Education

FIs should develop specific policies and procedures to address the most salient human rights and environmental risks relevant to education.

 Education policies and procedures should include a recognition of the corporate responsibility to respect human rights as set out in the UNGPs, including implementing human rights due diligence which reflects sector-specific risks. It should also include a commitment to human rights standards based on the International Bill of Human Rights and the ILO Fundamental Conventions.

 Policies and procedures can also include a specific commitment to key instruments relevant to the provision of education, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Policies should also give specific attention to the most salient human rights issues in the sector, including in relation to data privacy and child safeguarding. FI policies should also clearly articulate a commitment to the right to education.

Any commitments by FIs to these standards, or any concrete expectations for clients/investee based on these standards, should be accompanied by an explanation of how the human rights-related expectations embedded in these standards will be implemented. This can include setting out minimum human rights criteria for the provision of financial services, such as:

• Ensuring that data privacy policies are aligned with international and national legal standards and include a human rights approach, which means understanding and identifying human rights risks and including measures/action plans to prevent and mitigate those risks in data management.
• Ensuring that appropriate child safeguarding policies are in place, including detailing how the FI will prevent, identify and respond to safeguarding risks and issues on projects.

For further information, see ‘Taking Action – Strengthen human rights in FI policies’. See also ‘Policy commitments and human rights’ for practical guidance on how to develop policy commitments which are consistent with the UNGPs, and how to integrate relevant human rights commitments in other policies and procedures.

Human rights screening and risk assessment should aim to identify salient human rights risks in the FI education portfolio, whether their clients’ / investees’ activities in the sector are likely to impact on vulnerable groups (workers, communities and children), and to evaluate the systems that their clients have in place to mitigate and prevent these impacts. FIs should also require investee education providers & Ed-tech to conduct risk assessments to identify potential risk areas for worker, service users and communities.

 FIs can seek to ensure that screening and risk assessments reflect key contextual risk factors in Education:

• Operational and geographical context: Particular attention should be paid to investees in high-risk countries, including in conflict-affected or occupied areas); locations there is economic / political instability and crises which disrupt education systems; jurisdictions where labour laws are not adequately enforced or where professional recognition of education personnel is inadequate; countries where there are significant shortfall in education provision.
• Type of business relationship: In general, labour-related risks are higher among outsourced workforces. In education settings, this usually includes ancillary workers such as catering and cleaning personnel.
• Client specific risk factors: Identify if the client / investee has any documented track record of causing, contributing to or being linked with human rights harms, particularly in relation to child safeguarding or data privacy.
• Presence of vulnerable groups: Specific attention should be given to children, as well as learners with special educational needs.

See ‘Taking Action – Strengthen FI risk management systems and processes’. See also ‘Human Rights Screening and Risk Assessment’ for practical guidance on developing risk screening and assessment systems and processes.

Throughout the financial cycle, FIs should gather information on how clients / investees are managing specific human rights risks and impacts relevant to Education. This could include requiring clients / investees to provide information on:

• Employment and human resource policies which set out how the company recruits and manages its workforce, including measures in place to prevent discrimination and approaches to managing wages and working hours.
• Labour incidents and/or worker complaints, as well as the mitigation/ prevention measures taken. This should extend to contractors and sub-contractors’ workforces.
• Safeguarding: safeguarding mechanisms in place to prevent, identify and respond to safeguarding risks and issues, including the types of background checks used for new recruits.
• Data protection and privacy. How the company collects, stores, processes, and shares personal data. Policies and mechanisms in place to ensure data protection and privacy, with specific attention to issues associated with the use of children’s data.
• Consultation: approach to consultation with potentially affected groups and other relevant stakeholders, including processes, participants, findings and outcomes.

FIs can also engage directly with Education sector clients / investees and use or build leverage to require, facilitate, and incentivize respect for human rights throughout the financing cycle. Effective client / investee engagement helps to build a common understanding of risks, gaps, and required actions. This ensures that measures can be adequately appropriated and implemented. This might include a focus on the following areas:

• FIs can encourage companies to develop measures to promote the right to education, for example initiatives which increase the accessibility of education to underserved groups, or improve the quality of education.
• In relation to EdTech companies, engagement can focus on understanding how artificial intelligence and data-based analytics are used to support learning and learning assessments, and supporting the development of measures to ensure data privacy, as well as avoiding algorithms which are biased or discriminatory.
• In relation to inclusive education, FIs and clients / investees can include a focus on ensuring that education facilities and associated support services provide equitable access to all groups. Specific attention can be given to ensuring access to children and young people with disabilities.

