions of international human rights treaties, which have a superior standing. The decision also confirmed the fundamental nature of the right to free primary education.
On 12 June 2014, during the June Session of the Human Rights Council, the Portuguese Mission, together with Privatisation in Education Research Initiative (PERI) and the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (GI-ESCR), convened a side-event on privatisation and its impact on the right to education at Palais des Nations in Geneva. In this podcast, Iracema Nascimento dos Santos, from the Brazilian Campaign for the Right to Education shares the Brazilian case.