Gross violations of the right to education in Chile: time to act

 

  • Education is not a human right. In the 1940’s idealists wrote it into the UN declaration but the right was invented to support their notion of an ideal society. True rights are discovered, not invented. Having said that education may be a right under the law, or a “civil right” as US Americans call it. Here is how that happens. The population may decide thru a democratic process such as a referendum, that a certain proportion of government revenue will be assigned for a specified amount and kind of public education. The legislature may then pass a law providing for the specified education, e.g., education of children up to grade 8, for all capable children. Of course this law, as all laws, apply to everyone in the jurisdiction.
  • The government of Chile apparently decided to utilize private schools as well as government owned schools to provide the education. If there is a difference in the result achieved it is basically an administrative problem and at worst a deficiency in the civil right of obtaining an education.

 

Filed under: Comments on News Stories | June 11th, 2015