On 29 June 2023, the first International Symposiums on the Right to Education (S-I-D-E in its French acronyms) was held. It was co-organised by RTE, alongside with the University of Geneva, the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Educoop, the Francophone research network on the privatisation of education (REFPE), and the Suisse Society for Education Research (SSRE).
Organised online, free of charge, with a wide space given to Francophone voices from the global South, this unique initiative brought together academics and civil society organisations to share research on the right to education and reflect on creative solutions to move towards the realisation of the right to education. The discussions were rich, including definitions, and different realities among countries. The question of the financing of education was central in the discussions organised around 4 thematic areas: the effectiveness of free education, the impacts of the privatisation and commercialisation of education, alternative voices / pathways for education, and positive experiences of education as a common good.
This successful event is the result of several years of collaboration with Francophone academics and civil society organisations to make more visible and strengthen the Francophone research on the right to education.
You can watch in French the excellent opening conference of Pr. Idrissa Sonia Traoré on the privatisation of education in Mali.
Find also all the videos of the sessions and the documents here.