Global Courant
Download logo
At the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva this week, more than 70 countries from all regions of the world expressed their support for “efforts to strengthen the right to education, including the explicit right to full free secondary education and at least one year free preparatory education.” -primary education.”
Luxembourg and the Dominican Republic led the statement of support.
Brazil went even further, inviting all states to consider a new international legal instrument to formally recognize every child’s right to at least one year of preschool and to free inclusive public and quality secondary education.
Why was such a statement necessary? For starters, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child – the most widely ratified international human rights treaty – does not explicitly refer to early childhood education, and while it requires primary education to be free and compulsory, it does not explicitly require governments to provide all children with free pre-primary education. or provide secondary education. But to ensure that children reach their full potential and thrive in today’s world, free primary education is simply not enough.
At an event the day before, Sierra Leone Education Minister David Moinina Sengeh explained in a video address that an initiative launched in Sierra Leone in 2018 to abolish tuition and exam fees has increased enrollment in schools with more than a million children. This year, Sierra Leone passed these legislative changes, guaranteeing 13 years of free education, from kindergarten to secondary school.
It’s not just governments calling for stronger international law around free education: activists and human rights experts, Nobel laureates and, in an open letter from the global citizen movement Avaaz, more than half a million people around the world are making a similar call.
Human Rights Watch’s analysis shows that the most effective way to strengthen international law on the right to education would be a fourth optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Lucia Fry, director of research and policy at the Malala Fund, rhetorically wondered whether expanding the international legal framework would solve everything.
“No,” she replied, but listed three things it would do:
It will be another pillar in the scaffolding that upholds the global standard that all children should be educated. It will give “tailwind” to girls who are “struggling to open the doors of learning to all”. And it will be an invaluable tool for children, parents, activists and policymakers to fight for the right to free education for all.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Human Rights Watch (HRW).
This press release is issued by APO. The content is not checked by the African Business editors and none of the content has been checked or validated by our editors, proofreaders or fact-checkers. The publisher is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
More than 70 countries pledge to strengthen the right to free education
World News,Next Big Thing in Public Knowledg
#countries #pledge #strengthen #free #education
