4.3 Right based approach to education

         A rights-based approach can contribute significant added value: It promotes social cohesion, integration and stability: Human rights promote democracy and social progress. A rights based approach to education, which emphasizes quality, can encourage the development of school environments in which children know their views are valued. It includes a focus on respect for families and the values of the society in which they are living. It can also promote understanding of other cultures and peoples, contributing to intercultural dialogue and respect for the richness of cultural and linguistic diversity, and the right to participate in cultural life. In this way, it can serve to strengthen social cohesion. It builds respect for peace and non-violent conflict resolution: A rights-based approach to education is founded on principles of peace and non-violent conflict resolution. In achieving this goal, schools and communities must create learning environments that eliminate all forms of physical, sexual or humiliating punishment by teachers and challenge all forms of bullying and aggression among students. In other words, they must promote and build a culture of non-violent conflict resolution. The lessons children learn from school-based experiences in this regard can have far reaching consequences for the wider society. It contributes to positive social transformation: A rights-based approach to education that embodies human rights education empowers children and other stakeholders and represents a major building block in efforts to achieve social transformation towards rights-respecting societies and social justice. It is more cost-effective and sustainable: Treating children with dignity and respect – and building inclusive, participatory and accountable education systems that respond directly to the expressed concerns of all stakeholders – will serve to improve educational outcomes. In too many schools, the failure to adapt to the needs of children, particularly working children, results in high levels of dropout and repeated grades. Children themselves cite violence and abuse, discriminatory attitudes, an irrelevant curriculum and poor teaching quality as major contributory factors in the inability to learn effectively and in subsequent dropout. In addition, health issues can diminish the ability of a child to commence and continue schooling, and for all children, especially girls, an inclusive education can reduce the risk of HIV infection. A rights-based approach is therefore not only cost-effective and economically beneficial but also more sustainable. It produces better outcomes for economic development: A rights-based approach to education can be entirely consistent with the broader agenda of governments to produce an economically viable workforce. Measures to promote universal access to education and overcome discrimination against girls, children with disabilities, working children, children in rural communities, and minority and indigenous children will serve to widen the economic base of society, thus strengthening a country’s economic capability. It builds capacity: By focusing on capacity-building and empowerment, a rights-based approach to education harnesses and develops the capacities of governments to fulfill their obligations and of individuals to claim their rights and entitlements.

4.3.1 Human right

Human right refer to inalienable fundamental rights which an individual inherits simply because he is a human being. Human rights are egalitarian beacause they are the same for everyone and are universal. The concept of universal human rights came into effect after Second World War where human civilization witnessed perhaps the most heinous atrocities in the Holocaust. Thus, in 1949, UN General Assembly adopted the 'Universal Declaration of Human Rights'.

EDUCATION AS A HUMAN RIGHT

         Education has been formally recognized as a human right since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. This has since been affirmed in numerous global human rights treaties, including the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Convention against Discrimination in Education (1960), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966) and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (1981). These treaties establish an entitlement to free, compulsory primary education for all children; an obligation to develop secondary education, supported by measures to render it accessible to all children, as well as equitable access to higher education; and a responsibility to provide basic education for individuals who have not completed primary education. Furthermore, they affirm that the aim of education is to promote personal development, strengthen respect for human rights and freedoms, enable individuals to participate effectively in a free society, and promote understanding, friendship and tolerance. The right to education has long been recognized as encompassing not only access to educational provision, but also the obligation to eliminate discrimination at all levels of the educational system, to set minimum standards and to improve quality. In addition, education is necessary for the fulfillment of any other civil, political, economic or social right. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) further strengthens and broadens the concept of the right to education, in particular through the obligation to consider in its implementation the Convention’s four core principles: nondiscrimination; the best interests of the child; the right to life and the right of children to express their views in all matters affecting them and for their views to be given due weight in accordance with their age and maturity. These underlying principles make clear a strong commitment to ensuring that children are recognized as active agents in their own learning and that education is designed to promote and respect their rights and needs. The Convention elaborates an understanding of the right to education in terms of universality, participation, respect and inclusion. This approach is exemplified both in the text itself and in its interpretation by the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the international body established to monitor governments’ progress in implementing child rights.