A/HRC/20/21
efforts to improve the quality of education within national education systems and to
monitor progress.31
36.
The Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) developed
Minimum Standards for Education for a variety of different stakeholders, aimed at ensuring
quality in coordinated humanitarian response that meet the educational rights and needs of
people affected by disaster. They include standards relating to access, a secure learning
environment, teaching and learning, and education policy. 32 In his report to the General
Assembly in 2011 (A/66/269), the Special Rapporteur also highlighted the importance of
paying attention to quality in education provided in the context of emergencies.
37.
The concept of quality is also at the centre of the Global Compact on Learning
initiative to provide quality education to all and to ensure that all children, particularly the
most marginalized, have access to quality learning opportunities.33
VI. National legal and policy frameworks for quality in education
38.
The right to quality education is provided for in national legislation in many
countries, effectively demonstrating how international obligations can be reflected in the
domestic legal order. In some countries, the right to quality education is a constitutional
right.34
39.
Quality in education is an emerging concern in recent reforms of national education
systems. These reforms often include the adoption of laws and decrees that set specific
rules and regulations for the promotion of quality in education.
40.
One of the first experiences establishing legislation on quality education was in the
United States of America, where a series of reports highlighting poor learning outcomes in
schools35 in the 1980s led to a number of initiatives at state levels, using standards to secure
quality in education. At the national level, this movement culminated in the adoption of the
No Child Left Behind Act in 2001, which sets national standards and establishes
measureable goals for quality in education.
41.
In China, article 3 of the Compulsory Education Law (amended in 2006) stipulates
that State policy on education shall be implemented and quality-oriented education shall be
carried out to improve the quality of education. China‟s National Education Plan (20102020) sets improvement of quality in education as one of its main tasks, stipulating State
standards for quality along with a policy framework to guarantee it.
42.
Brazil‟s National Education Law (9394/1996) establishes standards for quality, such
as a national syllabus basis for fundamental and secondary education, as well as teacher
education requirements. This is in line with article 212 of the Brazilian Constitution which
establishes that the Federal Government shall organize and govern the education system in
31
32
33
34
35
10
European Commission, “European Report on quality of school education, sixteen quality indicators,”
Report based on the work of the Working Committee on Quality Indicators, May 2000.
INEE, “Minimum standards for education: Preparedness, response, recovery,” 2nd edition, 2010.
A Global Compact on Learning, Center for Universal Education, Brookings Institution, 2011.
For example, the Constitution of Morocco (July 2011) recognizes the right to modern education (art.
31); the Constitution of the Philippines (1987) states that “the State shall protect and promote the right
of all citizens to quality education at all levels and shall take appropriate steps to make such education
accessible to all” (art. xiv); the Constitution of Thailand also establishes everyone‟s right to receive
fundamental education of quality (sect. 43).
“A Nation at risk: The imperative for educational reform,” Report of the National Commission on
Excellence in Education, United States of America, 1984.
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