Privatisation

Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) are often presented as a miracle solution to the lack of funding in education. This policy brief, based a longer and more developed working paper, shows that these arrangements often generate higher hidden costs and widen educational inequalities.

It aims to support more informed and strategic decision-making regarding public-private partnerships in education, protect public resources, improve policy implementation and enhance accountability.

This report was submitted to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights for the 7th review of the UK. It is an update of a first report submitted in 2023. It covers:

A Geneva Dialogue on the Right to Education was held on 18 and 19 June 2024 and organized by the Swiss Commission for UNESCO, UNESCO, the University of Geneva, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), and the REGARD network.

Our 2023 Annual Report includes information about our impact and areas of activity across the year, in addition to details on our strategy, our team and our supporters.

Our work would not be possible without the generous support of our donors, to whom we are immensely grateful. 

FRENCH

45 civil society organisations receive with concern the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman’s (CAO’s) Compliance Investigation Report into the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) investment in Bridge International Academies (BIA, also known as NewGlobe schools), and acknowledge its grave findings regarding allegations of child sexual abuse at the company’s for-profit chain of schools in Kenya.

Français

This policy-oriented research paper investigates some of the aspects of the right to education that might require a stronger footing in the international normative framework and potential expansion for the 21st century. Digital education, increasing human mobility, changing demographics, climate change, and expectations of opportunities for learning throughout life are just a few of the areas that are testing the limits of the existing international normative framework.

In a world facing social fragmentation, harmful inequities, and environmental deterioration, we need quality, transformative, inclusive public education now more than ever. As our political systems struggle to resist autocracy and to foster democracy, free public education can help create a well-informed public with the capacity to address these global challenges.

The public supports public education, and public education works.

A statement signed by 33 organisations who are gravely concerned about the recent media report of child sexual abuse at Bridge International Academies in Kenya, and allegations that the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) for years turned a blind eye to the abuse.