Non State actors in education – UNESCO report
UNESCO Press Release and my thoughts in italics
UNESCO calls for better oversight of private education to reduce inequalities
Absolument true- There is a gap which is widening – When I would see state ghost schools and then see private schools catering to the same children charging fees which for the vulnerable were exorbitant in my Ministerial SSN days it did not make the task of reducing gap any easier. You cannot say to parents rely on the state when the state is not providing. They will turn elsewhere.
UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report warns of growing inequality and
exclusion due to high costs of private education and weak regulation by states.
In cases of regulation how can a state implement regulation for others which it blatantly violates for itself.
It advocates five measures to ensure the provision of quality education for all.
Paris, 10 December – 40% of pre-primary pupils, 20% of primary pupils and 30% of secondary and
tertiary students are now educated in non-state schools worldwide.
Imagine how much ground has been lost by state already- and imagine how the education budgets for states which we all campaign for are being misused.
However, UNESCO’s new Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report shows that many countries lack adequate regulations on private education or the capacity to enforce them, undermining quality and potentially widening the educational divide between rich and poor.
The Report analyses non-state actors across all education systems, ranging from schools run by faithbased organizations, NGOs, philanthropies and for-profit commercial entities, to all those involved in the provision of services to the education sector. Many countries let these schools, most of them not
registered, operate without any oversight.
The curriculum is not in synch and thus what the state produces is children who have different values, skill sets and world views. This is the net net HUGE loss of this lack of control.
It reveals that only 27% of countries explicitly prohibit profit making in primary and secondary
schools, which runs counter to the vision of 12 years of free education for all. Over half of countries
prevent student admission procedures in schools. Only 7% of countries have quotas that enhance
access to schools for disadvantaged students through initiatives. Only half have regulations on private
tuition.
Consequently, households in least developed countries spend a disproportionate amount of their
income on educating their children.
And SSN’s funds go towards that but certainly don’t cover them all.
Households account for 39% of education expenditure in low and lower-middle-income countries compared to 16% in high income countries.
The Report, entitled Who Chooses? Who Loses?, demonstrates that, at the same time, public
education in low-income countries comes with considerable hidden costs. Analysis of 15 low and
middle-income countries shows, for example, that school uniforms and supplies accounted for almost
two-fifths of households’ educational expenditure. This requires 8% of families in low- and middle-income countries to borrow money to pay for their children to go to school. “In some countries such as Uganda, Haiti, Kenya and the Philippines, 30% of families have to borrow to afford their children’s education. The impact of COVID-19 has squeezed family budgets further, making school fees and other expenditures unaffordable for many”, Manos Antoninis, Director of the Global Education Monitoring Report explains.
“Minimum standards have to be set by governments across state and non-state schools to make sure that the most disadvantaged students have equal opportunities to benefit from quality education”, says Audrey Azoulay, Director General of UNESCO. “Equitable financing mechanisms are urgently needed. Those living in more disadvantaged contexts shouldn’t be penalized”, she underscores. UNESCO urges countries to evaluate the regulations they have in place and presents five recommendations to place equity at the heart of their actions:
1. Increase efforts to guarantee free, publicly funded access to a year of pre-primary and 12 years
of primary and secondary education for all children and young people. But one in three
countries are devoting less than 4% of gross domestic product or less than 15% of their total
public spending to education – the internationally agreed minimum benchmarks.
Then countries need to be called out and some leverage kept. IFIs do have leverage. I have seen it being used for financing mechanisms. More needs to be done – budget accountability is not just to parliament but to public at large with special mechanisms for corruption criminals proceedings being made public.
2. Establish quality standards that apply to all state and non-state education institutions as
parallel systems with different expectations, material and working conditions have a negative
effect on building a coherent education system for all learners.
Absolutely- minimum quality standards will need budget allocations or else this will not happen.
3. Strengthen government capacity to monitor and enforce regulations. In practice, many rules are
poorly designed or weakly implemented, leaving the door open for misconduct. Governments
need to build a relationship of trust with non-state providers, encouraging them to register,
eliminating arbitrariness in rules and communicating the right incentives for them to run their
schools effectively for learners’ benefit.
Government’s need to compete – competition produces goods of value.
4. Encourage innovation for the common good and bring together all actors who develop them.
Governments should work in partnership with all actors to learn, compile and evaluate good
practices, provide resources enabling practitioners to exchange experiences, and pilot and scale
up good ideas.
Reinventing wheels is cheaper then innovating from scratch. This approach makes financial sense as well. Mentorship programs, School adoption programs have worked. However, formal engagement of hits and misses and common learnings in an environment of egalite versus government superiority is required. Especially when services being delivered by government are not superior.
5. Protect education from narrow vested interests. Maintaining the transparency and integrity of
public education helps safeguard the most disadvantaged learners.
Key
In the final analysis, there needs to be a sign off on the common minimum UN value agenda for education and creating global citizens, almost like a painting or carving where we know what we want that global citizen to possess in terms of education. So that the future leaders communicate better to each other and coordinate collaborate versus engage in conflict.
So that citizens of the future have certain world views which are taught early on in schools or they are lost in translation.
Mapping of where these schools exists and the dedupe overlap is key.
UNESCO could perhaps take a lead on what constitutes that global citizen and what values, education and skills are required for the FUTURE- It is about the summit of the future n’est ce pas ? Then we must cater for creating that leader from today’s child en esperant que le monde est vraiment ‘egale’ un jour.