Barcelona (Spain) June 14, 2024

This past June, OIDEL was invited to present the Freedom of Education Index 2023 (FEI 2023) by Dr. Enric Vidal, Dean of the Faculty of Education Sciences at UIC Barcelona (International University of Catalonia). The seminar titled “Is freedom of education a human right?”, in which OIDEL participated, was organized by the Faculty of Education Sciences.

During his remarks at the conference, Ignasi Grau, director of OIDEL, emphasized education’s human-right status as envisaged in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the preferential right of parents to choose their children’s education. Parents’ essential role was further illustrated by the drop in performance caused by the disconnection between education and family as shown in the most recent PISA report.

Mr. Grau discussed the FEI 2023, OIDEL’s most recent research project, which analyzes educational pluralism in 157 countries equivalent to 98% of the world’s population. While in Barcelona, Mr. Grau gave important insights into Spain’s position in the index as the 13th country in terms of freedom of education, after countries such as Thailand, Malta or Lebanon but before the US, Norway or Sweden.

Although there have been no major policy changes in other Western countries, the Spanish case reflects a growing political tension between civil society and the government in many of these countries with respect to funding non-governmental schools.

For more information, the Freedom of Education Index 2023:
https://www.oidel.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/FREEDOM-OF-EDUCATION-INDEX-2023.pdf