What you need to know about the right to education
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms that education is a fundamental human right for everyone and this right was further detailed in the Convention against Discrimination in Education. What exactly does that mean?
Why is education a fundamental human right?
The right to education is a human right and indispensable for the exercise of other human rights.
- Quality education aims to ensure the development of a fully-rounded human being.
- It is one of the most powerful tools in lifting socially excluded children and adults out of poverty and into society. UNESCO data shows that if all adults completed secondary education, globally the number of poor people could be reduced by more than half.
- It narrows the gender gap for girls and women. A UN study showed that each year of schooling reduces the probability of infant mortality by 5 to 10 per cent.
- For this human right to work there must be equality of opportunity, universal access, and enforceable and monitored quality standards.
What does the right to education entail?
- Primary education that is free, compulsory and universal
- Secondary education, including technical and vocational, that is generally available, accessible to all and progressively free
- Higher education, accessible to all on the basis of individual capacity and progressively free
- Fundamental education for individuals who have not completed education
- Professional training opportunities
- Equal quality of education through minimum standards
- Quality teaching and supplies for teachers
- Adequate fellowship system and material condition for teaching staff
- Freedom of choice
What is the current situation?
- About 258 million children and youth are out of school, according to UIS data for the school year ending in 2018. The total includes 59 million children of primary school age, 62 million of lower secondary school age and 138 million of upper secondary age.
155 countries legally guarantee 9 years or more of compulsory education
- Only 99 countries legally guarantee at least 12 years of free education
- 8.2% of primary school age children does not go to primary school Only six in ten young people will be finishing secondary school in 2030 The youth literacy rate (15-24) is of 91.73%, meaning 102 million youth lack basic literacy skills.
How is the right to education ensured?
The right to education is established by two means - normative international instruments and political commitments by governments. A solid international framework of conventions and treaties exist to protect the right to education and States that sign up to them agree to respect, protect and fulfil this right.
How does UNESCO work to ensure the right to education?
UNESCO develops, monitors and promotes education norms and standards to guarantee the right to education at country level and advance the aims of the Education 2030 Agenda. It works to ensure States' legal obligations are reflected in national legal frameworks and translated into concrete policies.
- Monitoring the implementation of the right to education at country level
- Supporting States to establish solid national frameworks creating the legal foundation and conditions for sustainable quality education for all
- Advocating on the right to education principles and legal obligations through research and studies on key issues
- Maintaining global online tools on the right to education
- Enhancing capacities, reporting mechanisms and awareness on key challenges
- Developing partnerships and networks around key issues
How is the right to education monitored and enforced by UNESCO?
- UNESCO's Constitution requires Member States to regularly report on measures to implement standard-setting instruments at country level through regular consultations.
- Through collaboration with UN human rights bodies, UNESCO addresses recommendations to countries to improve the situation of the right to education at national level.
- Through the dedicated online Observatory , UNESCO takes stock of the implementation of the right to education in 195 States.
- Through its interactive Atlas , UNESCO monitors the implementation right to education of girls and women in countries
- Based on its monitoring work, UNESCO provides technical assistance and policy advice to Member States that seek to review, develop, improve and reform their legal and policy frameworks.
What happens if States do not fulfil obligations?
- International human rights instruments have established a solid normative framework for the right to education. This is not an empty declaration of intent as its provisions are legally binding. All countries in the world have ratified at least one treaty covering certain aspects of the right to education. This means that all States are held to account, through legal mechanisms.
- Enforcement of the right to education: At international level, human rights' mechanisms are competent to receive individual complaints and have settled right to education breaches this way.
- Justiciability of the right to education: Where their right to education has been violated, citizens must be able to have legal recourse before the law courts or administrative tribunals.
What are the major challenges to ensure the right to education?
- Providing free and compulsory education to all
- 155 countries legally guarantee 9 years or more of compulsory education.
- Only 99 countries legally guarantee at least 12 years of free education.
- Eliminating inequalities and disparities in education
While only 4% of the poorest youth complete upper secondary school in low-income countries, 36% of the richest do. In lower-middle-income countries, the gap is even wider: while only 14% of the poorest youth complete upper secondary school, 72% of the richest do.
