Glossary

The following definitions have been adapted from those provided by the United Nations when available.

Abuse: Includes all forms of abuse: emotional, verbal, physical, sexual, and mental.

Acceptability: The RTEI theme that speaks to the quality of available education. This moves beyond learning outcomes to also capture the cultural relevance and security of the educational environment as well as the aims and content of education.

Accessibility: The RTEI theme that speaks to whether available institutions are accessible to all students regardless of their socio-economic, familial, or demographic status.

Accommodation: A support or service provided to help an access the general education curriculum, providing students with an equal opportunity to attain the same level of performance, and granting them the same benefits and privileges experienced by others.

Adaptability: The RTEI theme that refers to Adaptability speaks to the ability of education to be flexible in meeting the needs of a diverse range of students.

Adult Literacy Rate: The percentage of individuals age 15 and over who can  functionally read and write.

Alignment of Education Aims: The RTEI transversal theme that refers to how well the aims of education, outlined in the international right to education framework, are included in the legal structure of a country and incorporated into the national curriculum and teacher training.

Appropriately Trained: Teachers that have successfully completed the prescribed standard training as outlined by the government.

Approved Budget: The approved financial amount allocated to education by the appropriate executive and/or legislative governing body.

Availability: The RTEI theme that speaks to the specific quantity of educational institutions available and the condition of such institutions.

Basic Education: Education that equips the individual with the skills they need to be literate member of society. It is often equated with primary education.

Capacity: Refers to individual capacity defined as an individual’s capabilities, skills, and talents.

Capital Development: The expansion and improvement of infrastructure. This may include school building construction, enhancement, or rehabilitation.

Child Labor: Work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development. This includes work that interferes with the child’s opportunity for attending school.

Child Soldier: Any person under 18 years of age who is part of any kind of regular or irregular armed force or armed group in any capacity.

“Child’s personality, talent, and mental and physical abilities”: Speaks to the holistic development of the full potential of the child.

“Child’s responsibilities in a free society…and friendship among all persons and groups”: Speaks to his or her socialization and interaction with others.

Children with Disabilities: The RTEI transversal theme that refers to the disaggregation of process and outcome indicators to evaluate education equality by disability status.

Codes of Behavior: The set of rules established by school leaders — including administration, teachers, and students — that regulate appropriate behavior at school or while conducting school business.

Completion Rate: The total number of students in the last grade of a given education level, minus the number of repeaters in that grade, divided by the total number of children of official graduation age.

Compulsory Education: The education legally required in a country. This often includes education to a certain age, level, or grade. Internationally this generally includes primary and lower secondary education.

Content of Education: The RTEI transversal theme that refers to the investment in learning materials and topics included in national curriculum.

Corporal Punishment: Physical punishment that is intended to cause some degree of pain or discomfort, however light, and non-physical punishment that is cruel or degrading in nature.

Demobilized: An individual that was, but no longer is, in service in the military.

Disability: Any physical, emotional or mental restriction or lack of ability that limits a person’s movements, senses, or activities.

Discrimination: Any distinction, exclusion or restriction made based on an individual’s beliefs, history, or other demographic or personal characteristics.

Drop-out: A student that started but did not complete a school cycle and is no longer enrolled in the school system. This is sometimes referred to as a “school-leaver”.

Early Marriage (or child marriage): is any marriage in which one of the participants is under the age of 18.

Education: All systematic and deliberate activities designed to meet the learning needs of a country.

Education Standards: The formally approved standards that outline the basic content, structural, and performance requirements of schools.

Employment: Work in the formal sector in which work is exchanged for a salary or wage.

Executed: The amount of money spent and documented as expenditure.

Expelled: Someone that has been removed or excluded from school. This can be specific to an individual school or encompass a larger set of schools.

Expulsion: The removal or exclusion of an individual from school. This can be specific to an individual school or encompass a larger set of schools.

Foreign Aid: The financial, technical, and in-kind support provided from one country to another.

Foreign Funding Sources: Bilateral and multilateral agreements with other countries, multi-national organizations, international non-governmental organizations, and international finance institutions that include a provision for financial support.

GDP: Gross Domestic Product.

Girls’ education: The RTEI transversal theme that refers to the laws and processes that specifically target girls and attempting to evaluate education equality across sex.

Governance: The RTEI theme that refers to the legal structure of education in a State. This includes State ratification of international declarations or treaties, education financing, and education standards and regulations.

Gross Enrollment Rate: The number of individuals in each level of school, regardless of age, relative to the total number of individuals of the appropriate age to attend the given level of school.

Imprisoned: An individual held within a prison as punishment for their crime.

Income Inequality: The RTEI transversal theme that refers to the differences in student access and educational outcomes by socio-economic status.

Indigenous and Minority Populations: The RTEI transversal theme that refers to the Educational equality concerns amongst potentially marginalized groups (ethnic, racial, religious) in a country.

Internally Displaced Person: An individual that has been displaced from their home due to coercion or force and remain within their country of nationality.

Local Education Group: GPE-organized national collaborative forums consisting of policy makers, donors, and civil society members.

