Peru Is Threatening Human Rights Education
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Loading... - Ferreira Belem
- 28 Mar 2023
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January 24 is the International Day of Education, which celebrates the key role that education plays in ensuring peace, development, gender equality, and human rights. For this year’s celebration, however, there is a dark stain on Peru’s education record: Law No. 31498, which purports to “promote the quality of educational materials and resources.”
Congress passed this law in May 2022 effectively giving publicly registered parental organizations supervisory and veto powers over the Education Ministry’s learning materials for early childhood, primary, and secondary schools. These organizations can provide input about, for example, whether the materials respect “the religious liberty and moral convictions” of students and parents, or whether the materials promote “practices that can constitute ‘moral crimes.’” “Moral crimes” is a nebulous term that appears to be a reference to issues of sexual and reproductive rights. Public servants can face disciplinary sanctions, including suspension without pay or dismissal, for failure to comply with the obligation, established by the law, to consult parents.
It is important to involve parents in their children’s education and there is already a framework that promotes this participation. But the level of control that this law gives parental organizations is unprecedented and poses a risk to independent education and the quality of educational materials by ignoring the experience and pedagogical expertise that creating learning materials requires. It also calls into question the Education Ministry’s essential role in implementing the National Curriculum of Basic Education, which is grounded in the respect for human rights. Parents committed to quality education for their children should be worried. Read More…
