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World Education Report 2000 |
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he theme of this year’s World Education Report, the right to education, is particularly appropriate for International Year for the Culture of Peace. Human rights are central to peace. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states in its preamble that: ‘recognition of the inherent dignity and equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world’. |
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he theme of the report is also appropriate for another reason: the international community met at the World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal, 26-28 April, to assess the progress made towards the World Conference on Education for All goals that were adopted ten years ago in Jomtien, Thailand, and at the same time to renew its commitment to, and intensify its efforts to reach these goals. |
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ith these considerations in mind, the aim of the report is twofold: to contribute towards a better international understanding of the nature and scope of the right to education as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and to complement the assessment of progress towards Education for All goals that is being undertaken by the World Forum on Education for All. |
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he report has four chapters. The first is a general one about the right to education and the commitments made by the international community over the years to ensure its implementation. The remaining three chapters consider the extent to which the worldwide expansion of education over the past half century, and the successive stated commitments by the international community to ensure the implementation of the various aspects of the right to education, have represented progress towards the realization of this right. Chapter 2 focuses on the expansion of education at what is referred to in Article 26 of the Universal Declaration as the ‘elementary and fundamental stages’, i.e. what today is called ‘basic education’. Chapter 3 focuses on the expansion of education beyond these stages, i.e. secondary, tertiary and ‘lifelong’ education. Chapter 4 considers the successive commitments that have been agreed to by the international community broadly in regard to education’s purposes and contents.
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