- Migration and displacement
According to a 2019 UNHCR report, of the 7.1 million refugee children of school age, 3.7 million - more than half - do not go to school.
- Privatization and its impact on the right to education
States need to strike a balance between educational freedom and ensuring everyone receives a quality education.
- Financing of education
The Education 2030 Agenda requires States to allocate at least 4-6 per cent of GDP and/or at least 15-20 per cent of public expenditure to education.
- Quality imperatives and valuing the teaching profession
Two-thirds of the estimated 617 million children and adolescents who cannot read a simple sentence or manage a basic mathematics calculation are in the classroom.
- Say no to discrimination in education! - #RightToEducation campaign
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16.1 A Brief History of Education in the United States
Learning objectives.
- Explain why compulsory education arose during the 19th century.
- Outline some scholars’ criticisms of the rise of compulsory education.
Education is the social institution through which a society teaches its members the skills, knowledge, norms, and values they need to learn to become good, productive members of their society. As this definition makes clear, education is an important part of socialization. Education is both formal and informal . Formal education is often referred to as schooling , and as this term implies, it occurs in schools under teachers, principals, and other specially trained professionals. Informal education may occur almost anywhere, but for young children it has traditionally occurred primarily in the home, with their parents as their instructors. Day care has become an increasingly popular venue in industrial societies for young children’s instruction, and education from the early years of life is thus more formal than it used to be.
Education in early America was hardly formal. During the colonial period, the Puritans in what is now Massachusetts required parents to teach their children to read and also required larger towns to have an elementary school, where children learned reading, writing, and religion. In general, though, schooling was not required in the colonies, and only about 10% of colonial children, usually just the wealthiest, went to school, although others became apprentices (Urban, Jennings, & Wagoner, 2008).
To help unify the nation after the Revolutionary War, textbooks were written to standardize spelling and pronunciation and to instill patriotism and religious beliefs in students. At the same time, these textbooks included negative stereotypes of Native Americans and certain immigrant groups. The children going to school continued primarily to be those from wealthy families. By the mid-1800s, a call for free, compulsory education had begun, and compulsory education became widespread by the end of the century. This was an important development, as children from all social classes could now receive a free, formal education. Compulsory education was intended to further national unity and to teach immigrants “American” values. It also arose because of industrialization, as an industrial economy demanded reading, writing, and math skills much more than an agricultural economy had.
In colonial America, only about 10% of children went to school, and these children tended to come from wealthy families. After the Revolutionary War, new textbooks helped standardize spelling and pronunciation and promote patriotism and religious beliefs, but these textbooks also included negative stereotypes of Native Americans.
Wikimedia Commons – public domain.
Free, compulsory education, of course, applied only to primary and secondary schools. Until the mid-1900s, very few people went to college, and those who did typically came from the fairly wealthy families. After World War II, however, college enrollments soared, and today more people are attending college than ever before, even though college attendance is still related to social class, as we shall discuss shortly.
At least two themes emerge from this brief history. One is that until very recently in the record of history, formal schooling was restricted to wealthy males. This means that boys who were not white and rich were excluded from formal schooling, as were virtually all girls, whose education was supposed to take place informally at home. Today, as we will see, race, ethnicity, social class, and, to some extent, gender continue to affect both educational achievement and the amount of learning occurring in schools.
Second, although the rise of free, compulsory education was an important development, the reasons for this development trouble some critics (Bowles & Gintis, 1976; Cole, 2008). Because compulsory schooling began in part to prevent immigrants’ values from corrupting “American” values, they see its origins as smacking of ethnocentrism. They also criticize its intention to teach workers the skills they needed for the new industrial economy. Because most workers were very poor in this economy, these critics say, compulsory education served the interests of the upper/capitalist class much more than it served the interests of workers. It was good that workers became educated, say the critics, but in the long run their education helped the owners of capital much more than it helped the workers themselves. Whose interests are served by education remains an important question addressed by sociological perspectives on education, to which we now turn.
Key Takeaways
- Until very recently in the record of history, formal schooling was restricted to wealthy males.
