RCE Quality Assurance System

The RCE Quality Assurance System is a participatory mechanism that supports educational environments (including but not limited to schools) to implement educational practices that are in alignment with Child Rights.

It is a civil society-led implementation of a proposal from the World Programme for Human Rights Education (First Phase 2005-2007) approved by the UN General Assembly to 10 (x) Establish a rights-based quality assurance system (including school self-evaluation and development planning, school inspection, etc.) for education in general and create specific quality assurance mechanisms for human rights education;. It also supports several measures called for the in the World Programme (see Footnotes in the above link)

Who is the "civil society" implementing this, and why?

1. The Rights-Centric Education Network is a movement of individuals and organizations who believe that presently mainstreamed educational practices are not compatible with Child Rights (which is not surprising when we recognise that those educational practices predate the modern Human Rights discourse by centuries)
2. Many members of the RCE Network are involved in educational environments where educational practices are more aligned with Human Rights (and especially Child Rights), and recognized the Quality Assurance System proposed by the UN as a powerful opportunity to bring democratic, rights-centric educational practices to the mainstream.

I want to know more about the "Why"

1. Watch the first hour (2nd hour is Q&A) of the keynote by Sifaan Zavahir (a Founding Member of the RCE Network) at the International Democratic Education Conference 2025 held in Belgium on August 1-7. This presentation was mainly addressing the reasons why schools and families identifying as Democratic should be early adopters of the Quality Assurance System. See Description and Recording.
2. Watch the recording of a call hosted by Je'anna Clements (also a Founding Member) on the benefits of being an early adopter of the QAS here.

Who can Participate in the RCE QAS

Please see RCE QAS Participants

I am not eligible to be a Participant, how can I help?

Please see RCE QAS Advisors

What do I do as a Participant?

1. To the fullest extent possible, explain to the children you are working with why you are doing this (broadly, that they have human rights, and you want to ensure that their education respects and fulfils those rights as much as possible). A big part of realising children's rights is respecting their right to participate in decisions that affect them, and it is good to start that process by involving them in the decision to participate in the RCE QAS
2. Join the RCE Network here (The QAS is offered by the RCE to its members, so membership is required - but don't worry, it's free, and it affirms your commitment to Children's Rights - and your presence strengthens the network)
3. Read and Sign the Declaration of Child Rights-Centric Education here (the QAS exists to support the changes called for in the Declaration; so being a signatory is required. And again, your signature strengthens the network)
4. "Sign" the Pledge to join the QAS - we will have a form for this (that will also allow you do join the network and sign the declaration at the same time) Text of the Pledge has been updated recently. Please review. In case we cannot reach consensus on the content of the Pledge before Nov 20th, we will launch with the existing Pledge, and revise it later
5. Make your first Report, which will outline what is the current situation in your environment in terms of child rights, and what have you done (or intend to do), to make things better.
6. Submit further reports as and when possible (e.g. to describe a practice that you didn't have time to do before, to update on a new initiative, etc.)
7. When submitting reports, you are
   1. expected to implement some practices from the First World Program for Human Rights Education, as and when possible
   2. encouraged to make use of the content of reports submitted by other Participants (that is how we share and make use of good practices from diverse contexts and countries)

More questions

1. Is this being modelled after any existing models?
   We are drawing inspiration from several areas
   1. The reporting process that is part of every Human Rights treaty - if a country ratifies a treaty, they commit to report on their progress. (ChatGPT explanation for CRC here). Likewise, we expect that if a "school" (or other educational environment) signs up to be part of the QAS (because it gives them recognition for caring about Child Rights in Education and access to peer support) they will also make periodic reports on their progress.
      1. (Added Jun 22) RCE QAS reports will be likewise public (see CRC related submissions in the UN repository here)
      2. However, we presently do not expect that there will be a formal review process - instead, these reports should be included in the democratic decision making processes in the school itself, and will empower children to hold adults accountable to their commitments
   2. The Forest School Association is an example of a network of schools coming together to organize their own Qualification System
      1. Their path was to create a hierarchical system where there is an authority above the schools that determines how well each school is performing.
      2. We expect that it is the children in the school who should determine how well their school is performing in terms of respecting there rights (much like citizens decide how happy they are with their governments and express themselves through franchise)
      3. There can, of course, be independent bodies that analyse the reports (e.g. and show that school X has met 60% of their commitments while school Y has only met 40%) and provide supporting evidence (just like citizens in a democracy access information from a variety of sources)
   3. UNICEF's Rights-Respecting Schools Award (RRSA) is very similar in terms of goals, and their Theory of Change is useful (Thank you Don Berg for sharing this). Comparing QAS to RRSA:
      1. We too will have Case Studies
      2. Unlike the RRSA, we will not start by accepting the presently mainstreamed system of schools as the baseline - that system was designed to violate, not advance, human rights and no amount of icing on top can fix it.
      3. Like in the comparison with Forest School, there will not be an authority that will set benchmarks (RRSA has Bronze, Silver, Gold levels)
      4. There will not be any participating fees.
      5. Derry shared this article he wrote for EUDEC about RRSA back in 2011. This gives more information on the background of the award and its impact.

Suggested Additional Reading

1. Children's rights group KRÄTZÄ published a "Human rights report", called "The Discrimination of The Child". It compared the real life (reality) of children in Germany with the provisions given by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). 16 of the 30 paragraphs weren't valid or adults/government didn't abide to them. The report was handed over to the President of Germany on the 50th Anniversary of the UDHR (1998). Among other things, it identifies the school system as the core area where human rights are being violated. Website (in German) here and here (Thank you Mike Weimann for sharing this)
2. KRÄTZÄ also wrote to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education when he visited Germany in 2006 (letter, in German, here) (Thanks again, Mike) - if it is possible to engage the SR in the QAS it would be great; in the past the SR's have grudgingly accepted home-schooling as an option to realise the Right to Education but are deeply skeptical about non-state Education. The QAS may help alleviate these fears