January 24, 2021

This Week in Human Rights News

International Day of Education

Sources: Economic Policy Institute, United Nations (1, 2), UNESCO, ReliefWeb, Aristovnik et al. (2020) 

Education is a human right

• This is declared in Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, goes further and stipulates that countries shall make higher education accessible to all.

• Education is key to achieving sustainable development, and is embodied in the Sustainable Development Goal 4.  

• However, about 265 million children and adolescents around the world do not have the opportunity to enter or complete school; 617 million children and adolescents cannot read and do basic math; less than 40% of girls in sub-Saharan Africa complete lower secondary school and some four million children and youth refugees are out of school. Thus, their right to education is being violated.

• Without inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong opportunities for all, countries will not succeed in achieving gender equality and breaking the cycle of poverty that is leaving millions of children, youth and adults behind.

Why is it important this year? 

• International Day of Education is particularly important this year because of how education systems worldwide have been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic - the UN has described it as “a global learning disruption of unprecedented scale and severity”. 

• This year’s theme is “Recover and Revitalise Education for the COVID-19 Generation”, which emphasises the power of education and the need for international solidarity to place education and lifelong learning at the centre of COVID-19 recovery. 

• School closures worldwide are said to have far-reaching consequences, both in the short term and long term for children, their families and their communities. 

• A concerning consequence is the amplification of social, economic and digital inequalities - putting a generation at risk of a “learning catastrophe” (UN Policy Brief on Education and COVID-19).

• The UN has estimated that the Covid-19 disruption has affected the lives of 1.6 billion students in over 190 countries. 

• There are several factors to take into consideration with school closures:

  • For some children, school was a protected space, where they could escape unsafe and abusive home environments.

  • Many families will miss out on essential health services and information available in schools and other learning environments. 

  • Millions of children no longer have access to regular meals through school feeding programs 

  • The economic impact of the pandemic is likely to push children and their families into poverty, thus increasing the risk of  malnutrition, stress, protection violations, and child labour – all factors that further restrict their future access to effective learning.

  • Government and donor cuts to education and aid funding may further restrict recovery.

• There is a technology gap too - with schools, universities and learning institutions moving to remote learning, not every student or household has access to the necessary tools to put that in place; electricity, internet, a computer (or computers for each child). 

• The UN has estimated that at least a third of the world’s students are unable to access remote learning, thus estimating a loss of nearly four months of schooling for those in low and lower-middle income countries, compared to six weeks in high-income countries. 

• Many university students have reported experiencing boredom, anxiety, frustration, struggling to meet deadlines, having a higher workload, therefore having difficulty evaluating their performance, and concerns about their professional careers.

Education is a pillar of the jfa’s core mission

• At the jfa, we place education at the forefront of our mission through editorial mentorship and affordable skill-building workshops. 

• We guide first-time writers through the storytelling process, and our workshops, such as our Storytelling Basics series, are aimed at providing underrepresented and structurally marginalised individuals with hard skills for storytelling in a multimedia era. 

• If you’re reading this and you would like to submit something (art, poetry, op-ed, photo essay) but have never published anything before, or English isn’t your first language - don’t worry! Our team is here to guide you through the process every single step of the way! Our inboxes are always open: marta@thejfa.com and angana@thejfa.com.