GENEVA, Switzerland, March 22, 2016/APO (African Press Organization)/ —
It is completely unacceptable for Liberia to outsource its primary education system to a private company, said the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to education, Kishore Singh. “This is unprecedented at the scale currently being proposed and violates Liberia’s legal and moral obligations,” he stressed.
Liberia’s plan is to privatise all primary and pre-primary schools over the next five years. Public funding will support services subcontracted to a private company – the Bridge International Academies. “Public schools and their teachers, and the concept of education as a public good, are under attack,” the expert cautioned.
“Such arrangements are a blatant violation of Liberia’s international obligations under the right to education, and have no justification under Liberia’s constitution,” the Special Rapporteur stated. “This also contradicts political commitments made by Liberia and the international community to the fourth UN Sustainable Development Goal which is on education and related targets.”
“Provision of public education of good quality is a core function of the State. Abandoning this to the commercial benefit of a private company constitutes a gross violation of the right to education,” emphasised Mr. Singh.
The human rights expert noted that “it is ironic that Liberia does not have resources to meet its core obligations to provide a free primary education to every child, but it can find huge sums of money to subcontract a private company to do so on its behalf,” he said.
“These sums could be much better spent on improving the existing system of public education and supporting the educational needs of the poor and marginalized,” suggested the Special Rapporteur.
Mr. Singh called on the Government of Liberia to approach the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for technical assistance and capacity building, instead of entering into such partnerships with for-profit providers in education, “devoid of any legal or moral justification.”
“Before any partnership is entered into, the Government of Liberia must first put into place legislation and policies on public private partnerships in education, which among other things, protect every child’s right to education,” Mr. Singh said.
“There also needs to be an independent body or institution established to receive complaints of potential violations of the right to education that might result from this development,” he added.
The Special Rapporteur emphasised that “education is an essential public service and instead of supporting business in education, governments should increase the money they spend on public educational services to make them better.”
