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Right to education in Latin America and the Caribbean funding situation to be reported to the Human Rights Commission |
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Civil society organizations in Latin America are concerned about the inadequate public funding for education within the region, and will be identifying incidences of paid-for and privatized education in a report to the Human Rights Commission.
Following a three-day the workshop, "Financing Education in Latin America and the Caribbean from the perspective of rights", hosted by the Latin American Campaign for the Right to Education (CLADE) in partnership with the Forum for Education and Human Development of the Initiative for Nicaragua, a set of regional advocacy initiatives in financing education were developed. The meeting brought together 62 participants from 14 countries, from 22 to 25 August, in Managua.
The primary objective of the seminar was to deepen the regional diagnosis on the financing of education, identifying the processes in place that prevent the full realization of right to education, the key players and, finally, the demands of civil society articulated by CLADE on this topic. Taking as starting point for these discussions, the workshop identified serious violations of the right to education in several countries in regard to the question of funding, including the highlight cases of Chile, Haiti and Colombia. A report on the topic will be presented to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), in partnership with the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL).
In Chile, 53% of school fees to attend private schools are subsidized by the State, two thirds of which also charge fees to families - a phenomenon which deepens social inequalities when only those who can afford better access to education can have it. This is what René Varas, Executive Secretary of the Chile ECPT Forum considers to be "educational apartheid”. The current situation in Chile was a real issue of concern to the participants at the workshop, who expressed their public support for student demonstrations and the rejection of the state’s criminalization of civil society active in the demonstrations.
In Haiti, one of the most economically vulnerable countries in the world, the situation is alarming. Before the January 2010 earthquake, 92% of schools were private, 60% of people were living with illiteracy and 500,000 children were out of school. Patrice Florvilus, coordinator of the Education for All campaign in Haiti, said that earthquakes caused the destruction of 94% of school infrastructure, including 77% of public schools and 90% of university buildings.
Given the alarming case of Haiti, it was extensively discussed how the "Shock Doctrine" has applied in the country - with different governments, sectors and organizations taking 'advantage' of disasters and seeing them as opportunities for radical market and privatization of education, especially the U.S.
In Colombia, thanks to the intense mobilization and advocacy on the part of civil society in favour of a constitutional change to ensure free education, the Constitutional Court issued a ruling last year to make primary schooling free. But there are still many obstacles to achieving the right to education and what is required now is the realization of the right to secondary and early childhood education.
These cases are not isolated. It is no coincidence that across Latin America and the Caribbean campaigns and demonstrations to demand more and better investment in education from the state are increasing, in the face of the trend for privatization. The Dominican Republic’s Coalicion Educacion Digna is seeking 4% of GDP for education, which is already what the country's constitution guarantees but is far from the current allocation of 1.98% of GDP and in other countries the necessary percentage spend has been identified as even higher: in Nicaragua, Foro por la Iniciativa de Nicaragua claims it is 7 % and the Brazilian Campaign states that it is necessary to spend 10% of GDP for this purpose.
The workshop also resulted in a regional joint commitment to produce a study to be conducted by CLADE, on free education in Latin America and the Caribbean. Another major theme was the need for progressive tax reform to address the deep inequalities that mark the region and the existence of processes and mechanisms for civil society participation in the whole subject.
In addition, the workshop saw a virtual launch of regional monitoring of the financing of the right to education, which will follow, for example, budgets and public investment, the privatization process, the tax systems of the region and the action of the multilateral financial institutions. Finally, CLADE and its allies will promote a network of researchers of educational funding and conduct a webinar on ‘education as a commodity’ in the coming months.
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