A/HRC/29/30 79. For-profit education is illegal in some countries where the provision of basic education is a constitutional obligation, as in Brazil and South Africa. The Special Rapporteur would like to commend all those countries where for-profit education is forbidden and to appeal to all countries to abolish for-profit education. He considers that it is crucial to generalize this abolition in legislation and public policies, and to establish effective oversight mechanisms. C. Regulating school fees 80. As many private providers seek to maximize the profits from education, rules and regulations to control school fees must be imposed. Otherwise, the economic accessibility of education for specific groups of the population is endangered.56 Public authorities can establish maximum permissible fees to be charged by private providers, with a ban on raising those fees without prior approval. The Guidelines for Private Schools in Bhutan, for instance, require private schools to set and declare yearly lump-sum school fees for a student for one academic year. In Cameroon, the fees in private schools are fixed by the State under a contract, in consultation with providers of education.57 D. Minimum standards and human rights values 81. The commercialization of education necessarily involves the pursuit of material values to the detriment of the humanist mission of education. Private schools propagate a commercial value system and establish a learning system devoid of cultural diversity, as they cater to particular social strata. The “cultural-valuational currency” they breed is derogatory to the “moral worth” of the very poor.58 Privatization eclipses a holistic approach to education: learning to know, learning to do, learning to live together and learning to be.59 82. The humanistic mission of education can be strengthened and supported through laws and policies. State policy in the sphere of education should be based on the humanistic nature of education, giving primacy to common human values and the public character of education, as is done in France and Greece, among other countries. E. Some exemplary regulatory systems 83. In developing regulatory frameworks, States can draw upon existing regulatory systems and approaches. Algeria, for example, is noteworthy for controlling private educational establishments; such establishments are subject to prior authorization by the Minister of Education and the conditions of their creation and opening are controlled by strict rules. They are required to follow official programmes and bear civil responsibility towards students and the educational personnel employed. At the time of establishment, and each year thereafter, they must declare their sources of financing, including gifts and legacies, and cannot receive any financing grant or donations from national or foreign 56 57 58 59 See Fons Coomans and Antenor Hallo de Wolf, “Privatization of Education and the Right to Education”, in Privatisation and Human Rights in the Age of Globalisation, Koen De Feyter and Felipe Gómez Isa, eds. (Antwerp – Oxford, Intersentia, 2005), pp. 239–240 . Law No. 2004/022 (2004) of Cameroon (art. 21). Macpherson, “Interrogating the private-school ‘promise’”, p. 294. “Learning: the treasure within — report to UNESCO of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-First Century” (UNESCO Publishing, 1996), pp. 20–21. 15