Human rights and the right of Nigerians to education

Human rights and the right of Nigerians to education

Human rights are the rights we enjoy for being human. It is as simple as that. So long as we are human beings, we are entitled to these inalien­able rights, which indeed make us humans. Human rights are based on the principle of respect for the individual and, therefore, universally inherent in all human beings regardless of their nation, location, language, religion, eth­nic origin or any other status. The fundamental assumption is that each person is a moral and rational being who deserves to be treated with dignity. No human being, no matter who they may be, has the right to abridge these rights or trample on them.

 

Key substantive rights are: right to life, freedom from torture, freedom from slavery, right to a fair trial, and freedom of speech. Others are: freedom of thought, conscience and religion, freedom of movement and right to educa­tion. Of all the said substantive rights, perhaps the most impor­tant, after the right to life, is the right to education. The Right to Education is protected by: Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Articles 13 & 14 of the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights and Articles 28,29 & 40 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

 

The Right to Education is a uni­versal entitlement to education. This includes the right to free, compulsory primary education for all, an obligation to develop and make secondary education accessible to all, in particular by the progressive introduction of free secondary education, as well as an obligation to develop equi­table access to higher education, ideally by the progressive intro­duction of free higher education.

 

The Right to Education also in­cludes a responsibility to provide basic education for individuals who have not completed primary education. In addition to these access to education provisions, the right to education encom­passes the obligation to rule out discrimination at all levels of the educational system, to set mini­mum standards and to improve the quality of education.

 

The 1960 UNESCO Conven­tion against Discrimination in Education defines education in Article 1(2) as: “all types and lev­els of education, (including) ac­cess to education, the standard and quality of education, and the conditions under which it is given.”

In a wider sense, education may describe all activities by which a human group transmits to its descendants a body of knowl­edge and skills and a moral code, which enable the group to subsist. In this sense, education refers to the transmission to a subsequent generation of those skills needed to perform tasks of daily living, and further passing on the social, cultural, spiritual and philosoph­ical values of the particular com­munity.

 

Overall, it is the duty of the Government to educate the citi­zens to acquire the right skills to live responsibly and contribute their quotas to nation building. Even where the Government is not able to provide education free, it should, at least, make qual­ity education available at minimal costs.

 

Being a signatory to the UN Charters on the Right to Educa­tion, Nigeria has made universal basic education free and compul­sory through the introduction of the Universal Basic Education Act. This Act seeks the realiza­tion of the right to education on a national level to be achieved through free compulsory prima­ry education, as stated in both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Cov­enant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

 

The fulfillment of the right to education in Nigeria can be as­sessed using the 4 As framework, which asserts that for educa­tion to be meaningful, it must be available, accessible, acceptable and adaptable. The slogan of the UBE is: “No child shall be left be­hind”. Yet, records have it that the numbers of out of school children of school going age of 6 to 16 are over 10 million. And the UN Re­port also has it that the North east harbors the world’s highest con­centrations of illiterate people.

 

Coupled with the falling stan­dards of education in the country, 10 million out of school children clearly shows that education does not occupy a place of premium in Nigeria. The Authority is wor­ried that nation’s only lip service to education ignores the dan­gers it poses to building a society without a knowledge base. This development has affected quality of education, value system and availability of trained manpower. While urging the Government to declare a state of emergency in education and for the centrality of education to nation building, The Authority shall devote a few more editorials to discussing the employability of Nigerian gradu­ates and the ways out of the quag­mire, which education has found itself in Nigeria.

 

On human rights generally in Nigeria, the verdict is still far from meeting internationally ac­ceptable minimum standards. The killing of unarmed pro-Bi­afra agitators and the records of Nigerian military in the prosecu­tion of war against the insurgency in the north east, as contained in a recent report of Amnesty Inter­national, all show retrogressions in this respect and underscores the need for more work in order to have a total turnaround
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