[hr-education] Special Rapporteur on the right to education publishes report on her mission to China

Right to Education Project
for the United Nations Special Rapporteur
www.right-to-education.org

NEW: REPORT OF THE SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON HER MISSION TO CHINA

Examining education in China through the human rights lens is no easy
task.  The United Nations limit of 10,700 words for the report makes this
task even more difficult. The report highlights key problems and includes
recommendations on the many changes that are required by China's
international human rights obligations.

Most importantly, although the term "the right to education" is abundantly
used, China's Constitution defines education as an individual duty, adding
a "right to receive education". Her report emphasises the need to affirm
the right to education and human rights in education because education
imposed upon minorities, enforcing their children's obligation to receive
compulsory education, violates human rights when it denies their religious
or linguistic identity. A great deal of change is needed because freedom
to impart education is not recognized, nor is teachers' freedom of
association. Religious education remains prohibited in both public and
private education.

The Private Education Promotion Law, which came into force on 1 September
2003, has further blurred the boundary between education as a human right
and a traded service. There is a risk that education will follow health
services, which are available only against payment and preclude the many
who simply cannot afford the cost from access. Those the least able to
finance education - the poorest - can afford the least schooling although
they need free education the most. The exact number of children who should
be but are not at school is not known; migrant or out-of-plan children do
not even figure in statistics. Moreover, primary schooling was reduced by
one year (with enrolment moved from age 6 to 7) and the net enrolment
ratio decreased from 97 per cent in 1990 to 93 per cent in 2000.

Although the law on compulsory education requires government funding of
schools so as to prevent the charging of fees, she has found that "public
schools charge fees, although they should not; schools for migrant
children charge fees because there simply is no public funding; rural
schools charge fees because public funding is insufficient." Indeed,
China's official statistics for 2000 showed that merely 53 per cent of
funding for education was public, and out of that merely 8 per cent came
from the central Government and only 2 per cent went to compulsory
education. Furthermore, school fees continue to be regulated rather than
abolished.

China's international human rights obligations include ensuring free
nine-year education for all children in the compulsory education age
range.  To make this possible, she recommends that "the budgetary
allocation for education should be increased to the internationally
recommended minimum of 6% of GDP, that is, doubled from the current 3 to
6%."


Right to Education Project
for the United Nations Special Rapporteur
www.right-to-education.org




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