2003-06-10

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in higher education - a final report

During March 2003 the National Agency for Higher Education published an anthology containing examples of programmes in which the Convention on the Rights of the Child has been integrated into the teaching. The anthology also contains the responses of the higher education institutions to a consultation document circulated by the Agency about the convention. By and large the institutions were positive to the convention and to the task undertaken by the Agency.

The National Agency for Higher Education has also organised a focus group survey among students who can be assumed to have received teaching about the convention and also those who have not. This survey reveals that teaching about the convention is most frequent in teacher training programmes, but that most of the students´ knowledge of the convention derives from sources outside higher education. Student awareness of the convention is limited. Discussion of the convention rarely forms part of the teaching and it is often one item on reading lists that remains unread. On the other hand, virtually all the students in the survey claimed that they would welcome more teaching about the convention.

The National Agency for Higher Education has placed advertisements in student newspapers and in journals for teachers in higher education about the work with the Convention on the Rights of the Child and pointed out that some time should be devoted to the convention in higher education.

The National Agency for Higher Education has also arranged for pupils in upper-secondary schools to write about what students in higher education should learn about children and young people on the basis of the convention. These essays suggest that the student´s general education and self-awareness is at least as important as their knowledge of the convention and of children. Self-awareness and personal development must be also one objective for programmes working with the convention.

Finally, in the opinion of the National Agency for Higher Education, further benefits will ensue from encouraging the higher education institutions to continue the work of implementing the convention.