Can the Right to Education Truly be Fulfilled?

It is necessary to cry out in favor of education for all. It is essential to convince with data and figures that education is the most important condition for promoting progress. It is necessary to persuade people that we all have sacred responsibilities regarding the comprehensive education of our people.  José Maria Vélaz S. J., Founder of Fe y Alegría (Faith and Joy). Twelve short radio speeches, 1968.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which emerged directly from the experience of the Second World War, represents the first global expression of what many people believe to be the rights to which all human beings are fundamentally eligible.

Education is a Human Right which unfortunately hasn’t been truly fulfilled since the declaration’s release in 1948.

Today there are still 263 million children of Primary and Secondary age, around the world who don’t have access to education. This human right seems to be failing to be fulfilled, but why hasn’t it been achieved? Maybe a lack of resources, a lack of global planning, or a lack of commitment from all parties involved.

On September 2015, education was approved, by all UN Members States, as one of the goals in the 2030 Agenda for Global Sustainable Development. And the same year, in November, the UNESCO Assembly approved the Initiative Framework, “Equitable and inclusive quality education and lifelong learning for all by 2030”. This framework covers the guidelines to achieve the goal towards the right to education.UN goals

The guidelines are:

1.       Education as a right
2.       Educational Inclusion
3.       The Need for Equity
4.       Quality
5.       Lifelong learning

These parameters aim to ensure that the right to education is fully fulfilled. Because it is not only about getting children a seat in a classroom, but making sure the quality of materials, facilities and educators are the right ones to ensure a lifelong learning and a quality education. Each of these are well explained in the GIAN ‘Right to Education, Right to Hope’ Campaign Content Guide, which provides a concrete description of what countries have to do to achieve this goal, before 2030.

Global Citizenship ProjectWe encourage you to read this Guide and to commit, as a Global Citizen, to be part of our Network’s Global Citizenship project, The Global Red Chair, which aims to raise awareness of the 58 Million children of Primary age who don’t have access to education.

Please enter here if you haven’t yet heard about “The Global Red Chair Project”.

Please follow this link to see all ideas and resources available to implement this project in your school. You can choose any of the resources and adapt them to your own context or create your own.

If you need more assistance, the Educate Magis team would be delighted to help! Just follow this conversation to ask any questions or share your ideas for your local Red Chair Project.

The Right to Education Trully Fullfilled