Can education be made mobile?

• Author: Vujic, Aleksandra

the right to education is a fundamental human right, since it is a precondition for the fulfilment of other economic, social, cultural, civil, and political rights. It enables social mobility and successful competition in the labour market. Its realization means overcoming poverty and living with human dignity. Being universal, interdependent, interrelated, and indivisible, the right to an education offers equal opportunities for all, regardless of gender, economic or social status.

The first attempt to promote the right to education was Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, while the Convention against Discrimination in Education, adopted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1960, and the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) were the first legally binding international instruments to incorporate the wide range of this right. Article 13 of CESCR obliged United Nations Member States to recognize the right to free, compulsory primary education available to everyone, accessible secondary education, and equally accessible higher education. It pledged states to develop a system of schools for all levels, to establish an adequate fellowship system, and to continually improve material conditions for teaching staff.

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After sixty years, the UN Millennium Declaration called for States to ensure that children everywhere, boys and girls alike, would be able to complete a full course of primary education. Yet statistical data from 2007 indicated that "one sixth of the world's population, approximately 760 million persons, cannot read or write." (1)

It was noted that rural children were twice as likely to be out of school as children living in urban areas and that "the rural-urban gap particularly affects the education of girls." (2) Considering the fact that many children leave school without adequate literacy, numeracy or without possessing basic life skills, Goal 2 of the Education for All initiative led by UNESCO called for good quality primary education, and Goal 6, for improving all aspects of the quality of education and ensuring excellence for all, so that recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all.

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It becomes obvious that realizing the right to education, in particular a good quality education, is a global issue demanding global responses and the joint efforts of...