Education International Research
SDG 4.a
Build and upgrade education facilities that are child-, disability- and gendersensitive and provide safe, nonviolent, inclusive and effective learning environments for all
In order to reduce the use of corporal punishment, teachers are trained in alternative disciplinary methods according to Ministry of Education guidelines. Schools are provided with small grants to buy sports and play equipment to make them more childfriendly environments. Unions lobby for girl’s washrooms and improved gendersensitive school facilities.
SDG 4.c
By 2030, substantially increase the supply of qualified teachers, including through international cooperation for teacher training in developing countries, especially least developed countries and small island developing States
Teachers are provided with the training and support necessary to improve their teaching practices, and unions lobby the Ministry of Education to recruit more female teachers, ensuring that every school in the child labour–free zone has at least one female teacher.
SDG 17.7
Encourage and promote effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships, building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships
Education unions work together with NGOs (from both the Global North and Global South), corporations and governments (local and national) toward a shared goal.
Ending child labour through quality education for all Tackling the issue of child labour is an immense undertaking. In 2017, the ILO observed a dramatic decline in child labour over the 16 years that they had monitored the trend, but the rate of decline slowed from 2012 to 2016, precisely when the 2015 adoption of the SDGs should have accelerated progress. Urgent action is necessary if we are to eliminate child labour in all its forms by 2025 (yes — this cannot wait until 2030!). However, quick-fix approaches that simply stop children from working are unlikely to be enough to solve the problem. Rather, ending child labour must be considered an integral part of achieving SDG 4. In this regard, taking a community-based approach to combat child labour and ensure education for all is proving to be an effective method to create sustainable change. Furthermore, synergies with SDGs 10 (Reduced Inequalities), 5 (Gender Equality) and 1 (End Poverty) must be leveraged and multisectoral collaboration encouraged.
Direct and indirect costs remain a barrier to access GRO.EI-IE
Some countries such as Tanzania (2015), Ghana (2017) and Malawi (2018) have made important strides toward achieving Target 4.1 by making secondary school free. However, educators have observed that abolishing secondary school tuition fees is insufficient to grant all boys and girls with equitable access, as multiple other school costs remain. According to SYNTESPRIC44, in Cameroon, free primary education is the “official discourse”, but its implementation is “hardly perceptible”. Similarly, in Honduras, though education is free, it is common for schools to ask families to pay additional fees for matriculation, uniforms, supplies and lunches. In a 2017 study by the Global Partnership for Education (GPE),45 43% of households confirmed that they paid matriculation fees, which were compulsory in some cases. In Malawi, teachers reveal that schools’ budgets have been reduced due to the loss of tuition fees, as these funds have not been replaced by the government; meanwhile, students remain burdened by other costs including fees for boarding, textbooks and uniforms. In Nepal, the NNTA consider lack of free school meals to be a major barrier to equitable, quality primary and secondary education.
0302 NOITA CUDE
44 Syndicat des travailleurs des Etablissements scolaires privés du Cameroun 45 GPE, Gobierno de la República de Honduras & UNESCO. 5 November 2017. Análisis diagnóstico del sistema nacional de educación de la república de Honduras. Final version.
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