Press release

(Dakar, 21 October 2017) Just a week after France and Senegal announced that they would co-host in Senegal the replenishment of a major education development initiative, more than 80 organisations and State representatives from 24 Francophone countries will meet from the 23rd to the 26th of October 2017 at the Institut de la Francophonie pour l’éducation et la formation in Dakar to discuss the commercialisation and privatisation of education. Noting the rapid growth of private actors in education, they will attempt to provide appropriate responses to preserve the right to free and quality education in all countries, in what will be on of the biggest civil society conferences on the issue.

This mobilisation follows the Francophone call against commercialisation of education of November 2016, which gathered the signatures of more than 300 organisations. The involvement of private actors in the education sector and its commercialisation for profit, was questioned by a network of civil society organisations, several UN declarations and the work of the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to education. The impact of this trend in terms of quality of educational contents, discrimination and social inequalities makes it a major challenge for advocates of the right to education.

The meeting will articulate theoretical talks and derived from field work. It will aim at finding collective answers, bearers of meaning and innovation, facing the commercialisation of education. The meeting will also be an opportunity for Francophone actors to comment and express their views on the Human Rights Guiding Principles on the obligations of States regarding private actors in education, which are currently being drafted.

The meeting is taking place a few weeks after the commitment made by French President Macron and Senegalese President Sall, to organize a global meeting on education in February 2019 in Dakar. It is taking place in the context of a renewal of the voice of Francophone institutions and civil society organizations in international debates on education.

In November 2016, the International Organisation of La Francophonie recognised the problems inherent to the commercialisation of education, and the 57 heads of member States committed themselves in the Declaration of Antananarivo to act for public education and to regulate the private education sector. An informal network of Francophone organisations has since been set up to follow up on the declaration and work in this direction with the States. This meeting will enable to develop common lines of work for the coming years.

News organisations are invited to the Institut de la Francophonie pour l'Éducation et la Formation for the opening ceremony of the Francophone meeting on privatization in education.

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More information on:

• Privatisation of education: http://bit.ly/educprivat

• Situation in francophone countries: http://bit.ly/privfr

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For more information, do not hesitate to contact:

Sylvain Aubry, Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, sylvain@globalinitiative-escr.org, +254 7 88 28 96 34

Cheikh Mbow, Coalition des ONG en Synergie pour la Défense de l'Education Publique (COSYDEP) | cheikhmbow@gmail.com, 00221 77 332 95 36

Samuel Dembele, Réseau Africain pour l’Education pour Tous (ANCEFA) | dembele_sam@hotmail.com, 00226 70 299010

Karini Lefort, Réseau francophone contre la marchandisation de l’éducation | nevendezpasleducation@gmail.com, 0033685873247