Education is a catalyst for social justice, equality, and sustainable development. It empowers individuals to lead fulfilling lives and contributes to the creation of a just and inclusive society. The right to education is enshrined in various international human rights instruments, and is a powerful tool for individual empowerment, fostering social progress, and advancing human rights.
According to UNESCO: Around 244 million children and youth are deprived of education worldwide and an estimated 771 million young people and adults lack basic literacy skills, of which two thirds are women. Only 70 % of the world’s countries legally guarantee nine years or more of compulsory education, despite both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) explicitly recognizing the right to education as an essential component of the right to an adequate standard of living and should be accessible to all without discrimination of any kind.
A human rights-focused approach to the right to education extends beyond access to classrooms and embraces the principles of equality, non-discrimination, and inclusivity. It demands that educational systems be free from bias, ensuring that marginalized and vulnerable populations, including girls, minorities, and those with disabilities, have equal opportunities to acquire knowledge and skills.
Efforts to uphold the right to education must address barriers such as poverty, gender-based discrimination, and inadequate infrastructure. Governments, in collaboration with the international community, bear the responsibility to create an enabling environment where everyone can enjoy the full spectrum of their educational rights.
Books on the right to Education:
Education, equality and human rights issues of gender, ‘race’, sexuality, disability and social class
Edited by Mike Cole.
ISBN: 9780203155523
From the publisher: The fifth edition of the market-leading Education, Equality and Human Rights has been fully updated to reflect economic, political and cultural changes in the UK, including the impacts of Brexit and Covid-19. It considers the great changes we are witnessing in recent years, such as climate change emergency, pandemics, the Fourth Industrial Revolution and their interrelationships. Written by world experts in their respective fields, each of the five equality issues of gender, race, sexuality, disability and social class is covered in their own right as well as in relation to education.
Key issues explored include:
- human rights, equality and education
- women and equality—historically and now
- gender, education and social change
- race and racism through history and today
- racism and education from Empire to Johnson
- sexualities, identities and equality
- challenges in teaching and learning about sexuality and homo- and trans-phobia in schools
- disability equality as the last Civil Right?
- developing inclusive education and governments’ resistance
- social class, neoliberal capitalism and the Marxist alternative
- selective schooling, mystifying social class, neoliberalism and alternatives
With an uncompromising and rigorous analysis of equality issues and a foreword from Peter McLaren addressing challenges to democracy in the US, this new edition of Education, Equality and Human Rights is an essential and contemporary resource across a wide range of disciplines and for all those interested in education, social policy and human rights.
Human rights obligations in education : the 4-A scheme
Katarina Tomasevski.
61:3 TOM
ISBN: 9058501353
Children’s rights and sustainable development : interpreting the UNCRC for future generations
Edited by Claire Fenton-Glynn,
70 CHI
ISBN: 9781107193024
From the publisher: Children often fare the worst when communities face social and environmental changes. The quality of food, water, affection and education that children receive can have major impacts on their subsequent lives and their potential to become engaged and productive citizens. At the same time, children often lack both a private and public voice, and are powerless against government and private decision-making. In taking a child rights-based approach to sustainable development, this volume defines and identifies children as the subjects of development, and explores how their rights can be respected, protected and promoted while also ensuring the economic, social and environmental sustainability of our planet.
The right to higher education a political theory
Christopher Martin.
ISBN: 9780197612927
From the publisher: Is higher education a right, or a privilege? The author argues that all citizens in a free and open society should have an unconditional right to higher education. Such an education should be costless for the individual and open to everyone regardless of talent. A readiness and willingness to learn should be the only qualification. It should offer opportunities that benefit citizens with different interests and goals in life. And it should aim, as its foundational moral purpose, to help citizens from all walks of life live better, freer lives. Using concepts and ideas from liberal political philosophy, the author argues that access to educational goods and services is something to which all citizens have a right over a full life. Such goods, it is argued, play a key role in helping citizens realize self-determined goals. Higher education should therefore be understood as a basic social institution responsible for ensuring that all citizens can access such “autonomy-supporting” goods. The book examines the implications of this justification of the right to higher education for questions of educational justice, political authority, distributive justice, civic education, and personal autonomy.
Futures stolen : barriers to education for children with disabilities in Nepal
ISBN 1564328023
From the publisher: Amman, a 16-year-old boy with a physical disability that limits his movement and speech, started attending school two years ago in his village in far western Nepal. He is now in Class 2. His classmates are between seven and ten years old. His 11-year-old brother attends the same school, but studies in Class 4.
Amman uses a tricycle, which is pushed by his mother or other children in the community, to get to school. Because the school entrance has two steep steps and no ramps, Amman has to crawl to his classroom.