Submission to the Universal Periodic Review of the United Nations Human Rights Council: South Africa

Broken Chalk is a non-profit organization with one main goal – To protect human rights in the world of education. The organization started with a website and articles and currently it is working on multiple projects, each aiming to fight human rights violations in the educational sphere. As the UPR is related to human rights violations, inequalities, human trafficking, and other violations, Broken Chalk prepares this article for the fourth cycle and the specific country – South Africa.

During the last cycle, the delegation put forward 243 recommendations, South Africa supported 187 of them, and the rest they noted.1 Section B31 is the one that stands out as it is related to “Equality & non-discrimination” and South Africa supported all of the recommendations given. Some of them are related to the protection of different minorities. Support and education on the LGBTQ communities and attempts on reducing discrimination in the country. The recommendations given in 2017 will help Broken Chalk evaluate the performance of the specific country. This report will give an update on the previous issues related to education, plus recommendations on how to deal with new ones.

By Ivan Evstatiev

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Cover image by Chris Eason.

Submission to the Universal Periodic Review of the United Nations Human Rights Council: Philippines

Broken Chalk is a non-profit organization that addresses the respect and enforcement of the right to education. Therefore, it is concerned on how the Philippines has expanded the access to quality education on an equal level across all levels and age groups without discrimination since the conclusion of the Universal Periodic Review’s 3rd Cycle in late 2017. Nearly 24% of the statements made by the 95 delegations during the Working Group’s Interactive Dialogue on 18th July 2017 focused on education and other issues such as the gender gap, discrimination, and human trafficking which affect the access, outputs, and outcomes of education.(1)

From 257 recommendations that these delegations put forward, the Philippines accepted all those concerning education under paragraphs 133.219 – 133.225 of the Working Group’s Report in its Addendum.(2) Thus, the Philippines accepted to prioritise public education in its budgetary expenditure; increase net enrolment for girls in pre-primary and primary education; generate legislation that increases access to quality education for vulnerable learners; and ensure education remains compulsory and free. These serve as a baseline for Broken Chalk to highlight new and persistent issues that impact the right to education within the state and conclude whether they were satisfied by the Government of the Philippines (GPH) whilst calling for actions that address the current trends and issues in a holistic manner.

By Karl Baldacchino 

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Cover image by Alloizajean.

Educational Challenges in the Plurinational State of Bolivia: From Educational Barriers to a Mismatch of Skills

The Plurinational State of Bolivia has recently experienced several positive and negative developments. The KOF Swiss Economic Institute highlighted in 2019[i] that Bolivia kept an average rate of 4.9% growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP), primarily due to its export of natural resources such as gold, zinc, silver, copper, and natural gas reserves. However, with a GDP of $3,117 per capita – significantly lower than its neighbours – Bolivia remains the poorest state in South America. The World Bank’s GINI coefficient index highlighted the high rate of income inequality: Bolivia scored 44.6 out of 100 in 2016 in income equality.

These developmental ups and downs are noticeable in several spheres, including the educational one. As Andersen et al. (2020)[ii] note, Bolivian education lacks statistical data because, in the last twenty years, the country has not participated in the major educational assessments usually conducted by international organisations like the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) or the IEA’s Trends in International Mathematics & Science Study (TIMSS). This largely leaves researchers and policymakers clueless about what the main educational challenges are and which solutions can improve access to quality education for Bolivia to achieve timeously the fourth Sustainable Development Goal: to ‘ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all’.[iii] To get a more accurate picture of the state of education in Bolivia and the likelihood of those graduating from suitable and higher levels of education meeting labour market demands, information must be gathered from various yet credible sources.

 

Historical barriers to education

The Borgen Project, which aims to reduce global poverty through U.S. foreign policy, noted in 2015[iv] that approximately one in seven students in Bolivia do not finish their education. This leads to a majority of them not commencing secondary education. Albeit reducing the overall rate of illiteracy from 36.21% in 1976 to 7.54% by 2015[v], over a million Bolivians aged 15 and above remain illiterate. There are four reasons suggested for these issues: [vi]

  1. Although the majority of students come from indigenous backgrounds and speak Quechua or Aymara at home, classes are normally taught in Spanish;
  2. There remains a wide gap between rural and urban dwellers. Students in rural areas only complete an average 4.2 years of education before dropping out to support their families financially. In contrast, students in urban areas complete an average of 9.4 years of schooling;
  3. Education remains outside the purview of the state, which results in a lack of resources to create an environment conducive to students pursuing a good quality education; and
  4. In conjunction with the previous point, teachers continue to receive low wages and often go on strike, leaving students without access to education for days or weeks.

