Putting education top of the political agenda
By Oliver Mawhinney - IPNEd’s Advocacy Officer
Students at a classroom in Lebanon © Education Cannot Wait
Over the past year, we have experienced a global disruption of learning on a scale never experienced before.
The closure of schools, universities and other educational institutions, as well as many literacy and lifelong learning programmes, has disrupted the education of 1.6 billion students in over 190 countries.
School closures put children’s lives on hold and exacerbate educational exclusion. Yet faced with increasing rates of infections, which threaten to overwhelm health systems, many governments have expressed little choice but to close schools to reduce transmission of the virus.
Parliamentarians have subsequently faced the unenviable dilemma of legislating on whether and then how to shut schools.
The International Parliamentary Network for Education has been supporting our member parliamentarians to navigate the implications of COVID-19 for education. We convened a series of virtual roundtable events, providing MPs with direct access to experts at the forefront of the COVID response, as well as producing briefings considering the effect of COVID-related school closures, and which detailed the pandemic’s impact on learning, equity and financing,
The greatest peacetime disruption to parliaments
Parliaments have not been exempt from the disruption that has affected nearly every aspect of society. Social distancing measures and remote working have presented extraordinary operational challenges for parliaments.
Yet, at times of crisis, when governments are making unprecedented decisions at speed, the role of parliamentarians is more critical than ever.
Given the attention on the health and economic response to COVID, there has been a real risk that education is relegated to a silent victim of the pandemic.
IPNEd member parliamentarians and their colleagues around the world, continue to use their voice to ensure that education remains top of the political agenda and at the centre of the recovery from COVID.
Social distancing in action in the House of Commons in the United Kingdom © UK Parliament/Jessica Taylor
These are just a few of the ways parliamentarians have championed education during the pandemic:
1. Narrowing the digital divide
One-third of the world’s school children have been unable to access remote learning during the pandemic. Whether it be access to the Internet, television or radio, MPs have been advocating for all learners to have the resources to continue learning.
Following the rollout of educational TV programmes in Zambia, Professor Geoffrey Lungwangwa MP, who chaired IPNEd’s briefing event on the learning crisis, called for an assessment of the implementation of e-learning. Professor Lungwangwa subsequently secured a commitment from the Ministry of Education to work with the Ministry of Energy to ensure that a lack of access to electricity doesn’t adversely affect remote learning.
Even when learners have the right devices for remote learning, too often they do not have access to reliable internet data. In the Parliament of Ghana, Hon. Peter Nortsu-Kotoe, spearheaded calls for the Ministry of Education to negotiate with Internet service providers to eliminate data costs for e-learning platforms.
© Anna Pantelia/Save the Children
As the start of 2021 marked the return of school closures in the UK, almost two million children were estimated to be without a laptop, desktop or tablet. MPs in Westminster joined forces with key education stakeholders to call for a clear plan to ensure that every child has the device and data to learn from home.
MPs in the European Parliament have also taken joint action to combat the digital divide. The European Parliament Intergroup on Rights of the Child has led demands for EU Member States to guarantee continual access to quality education. Vice-Chair of the Intergroup, Laurence Farreng MEP, recently highlighted inadequacies in the rollout of distance learning in a series of amendments in the European Parliament
2. Prioritising the safe reopening of schools
Just three months of missed schooling can result in 1.5 years of learning losses, as well as a significant impact on future earnings and employment.
Questions by Nomsa Tarabella-Marchesi revealed that more than 325,000 children are estimated to have dropped out of primary school in South Africa between April and October 2020.
Following prolonged school closures in Argentina, Diputada Brenda Lis Austin introduced legislation to declare an ‘emergency of the national education system’, setting out urgent actions to combat learning loss and school dropout. Diputada Austin’s initiative helped drive the education emergency in Argentina higher up the political agenda, creating pressure for the return of face-to-face teaching, which was introduced by the national government just days later.
MPs have also been advocating for governments to prioritise teachers and school staff as frontline workers in the pandemic. Senator Fiona O’Loughlin, a former teacher, has been leading demands in the Irish Parliament for teachers and school staff to be a priority group for COVID vaccination.