- The rise of free, compulsory education was an important development that nonetheless has been criticized for orienting workers in the 19th century to be disciplined and to obey authority.
For Your Review
- Write a brief essay in which you summarize the benefits and disadvantages of the rise of compulsory education during the 19th century.
Bowles, S., & Gintis, H. (1976). Schooling in capitalist America: Educational reforms and the contradictions of economic life . New York, NY: Basic Books.
Cole, M. (2008). Marxism and educational theory: Origins and issues . New York, NY: Routledge.
Urban, W. J., Jennings L., & Wagoner, J. (2008). American education: A history (4th ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.
Sociology Copyright © 2016 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.
Compulsory education
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Compulsory Education Laws: Background
By Jade Yeban, J.D. | Legally reviewed by Susan Mills Richmond, Esq. | Last reviewed January 05, 2024
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Compulsory education is the legal rule that children attend school until they reach a certain age. This plays a vital role in shaping our modern education system. It helps ensure that every child gets a basic education. Compulsory education laws affect society, from the classroom to the court system. They cover everything from the school day and school year to special education and truancy. Understanding these laws helps us appreciate public education's evolution and current state. These laws impact students, especially in high school and secondary education.
There are certain exceptions to compulsory education laws. For example, homeschooling is an exception. But all states mandate when children must begin school and at what age they can drop out. Typically, children must start school by age 6 and remain enrolled until they are at least 16. These laws were passed to improve literacy rates. They also discouraged the child labor practices of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
This article explores the cultural and legal history of compulsory school attendance laws. See State Compulsory Education Laws and Home Schooling Regulations to learn more.
Origins of Compulsory Education
In ancient Judea, even before Plato's "Republic" popularized the idea of mandatory education, Jewish leaders required parents to provide at least an informal education for their children. Rabbis founded schools throughout the region. They encouraged parents to send their children to school beginning at age 6. Also, the Aztec Triple Alliance ruled modern-day central Mexico in the 15th and 16th centuries. Historians say this alliance was the first nation to make education mandatory for all children.
The Protestant Reformation began in 1524. During the Reformation, Martin Luther called for mandatory schooling laws . He did this to ensure that more Christians could read the Bible independently. As the Reformation spread throughout Europe, so did the enactment of mandatory education laws. Scotland established an education mandate for children of privileged families in 1496. This mandate did not include commoners for 120 years. Then, the country enacted the School Establishment Act of 1616.
The concept of compulsory school attendance gradually spread across the world. It was primarily based on the systems set up by Prussia in 1763. The idea emerged alongside the growing belief in the importance of an educated citizenry. At first, education was a privilege for the wealthy. With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, the need for a literate and educated workforce became clear.
This shift led to the formation of the first school systems and boards of education. States like New York pioneered in establishing public education systems. They set a precedent for other states to follow. The goal was to provide an educational program accessible to all, regardless of social standing.
Early Compulsory Education Laws in the U.S.
In America, compulsory education started in the 19th century. Massachusetts became the first U.S. state to enact a compulsory education law in 1852 . It had already passed a similar law in 1647 when it was still a British colony. The 1852 law required every city and town to offer primary school focusing on grammar and basic arithmetic. Parents who refused to send their children to school faced fines. In some cases, authorities stripped them of their parental rights. Their children became apprentices to others. This move set a model for other states, establishing nationwide school districts and state boards of education.
Before the Massachusetts law, private schools run by churches typically provided education. Since they also charged tuition, they excluded poorer children who often received informal homeschooling. That would change during the immigration boom in the 19th and 20th centuries. People believed education was the best way to assimilate immigrant children.
During that time, many states enacted compulsory education laws. These laws worked to take education out of the hands of parochial schools. They turned schools primarily into the purview of the state. These actions came about in a growing response to the fear of "immigrant" values and the Catholic Church. The Supreme Court later overturned these laws. They did so because they required students to attend only public schools.
Another motivation was the growing public concern over child labor and the belief that compulsory school attendance would discourage factory owners from exploiting children. Alabama temporarily repealed its compulsory education law. This was in response to pressure from a large textile company in the state. Mississippi was the last state to pass a law requiring school attendance in 1917. Still, enforcement of these laws was largely ineffective. Eventually, states began to realize the value of an educated workforce.
