A/HRC/44/39/Add.1
(c)
Eliminate all fees in public schools;
(d)
Extend free access to universities to non-Qatari students who have
pursued their secondary education in Qatar and/or have had long residence in Qatar,
on an equal basis with Qatari students.
114.
The Special Rapporteur further recommends that the Government:
(a)
Ensure that undocumented children can access schools without being
required to produce a residence permit;
(b)
Intensify efforts towards the inclusion of children with special needs in
the regular school system;
(c)
Eliminate any impediment for married or pregnant girls to continue
attending school;
(d)
Collect accurate data on out-of-school children, including migrant
children, children with disabilities and married or pregnant girls;
(e)
Continue addressing the disengagement and poor performance of boys
and their poor enrolment at the tertiary level;
(f)
Ensure that women are offered in practice the same possibilities as men
to obtain scholarships to study abroad, and address any impediment to such
opportunities. Girls should also be guaranteed access to technical secondary schools
and science and technological schools on an equal basis with boys;
(g)
Extend the obligation to teach human rights education to private schools.
Acceptability
115.
The Special Rapporteur recommends that the authorities:
(a)
Continue their work to ensure greater autonomy for public school
principals and teachers, a process that requires extensive professional training. A
positive first step would be, for example, to offer a wider range of textbooks for
teachers and to encourage teachers to make greater use of a variety of sources. More
widely, a multi-perspective approach should be adopted in all subjects. More
flexibility should also be instilled, whereby public schools would simply inform the
Ministry of Education about their outside activities;
(b)
Pursue their efforts in the area of professional training of teachers.
Measures should be adopted to solve residence permit issues for teachers and their
families, and to ensure that teachers enjoy just and favourable conditions of work that
guarantee a decent living for themselves and their families;
(c)
Ensure respect for academic freedom of both teachers and academics. In
particular, the kafalah (sponsorship) system should be abolished;
(d)
Respect the principle of equal pay for equal work, and ensure that
foreign teachers and administrative staff in public schools and universities receive the
same salary as their Qatari counterparts;
(e)
In an effort to promote respect for the cultural heritage and social values
of Qatar, including through education, ensure the right of all persons to freely
participate in cultural life, including the right to discuss, develop and reinterpret the
meaning of cultural practices.
116.
The Special Rapporteur also recommends that Qatar:
(a)
Ratify the Convention against Discrimination in Education;
(b)
Lift its reservations to and statements on articles 7, 18 and 22 of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; 1 and 16 of the Convention
against Torture; 8 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights; 2 and 14 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child; and all non-
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