A/HRC/26/27 76. Aptitude tests and counselling are even more important for skills development. National assessment mechanisms should be coupled with “career guidance systems to assist learners in choosing appropriate pathways, including by the provision of up‐to‐date labour market information and self-assessment tools to identify aptitudes and interests and promote the acquisition of career management skills.”33 VIII. Private providers of education 77. Exploding demand for education has led to an exponential growth in the number of education providers. A comprehensive and sound regulatory framework for controlling private schools and ensuring their conformity with norms and standards is required. To preserve the public interest in education, effective sanctions in cases of abusive practices by private providers are necessary. Each State must organize a system of prior authorization, successive monitoring and verification, in order to ensure that private schools respect the content and objectives of education, thus enabling the State, in turn, to respect its international commitments in that regard. In those States where basic education is also provided by private schools, the State should ensure that such schools fully respect the objectives and content of education. 78. In this context, it is important to note that, whereas parents and guardians are at liberty to choose private schools for their children, pursuant to article 13 (3) and (4) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, education in such schools must conform to the educational objectives set out in article 13 (1) of the Covenant and “such minimum educational standards as may be laid down or approved by the State”. Those minimum standards may relate to issues such as admission, curricula and the recognition of certificates. In their turn, those standards must be consistent with the educational objectives set out in article 13 (1).34 IX. Conclusions 79. Commitments made by the international community to the realization of the right to basic education are well known. A major constraint emanates from the nonfulfilment by States of their obligations. Whether States have fulfilled their obligations for the right to education is dependent not just upon how many years of schooling children have attended, but also upon whether what they have learned has empowered them in their lives. That is shown by assessing the educational achievements of students against a national curriculum which is consistent with the objectives of the right to education. Comprehensive national assessment mechanisms must be recognized as valuable tools for students, schools as well as for States. Those assessments ensure that the achievements of each student are tracked and, where necessary, improved. Nationally, they enable States to adjust their curriculum, teacher training and education systems more broadly to ensure that the right to education is achieved in the fullest sense. 80. Prevalent international assessments of the performance of students reflect an instrumental role for education, driven by the concept of educational development in mere economic terms, with excessive emphasis placed on learning outcomes in 33 34 See “Shanghai Consensus: recommendations of the Third International Congress on Technical and Vocational Education and Training”, 13 to 16 May 2012, available from www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/ED/pdf/outcomesdocumentFinalwithlogo.pdf. See general comment No. 13 (1999) of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on the right to education (article 13). 17