Directorate for Coordination with Civil Society - Ministry of Education of the Nation

2021

The main objective of the programme is to promote public policies that protect and guarantee migrants' right to education throughout the national territory.

The “National Program for Education, Migration, and Human Mobility” is designed to promote public policies that protect and guarantee the right to education through inter-ministerial and intersectoral coordination, the promotion of actions to combat violence and discrimination in educational institutions, and the development of actions to raise public awareness.

The initiatives envisaged in the Program are aimed at coordinating actions to contribute to the strengthening of public policies that promote and expand the right to education of migrants and at providing timely and relevant educational responses through joint actions with other ministries and national agencies, jurisdictional education bodies, national universities, international cooperation bodies, trade unions, and civil society organizations.

This initiative has not yet been implemented, but its design makes it possible to highlight some elements.

The program design sets out the following components:

1. Migrants and the right to education
   

   It includes initiatives and actions to combat the different situations of segregation and discrimination that are evident in educational institutions and that violate and/or impede the right to education of children and young people on the move. Actions will be developed to streamline administrative processes for the recognition of previous studies and certification of degrees, in addition to initiatives for the prevention of xenophobia and racism in schools, among others.

2. Migrants and Educational Information
   

   It includes initiatives that strengthen the capacities of management, information production, and monitoring of students on the move, which allow a better analysis of the trajectories for the definition of adequate educational strategies. It highlights the fact that it encourages the training of researchers in the subject and promotes studies that deepen the educational situation of migrants.

3. 3. Migrants, Education and Intersectorality

   Initiatives that include an intersectoral approach to address the multiple vulnerabilities that affect the development of migrant children and young people and seek the implementation of complementary services that favor educational inclusion: legal advice, food, scholarships, student grants, provision of pedagogical materials, computers, among others.

4. 4. Migration and Education in International Cooperation
   

   It involves initiatives that favor collaborative work between the Ministry of Education and other actors from a regional perspective to advance in processes of exchange of experiences, in the harmonization of criteria and in proposals and challenges in the face of the growth of people on the move that improve the educational conditions of people on the move.

The programme is aimed at migrants who require access, permanence, and completion of studies at the basic and higher education levels.

At the federal level; it is therefore envisaged to promote actions with the teams of the jurisdictional ministries of education.

Urban/Rural

It is a cross-sectoral program and cooperation at the national level includes:

• Secretariat for Human Rights
• National Institute against Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Racism (INADI)
• Jurisdictional Ministries of Education
• Universities
• Trade unions and civil society organisations

It is also supported by UNHCR and IOM.

At the national level:

• Migration Act 25.871 (2003)
• National Education Act No.26.206 (2006)
• The Higher Education Act 24.521 (1995)

With regard to the international normative framework:

• Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (2018)
• International Convention on the Protection of Migrant Workers and Their Families (1990)
• International Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989)
• Mercosur Residency Agreement (2003)
• 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2015)
• South American Conference on Migration (1999)
• Quito Process (2018)

The first component of the programme provides for the revision, updating and development of materials for teacher training and working in the classroom to advance in flexible and inclusive school environments, including the gender, ethnicity, race, bilingual intercultural education, environmental education, in their pedagogical strategies.

The program is in the initial launch and implementation phase. It has not been known whether any mechanism has been established for its evaluation.

Public resources

Interview with key informants conducted on February 26, 2021:

• María Fernanda Florez - Director of the Directorate for Coordination with Civil Society - Undersecretariat of Participation and Educational Democratization.

Internal working papers provided by key informants:

Ministry of Education (2021). Preliminary Base Document on Education, Migration and Human Mobility Program, submitted by the Directorate for Coordination with Civil Society.

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Good practices of educational inclusion of migrants

Author: UNESCO IIEP Buenos Aires, Oficina para América Latina; Education Cannot Wait; United Nations Children's Fund.

Year of publication: 2021.