2 Thinking critically about the rights-based model
Many global organisations declare that education is the right of every child. You have read in Week 3 that education is seen as threading through all seventeen of the Sustainable Development Goals (United Nations, 2015).
Referring to the previous Millennium Development Goals in 2011, Save the Children said:
Failing to meet these goals will have a serious impact upon children – and on all our futures. When children do not have access to adequate education, societies suffer and a country’s development is impeded. Children who miss out on education will not have the chance to develop the skills they need to become better citizens, parents and community members nationally and globally.
(Save the Children, 2011)
The right of education for all is seen as vital for the future.
Activity 2 Rights and the key drivers for change
Allow approximately 60 minutes
Look back through Weeks 3, 4 and 5 and identify where education is seen as providing the solution to certain problems. For example, global warming and population control.
Think about:
- Is the education system that you know best, meeting the sustainable development goal of ‘quality inclusive education’ and ‘lifelong learning opportunities for all’?
- Are some individuals/groups excluded from education or learning. How? Why? For example, do some children miss out on education because they have duties that keep them at home or because they have physical disabilities?
- Do you agree that education should concern itself with the global issues discussed in Weeks 3, 4 and 5? Are there other issues that should be addressed first, particularly if you are thinking about education from a ‘rights-based’ perspective?
- Do you feel that education, as it is realised at the moment in your context, can concern itself with the changes you identified in Weeks 3, 4 and 5? What barriers might there be?
- How could the education system that you know best, begin to help young people know how to address the global problems that you have identified as requiring attention in education?
OpenLearn - Looking globally: the future of education
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