The end of the Cold War also spelled the demise of public education as a universal and human right in these regions. Eastern Europe and Central Asia was formerly hailed by the United Nations for having achieved “universal, compulsory and free education at the primary level”.  However, those days are long gone with changes in government policy impoverishing public education and giving rise to charges and fees for public services.

This trend has been largely invisible to international observers, as the countries which fall outside of the EU zone no longer form a region according to UN terminology, and their transition from second world to poor and heavily indebted “Third World” has been largely undocumented.

The heritage of free education has survived in legal guarantees in all countries in the region but educational policies have taken a different track. Privatisation of public services, including education, is a mainstay of “transition” in the region. Regressive economics buzz words, and their anti-human rights impact, have crept into the region’s terminology and practice. Terms such as “market-based education”, “user charges”, “tuition fees” and “cost recovery” are now common. This new approach to education funding stems from the influence of World Bank policy advice, and conditions for loans and debt relief to the region which consider free public services for all “financially unsustainable”. Government’s abandonment of financial responsibility for education has shifted the financial burden on families who are now paying widespread and varied charges, both formal and informal. Those families unable to afford the charges are forced to pull their children from school, resulting in massive declines in school enrolments and completion.  Education has become a privilege for those who can pay. This change has distorted the very notion of compulsory education. Imposing a duty upon children with which they cannot comply cannot work in practice, while it also jeopardizes the very notion of human rights and corresponding governmental obligations.

Primary education in Eastern Europe and Central Asia: Legally free, really for fee