RCE Quality Assurance System

The RCE Framework is the civil society 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;

What is happening

1. IDEC 2025 will host workshops to prepare a Quality Assurance System for Rights-Centric Education (see here)
2. A group of volunteers are presently working virtually to prepare the workshops

FAQ

1. Where does this Quality Assurance System idea come from?
   The Revised draft plan of action for the first phase (2005-2007) of the World Programme for Human Rights Education included a proposal for a Rights-based Quality Assurance System
2. 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.

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
3. Proposed Pledge to join RCE Quality Assurance System drafted in 2024 as the document parallel to countries ratifying human rights treaties. The odd terminology used is because it is referring to various articles in the World Programme for Human Rights Education (Mike had raised concerns on these in Oct 2024, but we could not take it up at the time.
   It may still be useful for schools to have evidence that they are taking part in the RCE Quality Assurance System, but that may be better as a confirmation by the RCE Network than a Pledge by the participating school.