Some of the above issues stem from the historical development of education in Bolivia. Redin (2020)[vii] explains that, following the end of the military dictatorship, the neoliberal reforms between 1980 and 1990 increased support for ethnic diversity but reduced the state’s interference and social spending. This greatly impacted enrolment into public schools. The state was unsuccessful in its attempts to boost such enrolment by lifting rural families out of poverty and encouraging them to send their children to school. This failure inspired indigenous movements, such as the Native Peoples’ Educational Councils (CEPOS), as well as parents, to create their foundations to take matters into their own hands by empowering schools and teachers to deliver better quality education, considering and duly incorporating indigenous culture and language. Education thus developed into a privatised institution managed by society rather than by the state due to a ‘maldistribution process’ where civil political rights were being strengthened in exchange for reduced efforts towards social rights.[viii]

 

Access to education and accessibility

Another feature of Bolivia’s education system, noted by the qualitative study of Muyor-Rodriguez et al, (2021),[ix] is that public universities have failed to meet the educational needs of students with disabilities. Despite public universities’ commitments to provide access to education for all students under equal conditions, the participants of group discussions argued that there is a lack of equal value in the education received by students with disabilities in favour of ethnic or sexual diversity, which has excluded or stereotyped some disabilities.[x] Although Resolution No. 9/09 of 2009 exempted students with disabilities from taking admission tests to enter public universities, the degree of autonomy resulting from the co-governance-like system that exists between teachers and students, meant that some universities did not implement the policy.[xi] Participants also discussed the discrimination they experienced by professors who did not distinguish between the educational requirements for students with disabilities and those students without disabilities, and the prejudice resulting from a lack of resources for university personnel to meet their needs. The cumulative effect is the ineffective long-term management of the impact that campaigns from inclusivity bring.[xii]

 

Education since Evo Morales

With the election of Evo Morales as President in 2005, new efforts in the field of education aimed to decolonise the Bolivian curriculum from a ‘science-centred blanco-mestizo project’ of nationhood and instead shift towards an ‘equal space to science and ancestral knowledge’.[xiii] The government sought to establish an equilibrium that remains focused on developing scientific skills whilst continuing the intra-culturality of 1994 that retains the indigenous culture(s), history, and knowledge of Bolivian society. These changes have left teachers burdened with having to find creative methods to balance providing an education that will give learners the skills necessary to move to higher levels of education and giving them the required skillset to be absorbed by the labour market.[xiv]

 

Education does not meet labour market demands

Andersen et al. (2020) noted the mismatch between education and the labour skills demanded by the labour market, which resulted in many graduates failing to reap the rewards of their education between 2007 and 2017.[xv] Their analysis points out that those particularly affected by the systemic educational flaws are non-indigenous urban males, who remained without suitable income distribution throughout the first 15 years of education. KOF’s factbook establishes that large portions of Bolivia’s employed population operate in the primary sectors of agriculture, hunting, forestry, and fishing, as well as the secondary sectors of manufacturing, construction, mining, and industrial activities, standing at 27.4% and 22.6% respectively.[xvi] This is the consequence of what is referred to as the ‘Commodity Super Cycle’, which increased the demand for Bolivia’s primary export commodities, mentioned above, resulting in young men dropping out of school to take advantage of profits in these industries. Furthermore, it triggered what is known as ‘Dutch Disease’ in the construction sector.[xvii] This has created a vicious cycle of high commodity prices, leading to more land development that, in turn, requires more labour workers, who rely on on-the-job training rather than the attainment of particular levels of education. Thus, a labour market requiring equipped workers is created, preferring hands-on experience as opposed to theoretical knowledge.[xviii] A major concern of this mismatch is the increased rate of brain drain in Bolivia. By 2015, 799 605 Bolivians (roughly 7.5% of the national population), had emigrated, either to pursue higher levels of education or to reap the benefits of the education they have already received. As a result, Bolivia loses the benefits of the knowledge and skills attained by its students.[xix]

The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic serves as a force multiplier on these existing issues. As reported in the United Nations Children’s Fund’s (UNICEF) 2020 Country Report,[xx] a total of 2.9 million children have been left without access to education and the nutrition support systems that their schools provide. The pandemic has also highlighted the digital divide between urban and rural populations since having a stable internet connection is vital to access virtual educational services.

The future of education in Bolivia

The Bolivian government has made efforts to improve the state of education, as exemplified by the following:[xxi]

  1. It closed the enrolment between primary and secondary education based on income, gender, or ethnicity by 2017;
  2. It tripled the availability of teachers between 2000 and 2017. Now there is a fully qualified teacher for every 24 schoolchildren;
  3. 39% of all Bolivians were invested in some form of formal education by 2017; and
  4. UNESCO’s education indicator database explains that the government has invested an average of 7% of its GDP into education. This shows the government’s commitment to ensuring access to a free and public education of prime quality that accounts for diversity and provides equal opportunities and benefits without discrimination.

