Nearly all children worldwide have access to free primary education, with almost 90% completing primary school. But it’s a different story for children at the pre-primary and secondary level. Credit: Shafiqul Alam Kiron/IPS

By Jo Becker
NEW YORK, Jan 23 2025 (IPS)

The International Day of Education, January 24, reminds us of the power of education to transform children’s lives, and to build vibrant, sustainable societies.

One of the most important—and simplest—things that governments can do to ensure children’s education is to make it free. In the 1990s, when many countries began to eliminate school fees at the primary level, they saw dramatic results.

Malawi, for example, abolished primary school fees in 1994, and within a year, enrolment had surged by 50 percent, with 1 million additional children enrolled. After Kenya abolished primary school fees in 2003, 2 million new children enrolled.

The sudden influx of new students strained education systems, challenging countries to train additional teachers, build more schools, and to ensure quality. But today, virtually all of the world’s children enjoy free primary education, and nearly 90 percent of children globally complete primary school.

Fewer than 60 percent of the world’s children complete secondary school, and about  half miss out on pre-primary education, which takes place during the early years when children’s brains are rapidly developing, and provides profound long-term benefits. Existing international law—dating back more than 70 years—only guarantees free education for all children at the primary level

But it’s a different story for children at the pre-primary and secondary level, where cost often remains a significant barrier to schooling.

Fewer than 60 percent of the world’s children complete secondary school, and about  half miss out on pre-primary education, which takes place during the early years when children’s brains are rapidly developing, and provides profound long-term benefits. Existing international law—dating back more than 70 years—only guarantees free education for all children at the primary level.

In Uganda, for example, our recent investigation with the Initiative for Social and Economic Rights found that most children miss out on pre-primary education entirely, because the government provides no funding for early childhood education, and families are unable to afford the fees charged by private preschools.

Without access to pre-primary, children typically don’t perform as well in primary school, are twice as likely to repeat grades, and are more likely to drop-out. Many of these children never catch up to their peers, exacerbating income inequality.

According to the World Bank, every dollar invested in pre-primary education can yield up to $14 in benefits. Early education boosts tax revenues and GDP by improving children’s employment prospects and earnings, and enables parents—especially mothers—to increase their income by returning to work sooner.

In Uganda, a recent cost-benefit analysis found that 90 percent of the cost of government-funded free pre-primary could be covered just through the expected reduction of repetition rates and inefficiencies at the primary school level. It concluded that “investments in early childhood have the greatest rate of return of any human capital intervention.”

As part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), all countries have agreed that by 2030 they will provide access to pre-primary education for all, and that all children will complete free secondary education. But political commitments to free education are simply not enough, and progress is too slow.

A growing number of countries see the expansion of free education beyond primary school as an essential investment.

Ghana, for example, became the first country in Sub-Saharan Africa to expand free education to the kindergarten years in 2008, guaranteeing two years of free and compulsory pre-primary education.

In 2017, it committed to full free secondary education, and according to the latest statistics, now has the third-highest enrolment rate in Sub-Saharan Africa in both pre-primary and secondary school. Its free secondary education policy has reduced poverty rates nationally, particularly for female-headed households.

It’s no surprise that UNESCO reports that countries with laws guaranteeing free education have significantly higher rates of children in school. When Azerbaijan adopted legislation providing three years of free pre-primary education, for example, participation rates shot up from 25 percent to 83 percent in four years.

Given the proven benefits of free education, it’s baffling that approximately 70 percent of the world’s children live in countries that still do not guarantee free pre-primary and free secondary education by law or policy.

In July 2024, the UN Human Rights Council approved a proposal from Luxembourg, Sierra Leone, and the Dominican Republic to consider a new international treaty to explicitly guarantee free public pre-primary (beginning with one year) and free public secondary education for all children

To be sure, a new treaty will not immediately get every child in school. But it will provide a powerful impetus for governments to move more quickly to expand access to free education and an important tool for civil society to hold them to account.

Negotiations for the proposed treaty are expected to begin in September. Governments should seize this moment to advance free education for all children, without exception.

Jo Becker is children’s rights advocacy director at Human Rights Watch.

