Right To Education

Education is a fundamental human right and essential for the exercise of all other human rights. It promotes individual freedom and empowerment and yields important development benefits. Yet millions of children and adults remain deprived of educational opportunities, many as a result of poverty.

Normative instruments of the United Nations and UNESCO lay down international legal obligations for the right to education. These instruments promote and develop the right of every person to enjoy access to education of good quality, without discrimination or exclusion. These instruments bear witness to the great importance that Member States and the international community attach to normative action for realizing the right to education. It is for governments to fulfil their obligations both legal and political in regard to providing education for all of good quality and to implement and monitor more effectively education strategies. 

Education is a powerful tool by which economically and socially marginalized adults and children can lift themselves out of poverty and participate fully as citizens.

1. Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.

2. Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.

3. Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

The right to education means that the State should make adequate provision for educating its citizens. Education sharpens intellect, equips individuals with the capacity to work and trains them in the art of citizenship.

Citizenship has been defined “as the contribution of one’s instructed judgment to the public good.”

Education is an indispensable condition to free individual development and makes man fit for the tasks of citizenship. Laski says, “In the long run, power belongs to those who can formulate and grasp ideas.”
An uneducated individual can neither understand politics nor can he become vigilant about his interests and consequently his actual participation in the affairs of the State is generally negligible.
Such a citizen is bound to be the slave of others. He will not have the opportunity to rise to the fall stature of his personality. “He will go through life a stunted being whose impulses have never been ordered by reason into creative experiment.”
This means the failure of democracy, for the people who are ultimate masters will not be able to exercise their franchise intelligently or perform their other civic duties satisfactorily. Hence, the democratic slogan is: “Educate the masters.” Apparently, the right to education is a civil right, but really, it is a political right as it safeguards them.
Right to education does not, however, mean an identical intellectual training for all citizens. It only means provision for that type of education which should give an equal opportunity to all citizens in that branch of knowledge for which they have an aptitude. Then, there should be a compulsory minimum level of education below which no one may fall, if he is to conform to the standard of a good citizen.
Every citizen should have at least as much education as may enable him to weigh, judge, choose, and decide for himself. “He must be made to feel that this is a world in which he can by the use of his mind and will shape at once outline and substance.”