Bolivian students are preparing for changes in the external factors that govern the commodity cycle in Bolivia. As Andersen et al. stated, ‘it certainly seems better to err on the side of too much education rather than too little’.[xxii]

The Bolivian government must harmonise its resources with the private sector and other domestic stakeholders to improve the quality of education received and the returns necessary from the labour market that promotes an educational system that adds value and, in turn, creates value for the state and Bolivians at large. This positive cycle of development would also aid Bolivia in meeting its other SDG targets, including ending all forms of poverty, creating decent work opportunities, promoting economic growth that is sustainable and inclusive, and reducing levels of inequality alongside other states.[xxiii]

 

Written by Karl Baldacchino

Edited by Farai Chikwanha and Olga Ruiz Pilato

 

 

 

Endnotes

 

[i] KOF Swiss Economic Institute (2019) ‘KOF Education System Factbook: Bolivia’. KOF Education System Factbooks: Zurich, 1st Ed., pp. 3-5.

[ii] Andersen, L. E. et al. (2020) ‘Occasional Paper Series No. 63 – A Country at Risk of Being Left Behind: Bolivia’s Quest for Quality Education’. Southern Voices, p. 11.

[iii] United Nations Department of Economic & Social Affairs. ‘Goal 4’. Available online from: https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal4 [Accessed on 28/02/2022].

[iv] Binns, M. (2015) ‘Top 4 Reasons Education in Bolivia Lags’. The Borgen Project. Available online from: https://borgenproject.org/top-4-reasons-education-in-boliva-lags/ [Accessed on 28/02/2022].

[v] Muyor-Rodriguez, J. et al. (2021) ‘Inclusive University Education in Bolivia: The Actors and Their Discourses’. Sustainability, Vol. 13. Available online from: https://doi.org/10.3390/su131910818 [Accessed on 28/02/2022], p. 2.

[vi] ‘Top 4 Reasons Education in Bolivia Lags’.

[vii] Redin, M. C. B. (2020) ‘Dilemmas of Justice in the Post-Neoliberal Educational Policies of Ecuador and Bolivia’.  Policy Futures in Education, Vol. 18(1), pp. 53-56.

[viii] Ibid., p.58.

[ix] ‘Inclusive University Education in Bolivia’, p. 3.

[x] Ibid., pp. 8-10.

[xi] Ibid., pp. 4 & 9-10 & 12.

[xii] Ibid., pp. 13-14.

[xiii] Ibid., pp. 58-59.

[xiv] Ibid., p. 61.

[xv] ‘A Country at Risk of Being Left Behind’, pp. 15-16.

[xvi] ‘KOF Factbooks’, p. 4.

[xvii] ‘A Country at Risk of Being Left Behind’, pp. 19-20.

[xviii] Ibid., p. 27.

[xix] Ibid., p. 21.

[xx] United Nations Children’s Fund (2020) ‘Country Office Annual Report 2020 – Bolivia, Plurinational State of’, p. 1.

[xxi] ‘A Country at Risk of Being Left Behind’, pp. 27-29.

[xxii] Ibid., p. 29.

[xxiii] Ibid., pp. 22-26.

Cover image taken from https://www.magisamericas.org/educating-for-transformation-through-community-partnership/ 

 

Challenges in the German educational system

Because of its well-structured and tough educational system, Germany is regarded for having exceptionally high academic standards. Students are rigorously assessed at each stage of their education, to the point where if a student fails to meet the required minimum grades in two or more classes, he or she must repeat the entire year to ensure that they always meet the requirements to advance to the next class level. The German educational institution is notable for its strong job stability, free qualified educators, low youth unemployment figures, classes that are tailored to the kids’ learning styles and positive manual labour. Germany, on the other hand, continues to have problems with its educational system.

 

Structure of schooling system

Germany have a 3-tiered system for secondary education that ranks students by their ability after finishing elementary school. This system then determines whether students will have access to higher education or not. Its education system separates students by their educational abilities, and the tracking starts since 4th grade, which is way too early.

The German states, with the exception of Bavaria, have abandoned the three-pathway model of academically oriented Gymnasium, vocationally oriented Realschule, and vocationally oriented Hauptschule. Apart from Gymnasium, the most common school types now offered are integrated (all three tracks combined), semi-integrated (Hauptschule and Realschule combined), and cooperative (all three tracks combined) (all or two tracks combined with tracking from grade 6).

