Children have the right for free education
Children have the right to have free education. Education is a basic human right that must be free for everyone to receive, especially children. Having an education, gives people the possibility to access all of their other human rights. Education improves the quality of life of a person and helps to tackle poverty.
According to the the most recent researches available from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics in July 2016, 263 million children and youth are not receiving any kind of education. This includes 61 million children who should attend primary school, 60 million of lower secondary school age (ages 12 to 14) and 142 million who are aged between 15 and 17.
Girls and children from sub-Saharan Africa are the ones who are most likely to miss out on their education, due to conflicts, political corruption and poverty. 22 million children of primary school age are affected by armed conflicts in war and therefore, are not eligible to educate themselves. 75 million children and adolescents have had their education mostly affected by conflict and emergencies happening in their countries.
Why education is important
If a country is going through a crisis and is in need of a change, the best way to improve the situation is: to give free education to children, who are the generation that can save the country from the current situation. Education reduces poverty, decreases social inequalities, empowers women and helps each individual reach their full potential and do something great for their country. It gives the possibility to help the population bring significant economic returns to the country and help society achieve peace, independence and sustainable development. Education is the key to achieve all the other human rights, who come from it.
With our proposal, we want every person to be entitled to a quality education without discrimination and war, which means:
- A compulsory free primary school education for every child
- Secondary school (including technical training) must be available to everyone – government must work towards providing this for free
- Higher education must be equally accessible to anyone for free
- Fundamental education for those who missed out on primary school should be encouraged and available to pursue
We believe that every child should have access to, at least, two years of free, quality pre-primary education and the ones responsible to make it happen are indeed, the governments. They should be the ones to make education: accessible, available, acceptable and adaptable to anyone, especially children.
We, as the Lebanese International Lobby, strive to achieve these goals to give children in Lebanon a better educational system. If you also want the same, join our cause and we will work together to give our children a better future.
