Education as a Right 3 Decades of Learning and Evolution

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Education as a Right3 Decades of Learning and
Evolution
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Adult Literacy (Reflect) Early
Childhood Education
Five Pillars of Rights Approach
Elimu
I m p a c t
Non-Formal Education
Teacher Training/ Materials Development
Access for sponsored children
School Building
T i m e
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A colour coded HistoryEach of the next 4 slides
will contain
Our Analysis of the Problem
The Outside World
What we learned
What we did
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1970s Access for sponsored children
AA analysis driven by funding mechanism

• 1950s-60s principal objective of development was
  growth. Impact of education on poverty neglected
• 1970s optimism of decolonization replaced by
  pessimism and dismay at persisting poverty
• Education seen to hold the key to national
  development
• Needs and charity perspectives dominate
• International Covenant on ESC Rights creates
  right to free basic education

• Direct support to individual poor children
  especially girls to access schools

• Support random and inequitable
• Far from cost effective
• But still no advocacy work done and no analysis
  of ESC Rights

ActionAid Learns that
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1980s Bricks and Mortar
AA analysis driven by need to have scale

• Early 80s increased investment in education, but
  stagnating in late 80s
• Access very unequal
• Big push for reform including shift to basic
  education, increased student fees and role of
  private sector
• Instrumentalism - Rights and citizenship
  perspectives ignored
• NGOs focus on provision and developing models of
  best practice

• 16 years of school building had no notable impact
  on school enrolment
• No impact on achievement so shift to teacher
  training and producing teaching materials
• Poor children excluded as school management
  committees promote cost-sharing
• 50 of children where AA worked were excluded due
  to direct and indirect costs

• Supporting schools in poor areas
• Focus on infrastructure
• Best practice of low-cost structures, local
  material, community participation, influenced big
  donors

ActionAid Learns that
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Early 1990s Non-formal education

• 1980s negative trends in enrolment and
  achievement led to 1990 Jomtien/UNESCO Education
  for All Programme Education and fundamental
  right
• Structural Adjustment and modernisation guides
  development approaches
• Education seen instrumentally as meeting the
  demands of the economy
• Debt crisis, donors fund education and with huge
  influence
• Importance of basic education recognised by all
• Governments burdened, slow to change

• ActionAid must have a rights perspective
• No transfer of NFE into formal system
• Unsustainable
• Unintentionally AA was absolving government of
  responsibility to reach poor children 3 tier
  system developing, with the lowest tier
  privatised to NGOs
• NFE a needs approach with AA as a service
  provider run through isolated micro-projects
• Effectively AA was undermining rights since
  children cannot secure a right from NGOs
• Undermining principle of education for all

AA analysis driven by concerns at exclusion and
needs of poorest children

• Development of NFE centres in the poorest
  communities
• Active involvement by poorest parents
• Flexible timetables, mother tongue, local
  materials and many innovations

ActionAid Learns that
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Mid 90s evolving rights approachElimu

• At a local level
• Enabling poor people to have a say in running of
  schools
• Drawing from our grassroots using Reflect
• Nationally
• Civil society alliances to push education reform
  on the domestic agenda
• Internationally
• Arguing for more and better aid through a Global
  Campaign for Education

• Structural adjustment morphs into friendlier
  versions
• Debt relief not delivering, and increased aid
  with big conditions
• Participatory development, good governance,
  civil society and rights approaches developing
  space opening for civil society
• Education policy and reform led by donors
• Child Rights

AA analysis shifts away from providing
education services, to enabling communities to
demand quality education and government
to effectively deliver. Also shift from
only influencing reform locally.
AA analysis driven by need to mainstream NFE into
formal system Access NFE converted to an
agenda For reform
ActionAid Learns through review

• Elimu
• Strengthening the voices of poor people in
  decision making at every
• level
• Focus on equity, quality, access

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Rights Learnings

• Needs-based approaches seek more resources for
  delivering services to marginalised peoples
• Rights seek both more resources, and immediate
  sharing of existing resources, assisting people
  to assert their rights
• Needs is motivated by charity, rights by legal
  and ethical obligations
• Rights focus on accountability of governments and
  increases likelihood of education policies being
  implemented
• Rights sees education is terms of participation,
  accountability and citizenship and what it means
  to be fully human, not simply a means to other
  ends
• Rights legitimise poor peoples lonely and
  dangerous struggle to have a voice and power in
  decision-making, and in shaping futures that they
  and their children would value
• Rights approaches work!

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Were we actually too slow in coming to Rights?

• Education Rights
• 1948 The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
  Article 26 Everyone has the Right to Education
• 1976 International Covenant on Economic, Social
  and Cultural Rights Primary Education shall be
  compulsory and available free to all
• 1980s onward -
• 1990 Convention on the Rights of the Child
• Convention on Discrimination in Education
• 1981 Convention on the Elimination of all forms
  of discrimination against women
• 1986 African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights
  and the African Charter on Rights and Welfare of
  the Child
• Jomtien and Education for All
• 2000 Dakar EFA Conference no child should want
  for an education due to lack of resources
• National Constitutions
• 1995 onwards, many donors adopting explicit
  rights approaches in development

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Education Rights Framework
Rights in Education
Access
Resources
Governance
Realisation of Rights
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Rights Works
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200
20000
2000
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20
Rights
Needs
School uniform to enable one child to go to school
We used it to support two children to mass lobby
parliament in Kenya, leading to the Minister
writing to 17,800 primary schools saying lack of
a uniform should not prevent access to schooling
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200
Rights
Needs
Buy some textbooks and teaching material for an
NFE centre for children displaced by war in
Uganda
AA Uganda used it to help District officials to
present evidence of why government policy was not
working (based on AA Uganda and NGO Education
Federation evidence). This led to a new policy
and major funding from UNICEF and the EC. 200
influenced how 2 million was spent.
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2000
Rights
Needs
AA Tanzania funded the Tanzanian Education
Network to do research on why children were
unable to go to school. It showed that user fees
were the problem. A campaign to abolish user-fees
led to an extra 1 million children enrolling
the next year
Build an extra classroom in Tanzania benefiting
50-100 children
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20000
Needs
Rights
In Bangladesh you could open an NFE centre and
run it for 3 years reaching 100 poor children who
would not have access to schooling
AA Bangladesh is using it to ensure that everyone
understands the governments Education budget and
holds the government to account. With 20,000 we
can ensure that over 200 million is getting
where it should do.
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There are many other illustrations. For example
supporting social movements to push for
constitutional rights to education (Kenya).
A rights perspective helps us to get the analysis
right
The key is to get the analysis right and
understand how best we can use our resources to
ensure that all children gain access to quality
education.