The State of Compulsory Education
Today, the U.S. education system has evolved significantly. The U.S. Department of Education , state boards, and local boards oversee a more complex and inclusive educational program. Compulsory education now typically extends through high school. This means students must remain in school until they are a certain age, usually 16 to 18 years of age. The goal is to ensure students get a high school diploma, paving the way for a higher education or entry into the workforce.
Special education programs and policies also ensure that students with diverse and unique needs each receive appropriate education. Truancy and dropout by students are still concerns. In some states, parents or guardians can face misdemeanor charges for failing to follow compulsory education laws. Also, many states offer work release permits that allow students to work limited hours outside of the school during regular school hours. This means they do not have to attend school full-time.
While compulsory schooling is still the norm, there have been several exceptions for specific groups opposed to the laws. For instance, the U.S. Supreme Court ( Wisconsin v. Yoder ) ruled in 1972 that Amish parents were exempt from such laws past eighth grade because of the competing factor of the free exercise of their religion. Also, states typically grant exemptions to those who homeschool their children as long as they meet the standards required of public and state-accredited private schools.
Impact of Compulsory Education on Society
Compulsory education has had a profound impact on society. It has played a key role in reducing illiteracy and ensuring the education of most Americans. This widespread education has been crucial in developing a modern economy and infrastructure. Compulsory education laws have also paved the way for important discussions on education quality, equity in the education system, and the role of education in society.
Getting Legal Help With Compulsory Education Laws
Understanding compulsory education laws is crucial for parents, guardians, and educators. These laws vary from state to state. Navigating them can be complex, especially when dealing with issues like truancy. If you face legal issues related to compulsory education, seeking legal help is important.
Lawyers with experience in education law can help interpret education policy and laws. They can guide you through court cases related to education and offer advice on dealing with school systems and officials.
Contact an education law attorney about your legal issue today.
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The Advantages & Disadvantages of Compulsory Education in the United States
Marie anderson.
Compulsory attendance in America began in the second half on the 19th century, partly as a means to assimilate new immigrants. Today, all states and the District of Columbia have compulsory attendance laws that set the minimum and maximum age that students must attend school, as well as how many days there will be in the school year. These laws have both advantages and disadvantages for families and society.
Explore this article
- Guaranteed Access
- States with No Exceptions
- Better Economic Future
- The Root of the Problem
1 Guaranteed Access
Compulsory attendance laws exist to ensure that every child in this country receives a free, public education. Without this free access, some parents would not be able to afford private education for their children. Also, these laws ensure that children who need them have access to essential services that may not be available unless they were attending school. Schools not only provide a free education, but also special education interventions and services, free breakfast and lunch programs and vision and hearing screenings.
2 States with No Exceptions
All states require students to attend school until they are between 16 and 18 years old. While some states offer exceptions to this rule if there is parental approval or other requirements are met, in 21 states students cannot be exempt from this law. These rules can constrain some students that have extenuating circumstances, like the necessity to work to support family.
3 Better Economic Future
Compulsory education laws keep students in school until they are near graduation. Research from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows there is a direct correlation between the level of education students achieve and their economic future. Those with more education typically make more money and have lower unemployment rates. In 2012, the unemployment rate for workers without a high school diploma was over 12 percent, while those with at least a diploma had rates of around 8 percent. On average, high school graduates make about $9,400 less a year.
4 The Root of the Problem
Forcing children to attend school does nothing to address the real reasons they decide to drop out. According to BoostUp.org, the top reasons that students quit school include that it was not interesting, they had low family expectations that led to poor attendance and grades or they became teen parents. Perhaps instead of forcing students to sit in a classroom, energy and resources could be used to create schools with relevant, interesting coursework and address some of the social issues that lead to high drop-out numbers.
- 1 National Center for Education Statistics: Table 5.1. Compulsory School Attendance Laws and Exemptions, by State -- 2010
About the Author
Houston area native Marie Anderson began writing education articles in 2013. She holds a Bachelor of Science in exercise and sports science and a Master of Science in education administration. She has seven years of teaching and coaching experience within the Texas public school system.
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