Right to education

The right to education is a universal entitlement to education, a right that is recognized as a human right. According to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights the right to education includes the right to free, compulsory primary education for all, an

obligation to develop secondary education accessible to all, in particular by the progressive introduction of free secondary education, as well as an obligation to develop equitable access to higher education, ideally by the progressive introduction of free higher education. The right to education also includes a responsibility to provide basic education for individuals who have not completed primary education. In addition to these access to education provisions, the right to education encompasses the obligation to rule out discrimination at all levels of the educational system, to set minimum standards and to improve quality of education.

International legal basis

The right to education is enshrined in Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Articles 13 and 14 of the International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Accelerating progress towards education for all is one of the defining development challenges of the early twenty-first century. The right to education is a basic human right. Like any human right, it should be protected and extended as an end in itself. But education is also a means to wider ends. Prospects for reducing poverty, narrowing extreme inequalities and improving public health are heavily influenced by what happens in education. Progress towards the equalization of opportunity in education is one of the most important conditions for overcoming social injustice and reducing social disparities in any country. It is also condition for strengthening economic growth and efficiency no country can afford the inefficiencies that arise when people are denied opportunities for education because they are poor, female or members of a particular social group. And what is true at a national level also applies internationally. Prospects for achieving more equitable patterns of globalization are heavily influenced by developments in education. In an increasingly interconnected and knowledge-based world economy, the distribution of opportunities for education will inevitably have an important bearing on future patterns of international wealth distribution.

Some benefits of education are less tangible and harder to quantify than others. Schools are not just institutions for imparting information. They are a place where children can acquire social skills and self-confidence, where they learn about their countries, their cultures and the world they live in, and where they gain the tools they need to broaden their horizons and ask questions. People denied an opportunity for achieving literacy and wider education skills are less equipped to participate in societies and influence decisions that affect their lives. That is why broad-based education is one of the foundations for democracy and government accountability, and why it is such a vital input for informed public debate in areas – such as environment sustainability and climate change that will have a bearing on the well-being of future generations.

Progress in education depends on advances in other areas, including the reduction of extreme poverty, the achievement of gender equity and improvements in child health. The links in this direction are obvious but often forgotten. Children whose lives are blighted by hunger, poverty and disease are clearly not equipped to realize their potential in education.

In September,2008. governments from around the world gathered at a United Nations summit in New York to reaffirm their commitment to the MDGs. The summit was prompted by a recognition that, without fundamental change, the development goals will not be achieved.

Educational opportunity; highly polarized

The distribution of educational opportunity plays a key role in shaping human development prospects. Within countries, governments and people increasingly recognize that unequal opportunities for education are linked to inequalities in income, health and wider life chances. And what is true within countries is true also between countries. Large global disparities in education reinforce the extreme divides between rich and poor nations in income, health and other aspects of human development.

Opportunities for education are heavily influenced by where one is born and by other factors over which children have no control, including parental income, gender and ethnicity.

From a global perspective, being born in a developing country is a strong indicator for reduced opportunity. School attainment, measured in terms of the average number of years or grade reached in education, is one [admittedly limited] measure of global inequality.

Unlocking the wider benefits of education

The benefits of education are likely to be greatest in contexts marked by broad-based economic growth, a strong political commitment to poverty reduction, high levels of equity in access to basic services, and a commitment to democratic and accountable governance.

Economic growth, poverty reduction and equity

The links between education and economic growth, income distribution and poverty reduction are well established. Education equips people with the knowledge and skills they need to increase income and expand opportunities for employment.

This is true for households and for national economies.

Levels of productivity, economic growth and patterns of income distribution are intimately linked to the state of education and the distribution of educational opportunity. Increasing global economic interdependence and the growing importance of knowledge-based processes in economic growth have raised both the premium on education and the cost associated with education deficits.

All this has important implications for the international development goal of halving extreme poverty. The rate of poverty reduction is a function of two variables: the overall rate of economic growth and the share of any increment in growth that is captured by the poor. Education has a bearing on both sides of the equation. Improved access to good quality learning opportunities can strengthen economic growth by raising productivity, supporting innovation and facilitating the adoption of new technology. And broad-based access to good quality basic education is one of the foundations for broad-based growth, since it enables poor households to increase their productivity and secure a greater stake in national prosperity. Recent research, discussed in the following subsections, confirms earlier findings on the key role of education in poverty reduction and highlights the critical importance of quality.

Economic growth:

No country has ever reduced poverty over the medium term without sustained economic growth. Education plays a critical role in producing the learning and skills needed to generate the productivity gains that fuel growth. One recent research exercise draws attention to the importance for economic growth of both years in school and learning outcomes.

Education quality has a significant impact on economic returns for households as well. Individual earnings. A large body of evidence points to high returns on investment in education. The scale of these returns is a matter for debate. There is compelling evidence that private and public rates of return to education at the primary and secondary levels are sufficiently high to mark this out as a good investment for society. In the agricultural sector, increases in education are strongly associated with higher wages, agricultural income and productivity all critical indicators for poverty reduction.