See also ‘Taking Action – Client / Investee Engagement’.

Contractual requirements are also a common tool to build leverage, and FIs should consider integrating human rights considerations into financing contracts with clients, based on organisational human rights policies and commitments.

Pending financing modality, FIs can seek to use contractual leverage with clients to encourage the ‘cascading’ of human rights-respecting business practice. This may commence with the requirement that the client / investee develops and implements a code of conduct aligned with international standards for contractors and sub-contractors, including labour providers, for example providers of ancillary workers such as catering and cleaning personnel. Where appropriate, specific risk mitigants and process requirements – including monitoring, reporting and stakeholder engagement – can be elaborated in the action plan and covenanted in contractual agreements.

See also ‘Taking Action – Contractual provisions’.

Where risk assessments have identified potential human rights impacts, action needs to be taken. The type of action will depend on the severity and likelihood of the impact/s, as well as on how the FI is involved with the human rights impact/s.  In some financing contexts, such as project finance, environmental and social action plans (ESAPs) are an important and common tool for developing specific mitigants and responses in view of risks. In other cases, particularly where greater risks are identified, specific additional plans might be required.

FIs working with clients / investees in Education can focus efforts in all the following areas:

• Human resource policies & procedures: FIs should encourage investee companies’ in developing human resources policies and procedures to promote a safe and healthy working environment for teachers and other education personnel. These should aim to address key issues in the sector including wages and professional recognition.
• Inclusion policies & procedures: FIs should ensure that education providers develop robust policies and procedures to ensure equitable access, including for students with disabilities. Specific attention should be given to encouraging clients to adopt education policies, plans, management information systems, curricula, learning resources and teacher training which are responsive to the needs of women and girls.
• Responsible AI (edtech): client / investee companies should disclose the range of purposes for which they use algorithmic systems; explain how they work, including what they optimise for and what variables they take into account; and enable users to decide whether to allow them to shape their experiences. Companies should take actions to eliminate unintended racial, gender, and other biases in algorithms, including those recommended by the EqualAI Checklist to Identify Bias in AI.
• Safeguarding: FIs should contractually require clients / investees in the education sector to have safeguarding mechanisms in place to prevent, identify and respond to safeguarding risks and issues. This should include a standalone safeguarding policy that explicitly covers all types of abuse and violence against children and young people, including GBVH. This should be accompanied by clear procedures and training for all staff. At minimum, all individuals in contact with children should undergo pre-employment background checks. EdTech providers should comply with the ‘safety-by-design’ recommendations within the OECD Council on Children in the Digital Environment’s Guidelines for Service Providers.
• Data protection: FIs and investee companies need to adhere to robust data protection and privacy measures to safeguard user information and respect privacy rights. These measures should give specific attention to additional protection and privacy for children data, including a general principle to minimise data collection from children and obtain consent from children and their parents for any collection, storage, and utilisation of data.

For more general information, see ‘Taking Action – Action Plans and Specific Mitigations’.

FIs should refrain from providing financing to any education settings if doing so would negatively impact on the achievement of the right to quality, inclusive education for all. For example, FIs should seek to assess whether investments in fee-charging, for-profit schools would undermine the provision of education that is free and accessible to all.

See ‘Taking Action – Avoid actions and omissions that facilitate or incentivise human rights abuses’.

FIs should work collaboratively with stakeholders to inform their policies, identify risks, improve monitoring systems and grievance mechanisms, as well as to address entrenched human rights challenges in the Education sector. This should involve meaningful consultation with potentially affected groups and other relevant stakeholders, as appropriate to the nature and context of the operation. The relevant stakeholders for FIs financing the Education sector would include: other banks and investors with similar portfolios, industry associations, regulators (such as Ministries/Secretaries of Education), NGOs working on human rights issues linked to the right to education, trade unions representing teachers and education personnel, and rightsholders affected or potentially affected by client / investee activities, including children and young people, and their legitimate representatives.

