Guardianship Wheels
Systemic Resource Center

Level 6 |
Promoting the rights and the best interests of the child

Education and training

Education and training


The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child affords every child the right to access primary education, as well as secondary education or vocational training (Articles 28 and 29). States are responsible for ensuring equal opportunities in education for all children, to prevent drop-outs and to ensure that education contributes to developing respect for the child’s cultural and linguistic identity.

For a meaningful integration in school and training, unaccompanied children may need to undergo an assessment of their educational level and needs. Education should ideally be provided in regular schools, together with children from the hosting community, while providing language training and other relevant preparation courses that the child may need. Specialised support teachers may be needed to facilitate the child’s educational integration. Integration in schools or vocational training should take place promptly, without waiting periods or administrative delays, to guarantee the rights of the child to education and training and to support the child through a structured daily routine, as well as social contacts with children and adults from the host community.

The guardian ensures that the child has access to education and vocational training. The guardian is responsible for ensuring that the child’s needs and rights with regard to education and training are met in an appropriate way. The guardian should ensure that the child receives certificates from the school education and vocational training they complete in the hosting community and that the child carries this documentation when being transferred or relocated to another city or another Member State, or in the case of return to the country of origin.

See also:


Level 3: Integration

Reference:


EU training and learning platform for guardians of unaccompanied children Chapter 3: Supporting the child from arrival to durable solution

Literature:

Council of Europe (2018), Children and adolescents from a migrant background, Integration and education, Extracts from Conventions, Recommendations, Resolutions and reports, Strasbourg.

European Commission (undated), Education and migrants , European Education Area, Quality education and training for all. Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OECD) (2022), Getting on: Supporting young migrants and refugees to complete upper-secondary vocational education and training, OECD Library.

UNHCR, UNICEF, IOM (2019), Access to education for refugee and migrant children in Europe. United Nations (UN), Committee on the Rights of the Child (2001), General Comment No. 1, Aims of education, CRC/GC/2001/1, 2001.    

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