Income distribution. The distribution of educational opportunity is strongly associated with income distribution, though the underlying relationship is highly variable and complex. This has important implications for poverty reduction and the MDGs. Economic growth matters because it raises average income. The rate at which growth is converted into poverty reduction depends on the share of any increment to national income going to people living in poverty. By raising the productivity of the poor, more equitable education can increase overall growth and the share of growth that accrues to those below the poverty line.

Patterns of income inequality are conditioned by private returns from different levels of education, which in turn reflect developments in labour markets. Rapid increase in demand for people with higher skills in countries with limited secondary school completion and restricted access to tertiary education can lead to pronounced increases in inequality. When education is broadly shared and reaches the poor, women and marginalized groups, it holds out the prospect that economic growth will be broadly shared. Greater equity in education can help fuel a virtuous cycle of increased growth and accelerated poverty reduction, with benefits for the poor and for society as a whole.

The relationship between education on the one side and economic growth and poverty reduction on the other illustrates the importance of context. Schools and education systems are not guarantors of faster growth or greater equity. Problems in macroeconomic management and other policy spheres may reduce the benefits of education.

Education cans benefits individuals by facilitating entry into higher-earning occupations and raising earnings within an occupation. To the extent that these two benefits accrue equally to women and men, education can helps promote gender equality in earnings. However discrimination and distortions in the labour market based on gender can negate the equalizing effects of education.

Many factors can weaken the relationship between more education on the one side and faster, broader-based growth on the other. An increase in the average number of years in school is not always a good proxy for human capital formation. Where education quality is poor and levels of learning achievement are low, the real skills base of the economy may not increase. Rising enrolment and school completion can have a marginal bearing on human capital. Similarly, increases in the average number of years spent in education will not result in more equitable income distribution.

It is important to recognize the limits to the current state of knowledge on the emerging relationship between education on the one side and economic growth and poverty reduction on the other. Globalization and the increased weight of knowledge-based factors in driving economic growth have important consequences for wealth distribution and poverty reduction nationally and internationally. If knowledge is increasingly recognized as the key to competitiveness, employment and long-term growth prospects, learning endowments become ever more important. In the context of rapidly changing national and international economic structures, there is a premium on the acquisition of transferable skills and knowledge.

People and countries need formal education systems that give them opportunities to build their learning skills. And they need opportunities to continually renew their skills and competencies. While literacy and numeracy remain the foundations for all education systems, human development and prosperity in the twenty-first century will rest increasingly on the spread of secondary and post-secondary learning opportunities.

Public health and child mortality: both linked to education

The links between education and public health are well established. Improved education is associated with lower levels of child mortality and better nutrition and health, even when controlling for factors such as income. Education can equip people with the skills to access and process information and with the confidence to demand entitlements and hold service providers to account.

Child mortality, one of the international

Development targets is to reduce the child mortality rate by two-thirds [MDG4] the association between maternal education and child mortality is irregular. Having a mother with secondary education or higher dramatically reduces the risk of child death in almost all countries, often far more so than having a mother with just primary schooling. This reinforces the argument for education and gender equity goals that look beyond the primary level. Leaving aside rights-based arguments and the efficiency case for expanded female access to secondary school. It is increasingly clear that failure to expand opportunity in this area will have grave consequences for public health.

What are the reasons behind lower death rates for children of more educated women? Transmission mechanisms vary by country, but they included nutrition, birth spacing and the use of preventive health interventions. Levels of education are positively associated in many countries with vaccination levels among children.

Maternal mortality. Levels of education also have an important bearing on maternal mortality. Complications in pregnancy and children are a leading cause of death and disability among women of productive age, mortality rates are falling at a pace far below that needed to achieve the target. Risk factors include poor nutrition, anaemia and malaria.

Good antenatal care can significantly reduce risk. Apart from the direct benefits of pregnancy monitoring, women who receive antenatal care are more likely to use other health services, opt for institutional delivery and seek professional advice for post-delivery health complications. It should be emphasized that the relationship between antenatal care and maternal welfare is heavily influenced by the quality of the care, but effective provision can sharply reduce both maternal and infant mortality. Education is important because it is positively associated with recourse to antenatal services. This is true for both primary and secondary education, though once again some of the most pronounced effects are to be found at secondary level. The benefits of education are transmitted through channels that range from access to information to empowerment effects and demand for entitlements. As in other areas, the point to be stressed is not that improved access to antenatal care justifies a strong public policy emphasis on female education. The case for gender equity is rooted in the fundamental human right to education and not in incidental benefits. But any country with a concern for accelerated progress in child and maternal well-being should view the evidence in as a useful measure of some of the hidden costs of gender disparity in education.

Nutrition, Around one-third of children under 5 are stunted, with damaging consequences for cognitive development and health, and often fatal consequences for life. Stunting is one proxy for hunger, which the development goals aim to halve by 2015. Cross-country evidence suggests education is powerful protection against stunting. This was after controlling for factors such as household wealth, location and family size. Other empowering effects mediating between maternal education and the physical growth of children have been observed. One potential pathway involves the association between increased maternal education and the decision-making authority of mothers in claiming resources within the household. In many contexts, mothers are more likely than fathers to allocate household resources in ways that promote child nutrition.