Furthermore, its dual-track educational system divides pupils into those who are regarded qualified for higher education and others who are funnelled to vocational schools after finishing ten years of school, resulting in inequalities. As a result, many German students drop out of school and are instead placed in job preparation programs rather than vocational training programs. Differences in students’ learning and grading techniques, as well as varying tracking recommendations from their elementary school teachers contribute to educational challenges in German

Secondary education and has a major impact on a person’s career paths. Gymnasium schools cater to the most academically able students, leading to entry qualification for higher education. Realschule schools cater to more vocationally inclined students, leading to apprentice programs, technical schools, and access to Gymnasiums, and Hauptschule schools catering to students with low academic ability, social, or behavioural problems. These constitute the background and subsequent starting point for further education and training for German scholars. The German education system is determined by individual states of Germany, resulting in significant educational disparities.

 

Socio-economic backgrounds

In Germany, a child’s academic performance is intimately tied to their parents’ backgrounds, with immigrants and their offspring being disproportionately affected by structural inequality. Inequality in the German educational system is a well-known issue. Studies have shown for decades that pupils from more priveleged socioeconomic backgrounds routinely outperform their peers, even when they have similar cognitive aptitude. These children are more likely to be recommended for the top educational tracks in the country and to enter university.The education system is confronted by the challenge of creating equal opportunity for individuals with different backgrounds.

In 2018, UNICEF looked into the educational equity of preschool and school-aged children in 41 industrialised countries. Germany was ranked in the center of the group, ahead of the United States and Australia, but behind smaller economies like Lithuania, Denmark, and the number one country, Latvia.

Immigrant students and students from lower-income households are also less likely to advance in their education, as education in rural areas of Germany lags behind that in cities. German schooling has also been chastised for creating huge divides in educational opportunity between children from affluent families and disadvantaged children/children from immigrant families. Students from a higher socioeconomic background outperform their lower socioeconomic peers with identical cognitive ability, and they are also more likely to be recommended for the highest educational tracks in Germany and to enter universities. Children from migrant families are also four times more likely to be affected by social, financial, and educational risk factors, with students from Western/Northern European countries having a higher probability of having a university degree than students from Eastern Europe/Turkey.

Evidence shows that children from Turkish, Kurdish, or Arabic backgrounds  – known in Germany as “migrant” children even if they are second or third generation immigrants—are disproportionately represented in the lowest level Hauptschule, subjecting them to a cycle of marginalization.

Migrant children in Germany attend Hauptschule twice as often as those from similar socioeconomic backgrounds. Despite some progress, migrant children remain underrepresented in the highest-level Gymnasiums. In short, the German educational system fails to assist pupils in overcoming disadvantage and marginalization as a result of their background, including as ethnic or religious minorities.

Several elementary and secondary schools in Berlin isolate migrant children from native-born German students in separate classes, ostensibly because their German language abilities are insufficient for regular classes. In fact, despite the fact that they speak German as a second language, their language skills are generally sufficient for regular classes, but they function as a proxy for discrimination based on ethnicity or other questionable characteristics. The education provided in these segregated classrooms is far inferior to that provided in regular schools. Discriminatory practices stigmatize migrant students, impede their ability to properly integrate and contribute to the German society, and breach Germany’s duties under the ICCPR article 26, read combined with article 2, to ban discrimination.

 

Written by Lerato Selekisho

 

References

https://www.justiceinitiative.org/voices/hard-look-discrimination-education-germany

https://www.euractiv.com/section/non-discrimination/news/experts-criticise-inequality-in-german-schools/

https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CCPR/Shared%20Documents/DEU/INT_CCPR_NGO_DEU_14668_E.pdf

https://www.oecd.org/education/policy-outlook/country-profile-Germany-2020.pdf

https://www.deutschland.de/en/topic/knowledge/educational-equity-in-germany-current-challenges

Image from https://community.rewire.to/group-of-school-kids-and-teacher-in-classroom/ 

 

Who is 2021’s Tyrant of the Year?

