HUMAN RIGHTS AND HOME EDUCATION
The Special Rapporteur on the right to education stated that "Addressing the human rights dimensions of education reduces the risk of unknowingly supporting education that amounts to brainwashing " ...
There are a few references in the Special Rapporteur's preliminary report to the "human capital" aspect of education in developed countries - and one reference was wrong:
"This is, in the Special Rapporteur's view, only one out of many purposes of education. Such reductionism precludes defining education in terms of the full development of the human personality, frustrating the creation of foundations for human rights education by teaching learners to share knowledge rather than trade it, and to cooperate rather than to compete."
Surely that should read "frustrating the creation of foundations for human rights education by teaching learners to trade education rather than to share it, and to compete rather than cooperate" - ...because teaching them to "share knowledge rather than trade it, and to cooperate rather than compete" would hardly "frustrate" the "creation of foundations for human rights education"!!!
The reference to "brainwashing" can be found in paragraph 29 of the Progress report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to education,Katarina Tomasevski, submitted in accordance with Commission on Human Rights resolution 1999/25.
The reference to the "human capital" approach is found at paragraph 67:
Implications of the human capital approach
67. The Special Rapporteur has consistently held that the notion of human capital questions the inherent worth of each human being which underpins human rights, as well as undermining the role of education in the promotion and protection of human rights. She feels that an appropriate human rights response to the notion of human capital ought to be forged, lest the underlying idea of the market value of human capital risks turning upside-down the idea that the economy should serve people rather than the other way around. The human-capital approach moulds education solely towards economically relevant knowledge, skills and competence, to the detriment of human rights values. Education should prepare learners for parenthood or political participation, enhance social cohesion and tolerance. A productivist view of education depletes it of much of its purpose and substance.
68.The literature on human capital has evolved in the past decades from the relationship between education and income, focusing on the economic value of schooling and/or the rate of return on schooling, especially private, to then affirm generally "the productive utility of human knowledge".This is, in the Special Rapporteur's view, only one out of many purposes of education. Such reductionism precludes defining education in terms of the full development of the human personality, frustrating the creation of foundations for human rights education by teaching learners to share knowledge rather than trade it, and to cooperate rather than to compete.
69. The human-capital approach has revealed the importance of public investment in education, as well as disparate prospects for attaining knowledge-based economies in the world. The priority in current international education strategies for basic education fares ill against findings that the foundation necessary to enable individuals "to build up their human capital" is upper-secondary education. Public investment in education has led to the completion of upper-secondary education by more than half of the working-age population in the OECD countries. As table 4 shows, OECD countries have moved to almost all-encompassing enrolment at the secondary level, while for most developing countries, not even data on these enrolments are available.
SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES ARISING IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS (excerpts)
Article 14
1. Article 14 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights requires each State party which has not been able to secure compulsory primary education, free of charge, to undertake, within two years, to work out and adopt a detailed plan of action for the progressive implementation, within a reasonable number of years, to be fixed in the plan, of the principle of compulsory primary education free of charge for all. In spite of the obligations undertaken in accordance with article 14, a number of States parties have neither drafted nor implemented a plan of action for free and compulsory primary education.
2. The right to education, recognized in articles 13 and 14 of the Covenant, as well as in a variety of other international treaties, such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, is of vital importance. It has been variously classified as an economic right, a social right and a cultural right. It is all of these. It is also, in many ways, a civil right and a political right, since it is central to the full and effective realization of those rights as well. In this respect, the right to education epitomizes the indivisibility and interdependence of all human rights.
6. Compulsory. The element of compulsion serves to highlight the fact that neither parents, nor guardians, nor the State are entitled to treat as optional the decision as to whether the child should have access to primary education. Similarly, the prohibition of gender discrimination in access to education, required also by articles 2 and 3 of the Covenant, is further underlined by this requirement. It should be emphasized, however, that the education offered must be adequate in quality, relevant to the child and must promote the realization of the child's other rights.
Article 13,paragraph 2(a) of The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights:
2. The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize that, with a view to achieving the full realization of this right: (a) Primary education shall be compulsory and available free to all
IRELAND made the following reservation to the International Covenant when ratifying it:
Article 13, paragraph 2 (a) Ireland recognizes the inalienable right and duty of parents to provide for the education of children, and, while recognizing the State's obligations to provide for free primary education and requiring that children receive a certain minimum education, nevertheless reserves the right to allow parents to provide for the education of their children in their homes provided that these minimum standards are observed.
Surely what is a "human right", a "fundamental freedom", for citizens of one country must be a FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT of citizens of ALL countries?
FULL TEXT OF ARTICLE 13 and IRELAND's RESERVATIONS to the COVENANT
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
These excerpts contain interesting attempts describe what education might actually be...such as:
Human rights law specifies the purpose and objective of education, increasingly calling for the mainstreaming of human rights throughout the contents and process of education. From the human rights viewpoint, education is thus an end in itself rather than merely a means for achieving other ends.
Some economists may, however, define education as efficient production of human capital and classify all its human rights dimensions as externalities. A definition of people as human capital obviously differs from defining people as subjects of rights.
The contrast between the human rights and human-capital approaches is best illustrated by taking children with physical and learning disabilities as an example. The former may be excluded from school because providing wheelchair access, for example, might be deemed too expensive; the latter may be excluded from schooling because meeting their learning needs is deemed not to yield a sufficient marginal return on investment. This type of reasoning obviously challenges the very assumption of human rights, namely the equal worth of all human beings.
The Special Rapporteur therefore attaches a great deal of importance to emphasizing differences between education and the right to education so as to create a background for advocating changes within education aimed at conformity with the human rights requirements.