Ei-iE

A UN report has made it clear that protecting education as a public good and right against the advancement of profit-making businesses is essential to keeping classrooms accessible to all.

Kishore Singh, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, delivered his annual report to the United Nations General Assembly warning that efforts must be increased to control the privatisation of public education.

“The exponential growth of private education must be regulated by Governments to safeguard education as a public good,” Singh told the General Assembly in his statement, warning that the rapid expansion of private education threatens to replace public education altogether.

The timing of the report, along with Singh’s statement, comes as the privatisation of education is being embraced by governments around the world.

“Governments must make every effort to strengthen their public education systems, rather than allowing or supporting private providers; for-profit education should not be allowed in order to safeguard the noble cause of education,” added Singh.

Mr. Singh brought attention to the threat of for-profit low-cost schools, which he says are not only robbing parents of their money, “but failing to deliver a quality education to their children.” He emphasized how profit-driven low-fee schools are further driving the economic divide, pushing poor students deeper into poverty. Singh laid responsibility on governments to end public subsidies of private education.

EI's stand against privatisation

“Education businesses create the illusion that education can be delivered more cheaply and efficiently by the private sector - with fewer and less qualified staff, and one-size-fits-all online programmes and standardised testing – and this report proves this to be wrong,” said Education International (EI) General Secretary, Fred van Leeuwen. “In order to ensure quality education as a public good, the privatisation of our schools must stop.”

Evidence is clear that governments are increasingly outsourcing the management of public schools to private entities, and then subsidising these profit-making ventures. This system leaves the least fortunate in society to assume the financial burden through low-fees, rather than the state through tax revenues. Although the problem of privatisation is wide-spread among developing countries, similar practices are being introduced to public schools in higher-income societies.

Education International is dedicated to free public education, and demands that governments around the world fulfil their responsibilities in maintaining that schools are accessible to all.

Included in the report:

• Access to private school based on the capacity to pay fees contravenes the human rights principles of equality of opportunity in education.
• Governments and civil society must critically examine the repercussions of privatization in education if we are to prevent the destruction of the universality of the right to education.
• Governments must put an end to market-driven education reforms such as providing subsidies to private education, and instead provide the maximum possible resources to public education.
• Governments must establish and maintain a transparent and effective system to monitor and regulate private education providers.