Imagine living in the 21st century, where technology, science, health, media, art, and education are developing, and being imprisoned for expressing your opinion, or defending your rights. Sadly, this is currently happening in many countries around the world.
Although leaders of different countries are trying to develop and implement democracy together with human rights, there are others which, in contrary, imprison the citizens that demand basic human rights.
Last year, many journalists and human rights activists were jailed for expressing their opinion and defending human rights such as equality in education and women’s rights. These journalists’ rights have been taken away from them by the rulers of the countries they belong to, as these rulers have used fake excuses to justify their imprisonment, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, religion and beliefs, extremist ideologies, among others.
Index censorship(1) has prepared a list of tyrant leaders who are notable for their human rights violations:

Vote for your Tyrant of the Year 2021

Aleksandr Lukashenka
Known as “Europe’s last dictator” as he proudly refers to himself, Lukashenka’s ruling period in Belarus is known as one of the worst ruling periods in the country. He has jailed protestors, including the opposition journalists and human rights activists. In addition to this, he has signed a law allowing police officers to shoot protestors without being held accountable for shooting, providing the police with a huge power to commit “police brutality” to the protestors.(2)
Since the media outlets are government controlled, there is zero transparency in news reporting, and the media outlets who talk unfavorable about the president are subjected to threats by the government.
Education should be provided for everyone equally, but the current regime in Belarus renders this impossible, as Lukashenka’s latest human rights violation in the educational field includes the failure to allow students who oppose his regime to attend universities, as well as to fire teachers who do not follow the state’s ideology.(3)(4)

 

Jair Bolsonaro
Since Bolsonaro came to power in 2019, Brazil has faced serious problems in many fields. Media censorship has been implemented to those who criticize Bolsonaro and his regime, and journalists have been attacked and jailed for criticizing his far-right ideologies.
Bolsonaro’s appointment as the president of Brazil has benefited people with far-right ideologies, resulting in an increase in homophobic and misogynist attacks on the LGBTQ+ community. Bolsonaro is known for his homophobic and misogynist statements and for not allowing criticisms of homophobia and misogyny.(5)
Brazil has been going through one of its worst periods since covid-19 did hit the country, as Bolsonaro’s mishandling of the covid-19 situation has caused the enormous spread of the pandemic across the country.(6)
Bolsonaro is accused of controlling the education in the country, and has attacked subjects dealing with racism, women, and LGBTQ+ history, and gender equality. Most of the federal public universities in Brazil depend on government funding, but there has been a proposal from the Ministry of Education to reduce funding for Brazilian public universities by 30% and to cut funding entirely to the philosophy and sociology departments of public universities. The current regime in Brazil also encourages to expose and fire teachers with leftist ideologies, and to expel students who criticize Bolsonrano’s regime.(7)

 

Xi Jinping
One of the most dangerous rulers of China, known for his brutal far right and revisionist ideologies, and responsible for the genocide that is currently cleansing the Uighur minority in Xinjiang. The political party that Xi Jinping belongs to, the Chinese Communist Party, controls almost everything in the country: from citizens to media outlets, and, above all, education.
As any other far right rulers of the world entertaining themselves with imprisoning journalists and human rights activists, it is not a surprise that Xi Jinping is one of these rulers. He was responsible for the arrest of many journalists and human rights activists that exposed him and his political party.
Jinping and his political party have been controlling the education in China and abroad, threatening anyone who talks unfavorably about the CCP and himself. Former Minister of Education Yuan Guiren has publicly stated that western textbooks should be banned from entering educational field, especially those criticizing the CCP and its leader(8). The intention behind this statement is not to allow any criticism to reach to the students, with the aim of reducing attacks on the CCP by students.
People in China are expected to follow the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, and anyone daring to criticize Jinping and the CCP will be accused of treason and foreign espionage and will face law-breaching accusations. This means that any teacher or student who dares to openly criticize Chinese Communist Party or any of its members will be accused and charged for breaking the law.(9)

 

Donald Trump
Donald Trump’s presidency was a terrible period in America’s history. Trump is known for his far-right ideals including white supremacy, anti-refugee remarks, racism, Islamophobic statements, and promoting conspiracy theories.
His anti-refugee laws include construction of a wall along the US – Mexico border, reducing the entrance of immigrants from Mexico to USA. An executive order called “Protecting the Nation from Terrorist Attacks by Foreign Nationals” includes banning citizens of 7 Muslim majority countries to enter USA, which targeted Muslim immigrants, especially those from low-income backgrounds, and suggests that citizens of these countries are “terrorists that pose as threats to the safety of USA”.(10)
Trump’s far right statements have encouraged white supremacists to attack people of color, migrants, and people from religious minorities. School and university students with minority backgrounds were the target of racist attacks, as Trump’s administration in 2018 revoked an Obama-era policy aimed at ending racial discrimination in schools. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos stated that “discipline is a matter on which classroom teachers and local school leaders deserve and need autonomy”.(11) The Department of Education additionally revoked other Obama-era policies that proposed stricter procedures to address campus-based sexual assaults, and protection against sexual abuse on college campuses, as well as protecting transgender students from all forms of attacks.(12)

 

Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Erdogan is the controversial ruler of Turkey, known for his strong religious conservative ideologies and extreme far right views, such as his opposition to the LGBTQ+ community and misogynist statements, with public speeches containing populist rhetoric propaganda such as creating an Islamic khalifate and restoring the Ottoman Empire.
Turkey has withdrawn from the Istanbul Convention, a convention aimed to protect women and the LGBTQ+ community from violence and abuse and secure their rights.(13) This has sparked major controversy on how Erdogan and his regime are ruling the country amidst the increasing rates of femicide and homophobic attacks, without providing security to the victims of these attacks.
Sectarianism and religious intolerance have increased massively in Turkey since Erdogan came to power. Refugees and ethnic minorities, especially Kurdish people, have been suffering the most from his regime. The United Nations reported in 2016 that Turkey’s military and police forces have killed thousands of people during an operation against Kurdish rebels in southeast Turkey, as the report listed summary of killings, torture, rape, and property destruction among a group of human rights violations.(14)
Peaceful protests erupted at the Boğaziçi University after Erdogan’s appointment of academic Melih Bulu as the University’s rector. Bulu is known for his close ties with Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP). The students who protested for Bulu’s appointment were arrested and criminally charged, threatened, and abused, while Erdogan referred to them as “lazy and narrow-minded”. He accused them of having links with terrorism, which is an accusation widely used by Turkish officials for opposition parties and anyone who criticized Erdogan’s regime, including teachers, human rights activists, and journalists.(16)

Over 100,000 professors, government officials, and journalists have been jailed by the Erdogan regime since the failed coup attack in 2016, as many of those detained are member of the Hizmet movement that was created by Turkish preacher Fetullah Gülen, which Erdogan has accused Gülen and the member of Hizmet movement of the attempting the failed coup attack. Gülen and Hizmet movement members have denied these allegations, claiming that Erdogan staged the coup to secure his position and power, which this crackdown has led to the closure of Gülen schools, removal of thousands of Gülen followers from their state jobs, and the arrest of more than 150,000 educated Turkish civilians suspected of having links to Gülen.(17)

 

Mohammad Hasan Akhund
Afghanistan has been the at center of attention since the Taliban regained the control of the country after over a decade. Since then, the country has fallen into an economic, educational, and humanitarian recession, particularly affecting women’s rights.
Mulla Hasan Akhund, one of the founding members of the Taliban and an Ultra-Conservative religious scholar(18), has been appointed as the Prime Minister of Afghanistan since the return of Taliban, raising alarms on increased human-rights violations by the Afghan population.
Since Mulla Hasan Akhund was appointed as Prime Minister, women, journalists, and human-rights activists have been suffering the most from the Taliban regime. Girls are not allowed to attend schools and universities without religious attire, and women forbidden to leave their houses without a male companion. The Taliban has enforced laws that promote gender discrimination, consequently leading to women losing their jobs and constituting an open attack on women’s’ rights.(19)
The Taliban’s return to power has had a profound influence on education. Albeit having promised to allow women to attend schools and universities, Higher Education Minister Abdul Baqi Haqqani has stated that women will be allowed to get education with the condition that they are accompanied with a male companion, and that their studies are in line with the Taliban’s interpretation of Islamic law. Haqqani also stated that gender-mixed classes will be banned and Sharia law will be implemented in schools and universities.(20)

 

Bashar al-Assad
Bashar Al Assad is the personified definition of dictatorship. Assad, Syria’s dictator, is responsible for the massacre of millions of civilians opposing his regime, and has used chemical weapons, torture, and execution as means of attack. He has been arresting and killing journalists that exposed his war crimes, as well as bombing densely populated civilian areas.(21) This has resulted in a refugee crisis, whereby 9 million people have had to flee to neighboring states, seeking asylum in refugee camps and living under harsh conditions. The UN World Food Program reported that nearly 6 million Syrians now rely on its food assistance programs to survive.(22)
With the current situation in Syria, many school and university students are afraid for their lives, and even many parents refuse to send their kids to schools, as schools have turned into a military intelligence service. If these families have been discovered to be part of anti-government protests, or opposing the Assad regime, they will be tortured and threated, and most of the time they are being killed by the Syrian Armed Forces and reported as “missing”.(23)
Schools and Universities in Syria are following the curriculum that has been interpreted by the Assad regime, which indoctrinates students in line with government’s ideologies, resulting in new generations dictated by nationalist rhetoric in support of Assad’s regime.(24)

 