Children eating lunch in the João Baptista Cáffaro School cafetería. Itaboraí, Brazil, 45 km from Rio de Janeiro. Credit: Mario Osava/IPS

By Jo Becker
NEW YORK, Apr 24 2020 (IPS)

Children may escape the worst symptoms of Covid-19 and suffer lower mortality rates, but for millions, the pandemic will have devastating effects.

The choices that governments make now are crucial for children. Governments can both lessen the worst effects of the crisis on children in the months to come, and also put policies in place that will improve children’s lives long after the pandemic is over.

School shutdowns in 192 countries have left more than 90 percent of the world’s student population – more than 1.5 billion students – out of school. Many schools have moved online, but nearly half the world has no access to the internet, leaving many students even further behind
The pandemic has highlighted huge fault lines in many countries’ protections for children, including the lack of emergency action plans for large-scale school shutdowns, the overuse of detention, and insufficient safety nets for low-income families.

School shutdowns in 192 countries have left more than 90 percent of the world’s student population – more than 1.5 billion students – out of school. Many schools have moved online, but nearly half the world has no access to the internet, leaving many students even further behind.

The problem isn’t limited to low-income countries: last week in Phoenix, a high school principal found three students huddled under a blanket in the rain, trying to access their school’s wifi to complete their assignments.

As the global death toll — currently more than 190,000 – continues to rise, so will the number of children left without one or both parents. Orphaned children are particularly vulnerable to trafficking and other forms of exploitation. During the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, for example, girls who lost family members resorted to transactional sex to meet their basic needs, leading to a sharp increase in teenage pregnancy.

Even when countries are not in crisis, children are at greatest risk of violence in their own home. The United Nations secretary-general recently reported a “horrifying” surge in domestic violence linked to Covid-19. Family stresses related to the crisis – including job loss, isolation, excessive confinement, and anxieties over health and finances—have escalated violence between partners and against children.

Despite the increased risks, child abuse is less likely to be detected during the pandemic. Teachers – often the first to identify signs of abuse – have far less access to children, and many child protection agencies have cut back or eliminated home visits to avoid spreading the virus.

Massive global job and income losses are likely to increase rates of child labor and child marriage. The International Labor Organization projects that by mid-2020, nearly 200 million jobs could be lost globally from the crisis.

Before the pandemic, an estimated 152 million children were already engaged in child labor and 12 million girls married each year before their 18th birthday. Without government support to families struggling to meet their basic needs, these numbers will rise.

Children are also more vulnerable to online sexual exploitation, as they spend more time online and may be anxious or lonely due to school shutdowns and stay-at-home orders. Europol has documented an increase in online offenders seeking child sexual abuse material online and attempting to initiate contact with children through social media.

Millions of children are institutionalized or detained, often in crowded conditions where Covid-19 prevention measures such as frequent handwashing and “social distancing” are nearly impossible. UNICEF has warned of outbreaks in these facilities and called for a moratorium on new admissions and the urgent release of children who can be returned to their families or other appropriate care.

Governments that make smart policy choices now will not only protect children during the immediate crisis, but also benefit children significantly over the long term. Expanding internet access will transform education for many children, enhance their access to information, and strengthen their ability to organize and express themselves.

Transferring children out of institutions and detention centers will limit transmission of the virus, and also help countries transition to family-based alternatives for children, which are proven to be healthier, often cheaper, and for children in the justice system, linked to lower recidivism rates. Expanding networks of kinship and foster care can provide homes and critical support for children left without parents.

The economic crisis should prompt governments to strengthen social protection measures, such as cash transfers, to help low-income families hit hardest by the pandemic and enable them to meet their basic needs without resorting to child labor or child marriage. Hotlines and public education campaigns can help protect children at risk of violence in the home or online sexual exploitation.

The pandemic demands government leadership to protect children from the worst impacts of Covid-19. It also offers the chance for policymakers to put measures in place that will benefit children long after the pandemic ends.

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“We were so close you couldn’t put one finger between one person and the next, we were like razorblades in a pack”. Illustration @2019 John Holmes for Human Rights Watch.