HIV/AIDS The development goals call for countries to halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS. There is strong evidence that primary education has a significant positive impact on knowledge of HIV prevention, with secondary education having an even stronger impact. Education systems could play a far more active and effective role in combating HIV/AIDS through teaching and awareness-raising about risky behavior.

Increased female access to education generates cumulative benefits linked to cross-generational effects because the level of maternal education is one of the strongest determinants of whether daughters enroll in school. Unfortunately, costs are also cumulative. Just as the world today would have far lower levels of child mortality and stunting had there been greater progress in education during the 1990s. So the education deficits of today will result in human costs in the future. Improving educational opportunity, especially for girls is not only a priority in its own right but also essential for improving educational outcomes in the next generation – and for reaching wider goals in public health and nutrition.

Democracy and citizenship-from local to global

Education is about much more than what happens in schools. Through education, societies i9ncludate their values and ideas, and equip their citizens with skills. Education itself is intimately linked to wider governance issues in society-and to the empowerment of people. As Nelson Mandela has put it; ‘Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.’

Some of the most powerful effects of education operate through the channels of democracy and participations. History provides plenty of evidence that the effects are neither universal nor straightforward. There are numerous examples, past and present, of societies with a well-educated citizenry that might not be considered model democracies. And there are countries with relatively low levels of education, as measured by indicators for literacy and average years in school, that have a well-developed democratic tradition. India is an example. Yet education is conducive to democracy. It has the potential to equip people with the skills, attitudes and norms needed to hold governments to account, to challenge autocracy and to assess policies that affect their lives. At an individual level, education is a crucial determinant of whether people have the capabilities-the literacy, the confidence, the attitudes-that they need to participate in society. As a concrete example, when poor and marginalized people are educated, they are often more likely to participate in meetings of local political bodies and devolved bodies managing education, health and water resources.

It is not just education that matters for democracy. Cross-country research has drawn attention to the importance both of the average level of education and the education attained by the majority of society in creating the conditions for democracy.

Controlling for a wide range of factors, including religion, age, gender and political preference, schooling emerged as by far the strongest social factor explaining adherence to democratic attitudes. Moreover the education effects increase in a linear form with the levels of education attained. People of voting age with a primary education are 15 times more likely to support democracy than people with no education, rising to three times more likely for someone with secondary education. Here too, the democratizing effects of education appear to operate through the channels of participation and information: more education is significantly associated with increased political discussion, political knowledge and access to political information from the media.

Links between education and citizenship go beyond public attitudes towards democracy. One reason education is conducive to democracy is that it can facilitate the development of informed judgments about issues that have to be addressed through national policies. In any country, public debate and scrutiny can help strengthen policy-making. And once again, what is true at national level applies internationally as well. One feature of global integration is that governments and populations worldwide face problems-in finance, trade, security, environmental sustainability-that do not respect national borders. Education has a key role to play in fostering national and international support for the multilateral governance needed to address such problems.

Climate change provides an illustration. The role of science in developing the skills and technologies on which productivity, employment and prosperity increasingly depend is well known. Less attention has been paid to the role of scientific education in increasing children’s awareness of the great environmental challenges their generation faces. Climate change poses a particularly stark set of threats for humanity, in general over the long term and for the poor in particular over the medium term. Understanding the causes of climate change is difficult because of the complex processes that influence the build-up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Evaluating the effects is even more challenging because of the time horizon involved and the uncertainties about when and where effects will be felt and how ecosystems will response. Similarly, any evaluation of policy responses at national or international level has to grapple with issues that range from energy policy to approaches to burden-sharing in any multilateral agreement.

Understanding the science behind climate change is a vital first step in raising the awareness needed to drive political solutions to the threat. This is true both technically speaking and in terms of people having a sufficient grasp of evidence to assess the action – or inaction – of their governments.

Strong performance in science and awareness of global environmental problems tend to go hand in hand, and both are associated with a sense of responsibility supporting sustainable environmental management. Conversely, weak performance in science is associated with lower awareness of environmental problems. Failure in scientific education will mean less- widespread and less informed – public debate on issues such as climate change and wider environmental problems. This in turn will reduce the pressure on governments to act. In facing up to the challenge of global warming and wider problems.

CONCLUSION:

Perhaps more than in any other area, progress in education bears testimony to the fact that international commitments can make a difference. That does not diminish the case for a greater sense of urgency and stronger political leadership. Breaking with business as usual will require change at many levels. Equity has to be put at the centre. Governance is a central concern. The aim of good governance in education, as in other areas, is to strengthen accountability and give people a voice in decisions that affect their lives so as to enable the delivery of good-quality services. Good governance is also about social justice and fairness. Education for all, as the term itself makes clear, is about all citizens enjoying an equal right to quality education. Translating good governance principles into practice involves reforms in institutional arrangements that link children and parents to schools, local education bodies and national ministries.

Received on 12.03.2012

Revised on 16.03.2012

Accepted on 25.03.2012