incheon framework for action - --- - الصفحة ٢٢ - Targets and indicative strategies

Education ٢٠٣٠ Framework for Action

Means of implementation

Target ٤.a: Build and upgrade education facilities that are child, disability and gender sensitive and provide safe, non-violent, inclusive and effective learning environments for all

٦٤. This target addresses the need for adequate physical infrastructure and safe, inclusive environments that nurture learning for all, regardless of background or disability status.[١٥] A quality learning environment is essential to support all learners, teachers and other education personnel. Every learning environment should be accessible to all and have adequate resources and infrastructure to ensure reasonable class sizes and provide sanitation facilities. Although the average percentage of primary schools with adequate sanitation coverage rose from ٥٩% in ٢٠٠٨ to ٦٨% in ٢٠١٢ in ١٢٦ developing countries, only one in two schools met this standard in ٥٢ of least developed and other low income countries [[xxxv]].

٦٥. Ensuring that girls and women feel safe in their learning environments is key to continuing their education [[xxxvi]]. The onset of puberty makes girls more vulnerable to sexual violence, harassment, coercion and abuse. School-related gender-based violence is a significant barrier to girls’ education. Many children are constantly exposed to violence in schools: an estimated ٢٤٦ million girls and boys are harassed and abused in and around school every year [[xxxvii]]. In two-thirds of the countries in which there is gender disparity in lower secondary education, it is at the expense of girls [[xxxviii]]. Absence of private toilets, lack of access to sanitary pads and hygiene-related stigma when girls begin menstruating can harm their education, increasing their absenteeism rates and lowering their educational performance. Similarly, lack of attention to the rights and needs of children, youth and adults with disabilities severely limits their participation in education.

٦٦. Indicative strategies:

· Institute comprehensive, multifaceted and cohesive policies that are gender- and disability-sensitive, and promote norms and systems that ensure schools are safe and free from violence.

· Establish policies and strategies to protect learners, teachers and staff from violence within the framework of violence-free schools, and, in areas of armed conflict, commit to and comply with international humanitarian law, which protects schools as civilian objects, and pursue accountability for violation thereof, in implementing Education ٢٠٣٠.

· Ensure that every institution is secure and has water, electricity, gender-segregated toilets that work and are accessible, adequate and safe classrooms, and appropriate learning materials and technology.

· Ensure that resources are allocated equitably between socio-economically advantaged and disadvantaged schools and learning centres.

· Make learning spaces and environments for non-formal and adult learning and education widely available, including networks of community learning centres and spaces and provision for access to ICT resources as essential elements of lifelong learning.

[١٥] It is important to note that conceptions of safe and inclusive learning environments have been developed through the INEE Minimum Standards and UNICEF’s Child-Friendly School Checklist.