NEW YORK, Jan 23 (IPS) – World Education Day on January 24 is a reminder of the power of education to transform the lives of children and build vibrant, sustainable societies.
One of the most important and simple things a government can do to ensure children’s education is to make education free. In the 1990s, many countries began abolishing school fees for primary school students, with dramatic results.
For example, Malawi abolished primary school fees in 1994, and in just one year, enrollment jumped 50 percent, enrolling an additional one million children. Since Kenya abolished primary school fees in 2003, two million new children have enrolled.
The sudden influx of new students has strained the education system and faced the challenge of training additional teachers, building more schools and ensuring quality. But today virtually every child in the world receives free primary education, and globally, nearly 90% of children complete primary school.
But the story is different for children at the pre-school and secondary levels, where cost often remains a significant barrier to schooling.
Less than 60% of children worldwide complete secondary school, and about half do not receive any pre-primary education. Preschool education occurs in the early stages when a child’s brain is developing rapidly and offers great long-term benefits. Existing international law, which is more than 70 years old, guarantees free education only to all primary school students.
For example, a recent survey conducted in Uganda with the Initiative for Social and Economic Rights found that most children do not receive full pre-primary education. This is because the government does not fund early childhood education and families cannot afford the tuition fees charged. by a private kindergarten.
Children who do not attend pre-K typically do not perform well in elementary school, are twice as likely to repeat a grade, and are more likely to drop out. Many of these children are unable to keep up with their peers, exacerbating income inequality.
According to the World Bank, every dollar invested in pre-school education can yield up to $14 in benefits. Early education improves children’s employment prospects and earnings, increasing tax revenues and GDP, and enabling parents, especially mothers, to return to work sooner and increase their earnings.
A recent cost-benefit analysis in Uganda found that 90% of the cost of free, government-funded kindergarten could only be covered through expected reductions in repetition rates and inefficiencies at the primary school level. “Investments in early childhood have the highest return of any human capital intervention,” the report concluded.
As part of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), all countries have agreed to provide pre-primary education to all and free secondary education for all children by 2030. But political commitments to free education are not enough and progress is too slow.
A growing number of countries see expanding free education beyond primary school as an essential investment.
For example, in 2008, Ghana became the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to extend free education to kindergarten, guaranteeing two years of free and compulsory pre-school education.
It promised completely free secondary education in 2017, and according to the latest statistics, it now has the third-highest enrollment in sub-Saharan Africa in both pre-primary and secondary schools. Free secondary education policies have reduced poverty rates across the country, especially among female-headed households.
It is not surprising that UNESCO reports that countries with laws guaranteeing free education have significantly higher proportions of children attending school. For example, when Azerbaijan adopted legislation providing three years of free pre-school education, participation rates jumped from 25% to 83% in four years.
Given the proven benefits of free education, it is puzzling that approximately 70% of children around the world still live in countries that do not guarantee free pre-primary and free secondary education by law or policy.
In July 2024, the UN Human Rights Council approved a proposal by Luxembourg, Sierra Leone and the Dominican Republic to consider a new international treaty explicitly guaranteeing free public pre-primary (starting from year 1) and free public secondary education for all children. I did it.
To be sure, the new treaty will not get all children into school immediately. But it will provide a powerful impetus for governments to more rapidly expand access to free education and could be an important tool for holding civil society accountable.
Negotiations on the proposed treaty are expected to begin in September. Governments must seize this moment to advance free education for all children, without exception.
Joe Becker He is the director of children’s rights advocacy at Human Rights Watch.
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