Ali Khameini
Iran is known for its rich culture and a history that has had major contributions in the scientific, health, and philosophic realm. Despite its rich history, Iran is currently suffering from severe human-rights violations by the country’s Supreme Leader.
Ali Khameini is a very controversial figure in Iran, known for his extreme religious beliefs and views, with a conservative far-right mindset. The Khameini regime is known for its brutality and the enforcement of religious beliefs upon people, whilst disrespecting other religious of ethnic minorities co-existing in Iran. Anyone who critisises the government is subjected to threats and criminal charges, as the Sharia laws interpreted by the Khameini regime are implemented in all governmental institutions.
Khameini has been responsible for the closure of many universities where students opposed his government condemned human rights violations. He has violently suppressed these students and threatened universities that disagree and oppose his regime.(25)
Iran has banned teaching English language in primary schools, citing that it opens the gate to the spread of Western ideologies, something that he has termed “western cultural invasion”. This action seeks to minimize government criticism among students and render them oblivious to the human rights violations being committed throughout the country.(26)

 

Nicolas Maduro
Venezuela has been suffering from a huge economic crisis in the past years, with unemployment(27) and poverty(28) rates increasing every year. The numbers have significantly surged after Nicolas Maduro took power in 2013, and has created strong opposition for Maduro’s handling of the crisis.
Protests against Maduro and his regime, accusing him of corruption and totalitarianism, as well as failing to protect late Hugo Chávez’s democracy. In response to the protests, Maduro’s regime has jailed, tortured, and killed civilians participating in the protests, including journalists and human rights activists criticizing his leadership style. Many of them have been reported missing.(29)
The crisis has deeply affected children’s education, as parents cannot afford their school supplies and meals. Many students have dropped out of school to work and help their families earn a living, as providing money for food is more pressing than attending school.(30)
The situation in universities is equally as bad. Professors and academics are underpaid and, in some cases, not paid at all. Some universities have been reported to be suffering from water shortage, which shows that there has been little to no attention to the educational factor in Venezuela.(31) Maduro’s regime arrested students protesting against the current conditions in the educational sphere, sometimes through the use of government armed forces’ bullets.(32)

 

Min Aung Hlaing
Myanmar’s independence from British rule in 1948 surfaced an array of problems in the country. Civil war, poverty, military rule, and the establishment of a dictatorship are only some of the issues Myanmar faces. The Myanmar armed forces, known as the ‘Tatmadaw’ have made the Rohingya Muslim minority a target of genocide.
In 2020, Aung San Suu Kyi and her political party ‘National League for Democracy’ won the elections for the second time. Military leaders accused the elections of being rigged, and Myanmar’s top general Min Aung Hlaing staged a coup in 202, seizing power of the country and detaining Suu Kyi and other opposition party leaders.(33)
When peaceful protests erupted in the country after the coup, many civilians have lost their lives, as Aung Hlaing military regime have killed, tortured, and raped the protestors, while tear gas and other weapons have been used to disperse demonstrators.(34)
Considering the country’s current political instability, many students have halted education amidst fears that school curriculums are dictated by military policies and an authoritarian rhetoric glorifying Aung Hlaing’s leadership.(35)

 

Kim Jong Un
North Korea is one of the world’s most isolated countries. Its ruling system is a mixture between communism, Confucianism, and monarchic dictatorship. North Korea is known for its authoritarian regime, as the country’s ruler Kim Jong Un and his political party ‘Workers’ Party of Korea’ use threat and intimidation to force fearful obedience on people. Kim restricts communication with the outside world by ensuring people to remain within the country’s borders.(36)
The concept of freedom or opposition is not tolerated by Jong Un, and, in fact, does not exist in North Korean society.(37) This explains why independent media and opposition parties do not exist in North Korea, as Kim and his ancestors have completely isolated the country, rendering themselves as God equivalents and its people ‘God’s slaves’.
The steep poverty rates in North Korea consistently increase, and, by 2018, poverty rates were set at 80%.(38) As previously seen in other Venezuela, students drop out of school in order to provide food and maintenance to their families. During holidays and vacations, students are forced to work in rural areas, and teachers forced to work for the government, undertaking jobs such as building railroads, farming, and other illegal jobs to survive.(39)
North Korea’s education system consists of Kim’s enforced propaganda. Students must endure endless speeches depicting the Kim’s legacy as heroic. The system is upheld by the systemic indoctrination of the country’s population, thereby sustaining obedience to its leader. Concepts such as freedom or human rights blindsided schools and universities, and international issues are not properly taught to students.(40)

 