By Jo Becker
Sep 19 2019 (IPS)

“Khadija” was just 8 years old when Boko Haram fighters attacked her village in northeast Nigeria and took her by force to their camp. Her abductors tried to marry her and other captives to members of the armed Islamist group, she told me. When the captives refused, they were locked in a room.  

They managed to escape a month later, but Khadija’s ordeal didn’t end there. Nigerian soldiers found her. But instead of returning her to her family, they detained her in a military prison for two years as a suspected Boko Haram member.

Boko Haram’s crimes in northeast Nigeria are notorious: abductions, forced marriage, suicide bombings, and attacks on schools perceived as providing “Western education.” But the victims of the insurgency also include thousands of children imprisoned by Nigerian authorities for suspected Boko Haram involvement, often with little or no evidence.

Since 2012, the United States has spent over US$100 million to help Nigerian authorities try to defeat Boko Haram. As part of its counter-insurgency efforts, Nigeria’s military has detained thousands of suspected Boko Haram members. Those detained since 2013 have included at least 3,600 children, the UN says.

In 20 years of human rights work, I’ve never come across conditions as bad as the children described at Giwa barracks, the main military detention facility in northeast Nigeria

In June I interviewed some of these children, including one 10-year-old boy who was detained when he was only 5 years old. What became clear is that most of these children were victims of Boko Haram. The government’s detention policies simply add another layer to their suffering.

One boy I met said he was detained for two-and-a-half years for allegedly selling yams to Boko Haram members. Other children told us soldiers arrested and detained them after they fled Boko Haram attacks on their villages, sometimes singling out adolescent boys perceived as being of fighting age. Several children said that soldiers accused them of being Boko Haram because they hadn’t left their villages soon enough after Boko Haram attacks. Girls who were abducted and forced to become Boko Haram wives have also been detained.

The vast majority of these children are never charged with a crime. Most are held for months and often years with no contact with the outside world. Their families often presume they are dead. Of the 32 children a colleague and I interviewed, none said they were ever taken before a judge or appeared in court. Only one said he saw someone who he believed might have been a lawyer.

In 20 years of human rights work, I’ve never come across conditions as bad as the children described at Giwa barracks, the main military detention facility in northeast Nigeria. They described cells so crowded that they were forced to sleep on their sides, packed tightly together in rows. “We were so close you couldn’t put one finger between one person and the next,” said one. “We were like razorblades in a pack,” said another.

They described beatings, overwhelming heat, and an overpowering stench from hundreds of detainees sharing a single open toilet. Many spoke of frequent hunger or thirst. Deaths were common, and many of the children said they saw soldiers carry bodies out of the cells.

Many of the children I met felt doubly victimized, first by Boko Haram for abducting them or attacking their village, and then by the government for detaining them. Many felt frustrated that the military did not adequately investigate their claims that they were not part of Boko Haram. “My years were wasted in suffering,” said one bitterly.

Illustration @ 2019 John Holmes for Human Rights Watch.

Several of Nigeria’s neighbors, including Chad, Niger, and Mali, have signed “handover protocols” with the United Nations to ensure that children detained by soldiers are swiftly transferred to child protection authorities for rehabilitation, family reunification, and community reintegration. Nigeria should do the same, and immediately release children in military custody to national child welfare authorities. The US, as a major supporter of Nigeria’s counter-insurgency operations, should urge Nigeria to take these steps.

Boko Haram has caused untold suffering for millions, and it’s possible some children may have committed serious crimes. If Nigerian authorities have credible evidence of criminal offenses by children, they should transfer them to civilian authorities for treatment in accordance with international juvenile justice standards.

Locking up children based on speculation or dubious evidence is not an effective way to counter Boko Haram’s violence. The former child detainees I met had no sympathy for Boko Haram or interest in fighting. They want to go to school or find work to support themselves. Instead of putting them in prison, Nigerian authorities should help them build their future.

Jo Becker is the children’s rights advocacy director at Human Rights Watch and author of “They Didn’t Know if I was Alive of Dead”: Military Detention of Children for Suspected Boko Haram Involvement in Northeast Nigeria. Follow her on Twitter at @jobeckerhrw.

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