INCREASING EDUCATION IS THE BEST FINANCIAL INVESTMENT

Increasing education is recognised as one of the best financial investments States can make because it empowers citizens with the necessary tools with which to combat the problems of human survival. 

With an educated population and a commitment to uphold human rights, a government is in a good position to avoid conflict and advance the country’s development.

Education is the primary tool for promoting human rights, equality and non-discrimination. It also promotes peace through increased understanding, tolerance, respect and friendship among different groups and cultures.

Education enables people to participate actively in society and in business to create jobs, expand industry and raise living standards.

 

Enjoying the Right to Education

Education is both a human right in itself and an indispensable means of realising other human rights. Through education, people can:

- learn about the life and work, so as to have more social and economic opportunities and make better choices about how they want to live;

- enjoy learning among friends and fellow students;

- develop their own personality;

- know about their rights and how to claim them;

- know about the rights of others and how to respect them;

- know about their duties to other individuals and their community;

- give their children a better start in life;

- know how to find the information they need;

- keep up to date with what is happening in their community or country;

- participate in decisions that affect them, and

- challenge decisions made by others that make their lives difficult.

International law and the right to education

 The right to education has been recognised since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948. Article 26 of the Declaration proclaims that: ‘Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory…education shall be directed to the full development of human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among racial or religious groups…’. 

The right to education has been enshrined in a range of international conventions,  including the International Covenant on Economic, Social And Cultural Rights (ICESCR, 1966), The Convention on the Elimination Of All Forms Of Discrimination  Against Women (CEDAW, 1979) and more recently, 

The Convention On The Rights of The Child (CRC, 1989). It has also been incorporated into various regional treaties. Many countries have also made provisions for the right to education in their national constitutions.

While the right to education is universally recognised, the way it is interpreted at the national level differs substantially. This means that although every human being holds the same right regardless of any national law, the ways of securing this right vary greatly from location to location. For example, in some countries the right to education may be legally enforceable through national legislation, while in others it will be important to look to international law and standards.

The Right to Education

The right to education has been universally recognised since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 (though referred to by the ILO as early as the 1920s) and has since been enshrined in various international conventions, national constitutions and development plans. 

However, while the vast majority of countries have signed up to, and ratified, international conventions (such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child) far fewer have integrated these rights into their national constitutions or provided the legislative and administrative frameworks to ensure that these rights are realised in practice. 

In some cases the right exists along with the assumption that the user should pay for this right, undermining the very concept of a right. In others, the right exists in theory but there is no capacity to implement this right in practice. Inevitably, a lack of government support for the right to education hits the poorest hardest. Today, the right to education is still denied to millions around the world.

As well as being a right in itself, the right to education is also an enabling right. Education ‘creates the “voice” through which rights can be claimed and protected’, and without education people lack the capacity to ‘achieve valuable functionings as part of the living’. If people have access to education they can develop the skills, capacity and confidence to secure other rights. 

Education gives people the ability to access information detailing the range of rights that they hold, and government’s obligations. It supports people to develop the communication skills to demand these rights, the confidence to speak in a variety of forums, and the ability to negotiate with a wide range of government officials and power holders