Photo: ACNUR

Principles

You can read below the Charter of Principles of CLADE, agreed during the IV Assembly of the Campaign held in Panama on March 22 and 23, 2007 and reviewed at the VIII Assembly of the Campaign in Peru, from October 26 to 29, 2014.

First Principle: The assertion of the public responsibility of the State and the exercise of human rights

CLADE asserts that education is a fundamental human right that must be guaranteed for all peoples and individuals. Public education is secular and free and the State is guarantor of rights. In pursuit of building a democratic and autonomous relationship between government and society, and to vindicate the public profile of state institutions, CLADE therefore demands:

A- The State’s obligation and responsibility to guarantee rights, and, therefore, the defense of the rule of law, the human rights and the peoples’ rights;

B- The need to formulate and implement the education policy as a State policy, with long-term plans, beyond government administrations.

C- The defense of education as a public system that serves the needs of society, the imperative to improve it without considering it simply as a commodity and the opposition to the privatization of education institutions;

D- The imperative of State financing for the realization of the right to education for all, considering its accessibility, availability, acceptability and adaptability, and its oversight by civil society to ensure the efficient and timely use of the budget.

Second Principle: Education as human right that promotes the rest of the rights , entails the assumption that boys, girls, young people and adults are bearers of rights; a right that promotes interculturality, the interplay of worldviews under equal terms; a nonsexist education based on gender equality, the respect of gender identities and sexual diversity; the connection between citizenship and democracy; a new cross-generational relationship; social and environmental justice; the elimination of all forms of discrimination; building a culture of peace and nonviolent resolution of conflicts. The interdependence and indivisibility of the human right to education entails a comprehensive and intersectoral perspective with the participation of citizens and social movements.

Third Principle: Democratization and efficiency of the public education system that guarantees:

- Open spaces and mechanisms for a significant participation of the education community and civil society in the design, monitoring and evaluation of education policies;

- The implementation of transparency and accountability mechanisms by the State, and even by education centers:

- Assertion and acknowledgement of the education workers’ role and the dignification of their work. Thus, States must guarantee working conditions to meet the education challenge they face as well as their participation in decision-making processes regarding education policies and practices;

- The establishment of professional development and a teaching career, and to ensure teachers are acknowledged as bearers of rights;

- A closer link between the results of academic researches, field experiences and decisions on education policies;

- The definition of professional profiles to take on a public responsibility in the education field and to avoid nepotism and party quotas;

-And a better interlinkage between the formal education processes and the nonformal and popular education processes promoted through actions from the community and/or social and citizens’ organizations.

Fourth Principle: The search for quality education programs and processesbased on the following criteria:

- Education relevance in terms of the acceptability and adaptability standards of education, able to embrace different contexts and individual specificities, and, therefore, able to promote varied and flexible curriculum proposals;

- Assertion of learning processes (and not exclusively schooling indicators) to assess governments’ commitment with education;

- The vision of education as a lifelong learning process and the path to change and freedom;

- The promotion of affirmative pedagogic actions to overcome discrimination rationales on account of age, sex, gender, ethnicity and race, disability, deprivation of liberty, migration status or displacement, geographical location, nationality and to develop equality, interculturality and respect for diversity;

- Ensuring universal coverage, related to accessibility and availability standards, and the implementation of policies to avoid school drop-out, ensuring permanence and learning achievements;

- Search for better coordination between education, community and territory, to serve the population and human development;

-And the assertion of human rights education as an integral part of the right to education, promoting the development of approaches towards ethical practice, values and respect among us, democracy, equality, honesty, solidarity and dialogue, in the education endeavor.

Fifth Principle: Standing for plural and collective action of different civil society players in the struggle for the realization of the right to public and free education for all, engaging children, young people, adults, nongovernmental organizations, teachers’ unions, education workers’ associations and social movements.