Nomsa Tarabella-Marchesi, Shadow Minister of Basic Education, Parliament of South Africa © Parliament of RSA
3. Protecting and investing in education
The pandemic has pushed the world into the deepest global recession in living memory. As government revenue and aid budgets shrink, and resources are allocated to other sectors, education budgets risk being neglected in the fiscal response to COVID.
IPNEd member parliamentarians have been using their voice to build cross-party consensus for investment in education.
Dace Melbarde MEP, Vice-Chair of the Committee on Culture and Education, has encouraged EU member states to use COVID-19 recovery plans to drive new investment in education and build back more resilient education systems.
In Pakistan MNA Mehnaz Akber Aziz, IPNEd Regional Representative for Asia, has led opposition in the National Assembly to cuts in school budgets.
MNA Mehnaz Akber Aziz in the National Assembly of Pakistan © Twitter
MPs have also been playing a vital role in advocating for protecting and increasing official development assistance for education.
Sven Clement MP tabled a motion imploring the Government of Luxembourg to at least maintain current levels of aid and pledge ambitiously to the upcoming replenishment of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE).
Co-Chair of IPNEd Harriett Baldwin MP, has played a leading role in lobbying against planned cuts to UK aid, submitting a compelling case that less aid will mean fewer children finish school.
Across the Atlantic, US legislators led vital legislation through Congress to provide $950 million of funding for international basic education in 2021. This included urgent funding for both GPE and Education Cannot Wait to continue to support the poorest and most fragile countries provide education.
Sven Clement MEP at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly © Sven Clement MEP
Education remains in peril
Sadly, the COVID-19 crisis and unparalleled disruption of education systems is far from over. Many countries are entering new waves of the pandemic and once again closing schools.
Moreover, education budgets are facing chronic cuts. Some countries are already slashing spending on schools, with Nigeria’s budget for education in 2021 the lowest in a decade, making up just 5.6% of the national budget.
Unfortunately, Nigeria is no outlier. In Ukraine, education budgets have already been cutback by 4%. Honduras has reduced funding to its only public university by more than 900 million lempiras, and Kenya’s similarly reduced funding to public universities by $400 million.
Given that 2021 will bring further pressure on government revenue, combined with growing debt constraints, education budgets continue to face challenges of an unprecedented scale.
Yet, cuts do not have to be the new reality for ministries of education. With renewed political commitment and bipartisan alliances, MPs can help prevent education from becoming the silent victim of the pandemic.
International Day of Education
That’s why to mark International Day of Education, which takes place on 25 January, IPNEd is urging parliamentarians to shine a light on the crisis facing education financing and call on their government and the international community to protect education.
IPNEd has produced a briefing for members of parliament which focuses on the critical task of protecting and growing financing for education, and provides suggestions for how MPs can use the day to advocate for the vital importance of investing in education as countries respond to COVID-19.
There are lots of ways in which parliamentarians can raise education financing in parliament on or around Education Day. In the United Kingdom, Harriett Baldwin MP has secured a debate in the House of Commons on Thursday 28 January to draw attention to the state of global education in the context of COVID-19 and the importance of protecting and growing education financing.
Parliamentarians can also submit a parliamentary question on education financing, table a motion in parliament setting our their concerns about the education financing gap or work with like-minded colleagues to issue a joint public statement and raise media interest.
IPNEd’s briefing provides some suggestions of questions members of parliament might want to ask their government and the key issues they can raise with Ministers.
A three point plan for protecting education financing
In the coming months, we will be supporting MPs to advocate for our three point plan for protecting education financing.
By adopting our framework, parliamentarians can demonstrate their support for the sustainable financing of education. Where national resources are protected, education spending is preserved and increased where possible, including as a proportion of development assistance. Financing for education needs to be better too especially at targeting those furthest behind, both at home and abroad. And of course we need to ensure that debt does not hold back countries from investing in education.
2020 provided countless examples of what can be achieved when parliamentarians come together in partnership for SDG 4. The challenges in 2021 are immense, but the commitment of IPNEd member parliamentarians to renew their commitment to combat this crisis is greater than ever.
The International Parliamentary Network for Education will continue to showcase examples of MPs advocating for education around International Day of Education and beyond. If you are planning an activity in your parliament or see an example we invite you let us know at info@ipned.org or @IPNEducation on Twitter.