In particular, FIs can engage with credible multi-stakeholder initiatives that promote human rights principles and standards in the Education sector– see ‘Sectoral initiatives and partnerships’ above.

FIs should ensure that clients / investees in the Education sector engage with relevant stakeholders, with particular attention to children and young people. All children and young people have the right to have a say in matters that affect them and to have their views taken seriously. In order to participate meaningfully in the lives of their family, community and the wider society, children and young people need support and opportunities for involvement. They need information, a space to express their views and feelings, and opportunities to ask questions. Clients should be encouraged to enable this participation, including through utilizing social media platforms to engage with young people. Specific attention should be given to ensuring that all interactions with children and young people are conducted in a safe and ethical manner, adhering to child safeguarding principles.

See ‘Taking Action – Stakeholder engagement and collaboration’. See also ‘Stakeholder engagement’ for guidance on collaborating, engaging and pursuing collective action.

FIs can enhance transparency and disclosure practices by providing stakeholders with access to sufficient, relevant and frequent information about finance and investments in the Education sector, including potential human rights impacts, mitigation measures, and grievance mechanisms. FIs can also develop and publish reports against clear indicators reflecting a human rights perspective, including salient issues, measures, and results.

FIs can enhance their own transparency by disclosing information about the projects they finance, as well as in the risks and impacts detected, and measures implemented. One issue to consider is the limits of confidentiality duty towards clients and when a measure could involve transparency clauses where clients give their consent for banks to provide that information.

FIs should encourage clients / investees in the sector to disclose activities relevant to access to education. Specific areas for consideration may include disclosing data relating to enrolment, completion and educational outcomes disaggregated by gender and disability. Specific consideration should be given to data protection and privacy.  

See also ‘Taking Action – Transparency and disclosure’.

FIs can provide training and capacity building for FI staff, particularly those involved in risk assessments and financial decision-makers, on key human rights issues and the specific risks associated with the Education sector.

FIs should also ensure that client / investee staff have sufficient technical, financial and practical resources available, including an interdisciplinary team that includes those with expertise relating to child safeguarding, as well as data protection and privacy.

See also ‘Taking Action – Capacity building and training’.

FIs can work with clients / investees to establish robust monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to track the effectiveness of measures taken to prevent and mitigate human rights abuses at the portfolio level. This should focus on mechanisms which allow for continuous feedback and improvement, ensuring that the FI’s human rights practices evolve based on sector- and region-specific lessons learned and emerging best practices. The complaints received through the grievance mechanism should also be used as input to evaluate the effectiveness of the measures implemented. This could include collecting information in relation to fees and charges levied by schools and education providers, information on admissions to schools disaggregated by gender, ethnicity and disability, as well as data on the number of safeguarding incidents.

At the operational level, FIs can support clients / investees to adopt monitoring mechanisms that are appropriate to the level of risk, and led by teams with relevant skills and expertise.

See ‘Taking Action – Monitoring and disclosure’ for practical guidance on monitoring and evaluation processes to track human rights risks and impacts associated with business activities

FIs should ensure that accessible and effective grievance mechanisms are in place to enable affected stakeholders to raise concerns and seek redress for any reported human rights abuses related to their investment or lending activities in the Education sector. This includes requiring clients/investees to have in place or to participate in a grievance mechanism aligned with Principle 31 of the UNGPs.  

FIs can set up their own grievance mechanisms, participate in one or more grievance mechanisms established together with other FIs, or participate systematically in clients’ / investees’ grievance mechanisms. In relation to workers, note that grievance mechanisms established by existing industrial relations systems and collective bargaining agreements can constitute effective and credible mechanisms to respect labour rights.

FIs must ensure that clients / investees have effective grievance mechanisms that are accessible for different rightsholders, including teachers and ancillary staff, children, service-users and communities. In addition, FIs should ensure that grievance mechanisms incorporate child-centered safeguarding approaches. This means keeping the child in focus when making decisions about their lives and working in partnership with them and their families. This is vital to ensuring remedy outcomes are in line with the needs of the child.

See ‘Taking Action – Improve and support the effectiveness of grievance mechanisms to ensure and enable remedy’.