Mainstream: Schools that generally meet the needs of students, or are not specialized for students based on particular needs.

Migrant: An individual that has moved to another country or region to better their material or social conditions and improve the prospect for themselves or their family.

Military Recruitment: The act of requesting individuals to join the military. This may include voluntary requests, in addition to, coercion, or forced recruitment.

Minimum Core Obligations: Minimum core obligations related to human rights are state obligations to satisfy the minimum essential requirements of that right. In RTEI, these include primary education, anti-discrimination policies, and equitable access to education.

Minorities: A group numerically inferior to the rest of the population of a State or in a non-dominant position, whose members - being nationals of the State - possess ethnic, religious or linguistic characteristics differing from those of the rest of the majority population or the dominant group.

Mobile Schools: Schools that do not have a permanent structure, making it easier to travel with the population they are serving. These have also been called “tent schools” or “field schools”.

Monitoring: The tracking and verifying of pre-selected, well-defined inputs, outputs and results on a systematic basis.

Monitoring and Accountability: The RTEI transversal theme that refers to the laws and processes that provide oversight for the educational system of a country.

Mother Tongue: The primary language a person grew up speaking in childhood.

National Curriculum: The subjects and content used in schools to aid nationwide uniformity of education quality. It is usually legislated by the national government but may coordinate with state and regional authorities for administration.

National Education Plan: The formal plan of education proposed and adopted by the government of a country.

National Normative Framework: The RTEI transversal theme that refers to the laws that guide the national education system.

Nomads: A group of people that do not have a fixed place of residence. They travel place to place — often seasonally — for fresh water, food, and pasture for livestock.

Potable Water: Water that is safe for humans to drink.

Net Enrollment Rate: The number of individuals at the appropriate age of a given school level actually enrolled at the given level of school.

Occupying Power: A state that has invaded another country and holds effective control over their territory and institutions.

Opportunity and Indirect Costs: The RTEI transversal theme that refers to the costs that price children out of education and the loss of potential gains from education when children are out of school.

Outcome Indicators: Measure the results of structural and process indicators in practice, addressing whether citizens are enjoying the right to education as evident in learning and educational completion.

Prison: A building in which individuals are held as punishment for their crime or while awaiting trial.

Prisoners-of-war: Any combatant that falls into the power of the adverse party.

Private Education: The RTEI transversal theme that refers to the laws and processes that shape the use and availability of private education in a country.

Private School: Any privately managed educational institution. This may include for-profit, non-profit, religious, and NGO run schools.

Process Indicators: Captures the efforts of the State, addressing whether mechanisms have been put in place to aid in the realization of the right to education.

Progressively Free: A country has, given their resources available, taken steps toward providing free education at the specified level.

Publicly Available: The direct distribution of information to the public, and/or indirect distribution to the public through the media or posting on a website.

Public Expenditure per Pupil: The amount the government spends on education institutions, administration, and subsidies for private entities per school age individual.

Refugee: An individual that has moved outside of their country of nationality to avoid persecution and is unable to return.

Regional Disparities: The RTEI transversal theme that refers to the difference in the education system and learning outcomes based on urban-rural divide.

Regular Attendance: Daily attendance at school.

Religious and Moral Education: Schools that act as a tool to transmit knowledge and values pertaining to religious trends, in an inclusive way, so that individuals realize their being part of the same community and learn to create their own identity in harmony with identities different from their own.

Required Training: The training that meets the standards laid out by the government to become a certified teacher.

“Respect for the child’s parents…and other civilizations”: Speaks to a child’s enhanced sense of identity and affiliation.

Retention Camp/Center: A place that provides temporary housing for groups in need.

School Curricula: The curricula chosen by the school to address the national curriculum and meet educational standards.

State Body: A government board, committee, or commission or an appointed board, committee, or commission that exercises the authority of the government.

Stereotype: An oversimplified generalization of a person without consideration of individual differences.

Structural Indicators: Captures the national legal environment, addressing whether laws comply with the international right to education framework.

Teachers: The RTEI transversal theme that refers to the professional state and requisite training of teachers in a country.

Teaching and Learning Materials: All materials designed to be used for teaching and learning. This includes technology, organizational equipment, school supplies, curriculum and curriculum support, and teaching resources.

Textbooks: Includes both traditional hard copies and electronic copies.

Toilets: Includes flush toilets, squat toilets, pit latrines, and composting toilets.

Total Education Budget: The amount of money the government allocates to education institutions, administration, and subsidies at all levels of education.

Trained Teacher: A teacher that has been appropriately trained.

Transversal Theme: Cross-cutting topics identified in the international human rights framework defined in RTEI, including girls' education, education for children with disabilities, regional disparities in education, education for indigenous and minority populations, private education, teachers, income inequality in education, content of education, monitoring and accountability, national normative framework, opportunity and indirect costs, alignment of education aims, and SDG4.

Tuition Fees: Any fees associated with the enrollment of an individual in a school. This includes mandatory fees and the costs of books.

Youth Literacy Rate: The percentage of individuals age 15 to 24 who can functionally read and write.