[hr-education-na] The State of the Right to Education Worldwide

Reading this report will make you angry. 
It reveals how ill fares the right to education today and exposes the
hypocrisy whereby the right to free and compulsory education is
loudly and universally proclaimed, and quietly and systematically
betrayed. 
Read the report. Get angry. Help expose and oppose economic exclusion
from education. 

Katarina Tomasevski, 1953-2006 


Why don't we have a global strategy for education? When is education not
free? What would it take to make it free? Why should we care?  The "State
of the Right to Education Worldwide" summarizes the shortcomings of global
educational promises and examines how the right to education fares
globally. It 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.

The report features: 
* 170 developing and transitioning countries divided into 6 geographical 
regions 
* 31 tables highlighting the key findings derived from
country-by-country surveys 
* 6 global blueprints for education 
* A comparison of international law versus global targets 1990-2005 
* A synopsis of differences between human rights law and global targets 

It contains disturbing statistics: 
* In Sub-Saharan Africa primary education is only really free in 3 
countries; in 7 countries over 30% of children never even start school. 
* In post-communist states (such as Eastern Europe or Central Asia)
free education is now virtually non-existent; teachers' salaries are often 
below official poverty benchmarks. 
* In developing and transition states 35% of the cost of education is
privately funded; in industrialised countries the figure is 8%. 
* Only 2% of educational funds come from international aid. 

It exposes that: 
* The right to education is taking a back seat to fiscal sustainability. 
* Many governments and intergovernmental agencies are not committed to 
education as ahuman right. 
* The boundary between public and private education has been obliterated 
by conditioning access to public school by payments. 
* Charging for education which should be free is a global phenomenon.
* More than twenty different charges may be imposed in primary school. 
* Resolve and resources are required to realize the right to free and
compulsory education. 

It calls for: 
* Acknowledgement that the key problem in ensuring universal education is 
not lack of public resources (as evidenced in high and increasing military 
expenditures) but the global political will to tackle economic exclusion 
from education. 
* Reaffirmation of education as a public responsibility and elimination of 
financial barriers so that all children, no matter how poor they are, can 
go to school. 
* An end to contradictory policies and institutional rivalries between 
global educational organisations. 
* A realistic monitoring of the cost of education imposed on families
and children themselves, hidden behind the confusing vocabulary of
"fee-free" rather than free education. 
* Forms of international cooperation that facilitate, rather than hinder, 
free and compulsory education for all children. 
* Immediate and concerted prioritization of universal free and compulsory 
education so that all children stay in education until the minimum age of 
employment -- at least 14. 

The report is Katarina Tomasevski's final call to action before her
untimely death on 4 October 2006. It should act as a wake up call to all
those concerned with the right to education and poverty reduction. You can
read and interact with the report at http://www.katarinatomasevski.com






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