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Human Rights Bodies Statements
On Private Actors In Education

OVERVIEW

Human rights bodies, namely The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), the UN Committee on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) have addressed the issue of the role of private actors in education 51 times in 35 States in the last nine years.

These statements clearly reflect the trend of the growth of unregulated private providers of education that the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and other organisations have been researching. It also demonstrates the growing concerns raised by human rights experts regarding the impact this trend has on the right to education as protected under the four treaties monitored by these committees.

The committees have made several recommendations focusing on the following topics:

Assessments, regulations and monitoring
Assess and address the consequences of the rapid development of private education in the State party and its impact on the full realization of children’s right to education” (CRC, Ghana); “[s]trengthen regulations and expand monitoring and oversight mechanisms for private education institutions” (CESCR, Uganda); “regulate and monitor the quality of education provided by private informal schools in line with the Convention” (CRC, Kenya); “[e]nsure that all schools, including the low-cost private schools, are registered and monitor their compliance with the Implementing Rules and Regulations of the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013 and the relevant guidelines” (CESCR, Philippines); “[e]stablish a clear regulatory framework, under which all private education providers are obliged to report regularly to designated public authorities on their financial operations, in line with prescriptive regulations, covering matters such as school fees and salaries, and to declare, in a fully transparent manner, that they are not engaged in for-profit education as recommended by the Special Rapporteur on the right to education” (CRC, Brazil);  “strengthening mechanisms for monitoring the compliance of both public and private schools with minimum educational standards(CRC, Kuwait);regulate and monitor private schools with the aim of addressing inequality in the education system” (CRC, Tunisia); “regulate private education providers to ensure the rights of children in all educational settings” (CRC, Cambodia); “reinforce the rules and mechanisms in place for monitoring and overseeing private educational institutions” (CRC, Democratic Republic of Congo); “[p]rovide data in the next periodic report on the effect of the privatization of schools on the right of women and girls to pursue their education and on the provision of special needs education for women and girls” (CEDAW, Nigeria) and “allocating resources to ensure the high quality and accessibility of public education and regulating and monitoring private schools with the aim of addressing inequality in the education system” (CRC, Sweden).

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