Global Education Monitoring, 2019

• The 2019 Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report on Migration, Displacement and Education: Building bridges not walls, was launched by UNESCO New Delhi.
• The current edition is the first in-depth study of its kind to explore issue of migration, displacement and education in order to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’s commitment of leaving no one behind.

Highlights of the report    

Global trends

• While major rural to urban migration accompanied the economic growth of the 19th to mid-20th century in high income countries, the largest internal population movements today occur in middle income countries, particularly China and India.
• In sub-Saharan Africa, rural to urban migration has also made urban development planning challenging.
• Seasonal migration, which is a survival strategy for the poor, can disrupt education and expose children to child labour and workplace hazards.

Main findings about India

• 80% of migrant children across seven Indian cities did not have access to education near worksites
• Among youth aged 15 to 19 who have grown up in a rural household with a seasonal migrant, 28% identified as illiterate or had an incomplete primary education.
• The report shows that up to 40% of children from seasonal migrant households are likely to end up in work, rather than school, facing exploitation and abuse.
• There will be an additional 80 million children living in slums by 2030, which would be greater

The report also acknowledges the initiatives that India has taken to respond to the migrants’ education need:

• The Right to Education Act in 2009 made it mandatory for local authorities to admit migrant children.
• National-level guidelines were issued, allowing for flexible admission of children, providing transport and volunteers to support with mobile education.
• Gujarat introduced seasonal boarding schools to provide migrant children with education and collaborated with non-government organizations (NGOs) to begin online tracking of the children on the move
• In Maharashtra, village authorities called upon local volunteers to provide after-school psychosocial support to children who had been left behind by seasonal migrating parents
• Tamil Nadu provides textbooks in other languages to migrant children.
• Odisha assumed responsibility of seasonal hostels run by NGOs and works with Andhra Pradesh to improve migrant well-being

Challenges for India

• Teacher and student absenteeism are rampant due to:
  • Poor teaching mechanism
  • Students of migrant workers go along with their parents to work.

Large scale internal migration led to the growth of slums and informal settlements, where schools are often scarce.