The Human Right to Education (Full text)
Article 26
- Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
- Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
- Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children."
Source: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, United Nations, 1948
Commentary:
The "full development of the human personality " has been recognized as a human right, and specifically within the Right to education since 1948. As a result, all the signatory countries have recognized it as a government objective to be implemented.
However, seven decades on, with some exceptions, public school systems have not integrated this key element. And if some have started to do so, teachers are insufficiently trained to move beyond rote memory teaching and to focus on developing the full potential of each child in school.
The right to fulfillment through education is not meant to be a privilege for the best three of the class. Self-realization is a universal right for all students. All students are entitled to this development in class.
How to develop the full potential of each student? It takes place through believing in their potential and empowering them to do likewise. This process is reinforced with experiential pedagogies, in which students experience interacting between each other. Such dialogue-based pedagogies help them develop their human and social skills. They learn to listen to each other, to appreciate each other, to esteem each other as they collaborate to solve the problems of the lessons of the day.
Even in the most developed countries, there are few possibilities for teachers to access such training, or at best, they are entitled to a few hours per year.
However, the suffering of students is becoming so dominant that it is no longer acceptable to reduce the teaching profession to mechanistic rote teaching. The finest role of teachers is quite other: it is to take on the role of gardener and help the many seeds in one's class to grow and flourish.