Paul Kagame
Despite Rwanda’s recent progress in areas like health and education president Paul Kagame claims credit for, the government is deeply flawed. Kagame became the president of Rwanda in 2000, and, just as every other dictator, has utilized his power as a way to shut down opposition parties and journalists drawing attention to human rights violations under his rule. He has consistently imprisoned human presidency candidates by accusing them of tax evasion and threat to national security, but these accusations are merely used for political purposes as a way of securing his position as Rwanda’s leader.(41)
Albeit accrediting himself for the huge progress and development in the educational field, records from UNICEF have opposing results. Many children with disabilities are not enrolled in primary schools as they face rejection by the schools without accountability. Most of schools are not designed to be accessible for disabled children, as materials and facilities are not designed to meet their needs.(42)
The educational field requires a lot of attention; only 18% of children enroll to pre-primary education, and girls are more likely to drop out of schools.(43)

 

Vladimir Putin
According to ‘Freedomhouse.org’, Russia has scored 20 out of 100 in political rights and freedom of speech.(44) The country’s president, Vladimir Putin, is exercising an authoritarian regime with a zero-tolerance stance on opposition and criticism to its regime. He accuses the opposition parties and protestors as “terrorists” and “spies that threat the safety of the country”. Alexei Navalny, a prominent critic of Putin’s leadership and anti-corruption activist, was poisoned in 2020, allegedly under Putin’s orders. In 2021 he was jailed by Putin’s regime, an act which drew the attention of human rights organizations which in turn condemned his regime and demanded the world to act against the human rights violations being committed by Putin, including the unlawful annexation of Crimea and the hampering of domestic policies of post-Soviet states.
Putin has forced his authority and ideologies upon the educational filed by approving a new law that prohibits educational activities without approval from authorities, thus posing a major restriction upon schools and universities’ freedom.(45)
As an effort to whitewash history, Russia’s Ministry of Education has approved school history textbooks depicting Russia’s annexation of Crimea as peaceful. These are mere examples shedding light on how Putin is leading an authoritarian regime in Russia and leading to the creation of generation that will glorify the Soviet Union and its ideologies.(46)

 

Teodoro Obiang
Known as the 2nd non-royal national leader in the world, Obiang has been leading Equatorial Guinea for 43 years since 1979 by means of an authoritarian regime.(47) Human rights are being consistently violated in Equatorial Guinea, as human rights abuse, corruption, and power abuse are the major issues affecting the country for the past 43 years. Its population live in constant fear, and human rights defenders, activists, and political opponents face systemic abuse under Obiang’s regime.(48)
Despite Equatorial Guinea’s array of natural resources, the wealth it profits from completely ignores the educational sector. Teachers tend to be underpaid, and there is shortage in school supplies, with school being designed in a way that fails to account for students’ needs. Corruption plays a huge role in the education system, as teachers that have political connections with no experience or accreditation in the field get hired in schools and universities.(50)

 

Sheikh Hasina
Sheikh Hasina’s rule of Bangladesh is notoriously violating human rights. Journalists are arrested unlawfully for criticizing Hasina’s regime, and human rights activists are disappearing. The regime tortures protestors participating in demonstrations against Hasina’s leadership.(51)
Bangladesh has one of the highest rates of women’s rights violations. Domestic violence, acid attacks, rape, and child marriage have are disproportionately high in the country, with a poor implementation of laws protecting women and children, consequentially increasing such abuses.(52)
Education in Bangladesh continues to suffer, as poverty rates increase every year, forcing students to drop out of school to assist their families. Girls are more likely to drop out of school, and many of them are not even attending elementary school, as it is prone to inequality and gender bias. In light of this, parents do not consider education as important for women.(53)

 

Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow
Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow is named as world’s worst dictator by the Obozrevatel Magazine.(54) He reportedly committed the worst human rights violations in Turkmenistan, one of the world’s most isolated countries.
Freedom as a human right does not exist in Turkmenistan. Berdimuhamedow forces his power upon every corner of the country; there is no freedom of expression and religion or freedom of media and information, and prison-torture as well as enforced disappearance are standard within Berdimuhamedow’s regime.(55)
Berdimuhamedow’s propaganda influences the educational sector, insofar as schools teach using textbooks containing speeches of glorification to Berdimuhamedow’s regime, in an effort to indoctrinate children from an early age. Schools and universities in Turkmenistan are controlled and strictly monitored by the government, as they control the information that is being acquired by the students and teacher to ensure the security and the protection of the current political regime.(56)
Turkmenistan is faced with a shortage of qualified teachers as a result of the poor conditions in the educational sector, such as the lack of educational resources in schools and universities. Double shifts and Saturday classes put a great amount of pressure on students. Women suffer from this added pressure in terms of societal standards which expect them to marry by their 20th or 21st birthday. Many of them consequently feel discouraged to complete their higher education, as they form their own families in their early 20’s rather than pursue a career.(57)

By Zinat Asadova

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pictures are taken from : https://www.indexoncensorship.org/2021/12/who-is-2021s-tyrant-of-the-year/