This contribution to the global educational debate and policymaking highlights the adverse impacts on children and young people of exclusion from effective formal education. It reviews the emerging commitment to universal education and the difficult history of trying to give it effect since 1950. The author draws on the literature on education, on the development process in general, and on human rights. She develops an approach which shifts the debate from sheer numbers of pupils, funding mechanisms and market forces to a deeper discussion about what the right to education should really comprise, how governments and other institutions actually go about, or fail in, giving effect to it on a universal and non-discriminatory basis, and what happens to young people within the educational process itself. The book is a useful tour d'horizon of the history and problems, points up the discrimination and abuses of power this quest has involved, and indicates what needs to be done to implement a more rounded and effective global right to education.
Industry Reviews
Katarina Tomasevski's analysis provides a refreshing and well-reasoned argument for greater attention for the right to education. More importantly, Tomasevski brings a keen historical analysis to the subject to illustrate that the distortion of this right through the emphasis on economic liberalization and the primacy of the free market ideology in institutions like the World Bank has added to the scourge of underdevelopment in many countries. Quite clearly, there is a need to revisit the dominant neo-liberal formulations of the last years that have failed in the essential link of improving the general condition of humankind. Tomasevski's message in this regard is succinct and poignant: ignore the right to education at the peril of humanity. * Professor Joe Oloka-Onyango, Faculty of Law, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda *
This is a remarkable book, different than any I have read. It does not simply depart from a human rights perspective but makes a human rights perspective central to every paragraph. In doing so, it raises all the current issues surrounding today's discussions of education and development, but in ways that challenge all of us to stop and reconsider how we think about them. The writing is vivid and the logic relentless. This book is a must read for anyone interested in education, in how and why so many children are excluded from education, and in what needs to be done to change that. * Professor Steven Klees, Director, International Education Policy Program, Department of Education Policy and Leadership, University of Maryland *
This is an impressive book. It is written by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to education. In making a strong plea for rights-based education, the author is more than anyone else qualified to expose shortcomings and denials as well as to highlight potentials and positive practices. Katarina Tomasevski's work is challenging and rich in content and scope. Among many other issues, she addresses such vital problems as combating exclusion and segregation in education and overcoming persistent racial and xenophobic prejudices. A most attractive feature of the book is the full use of telling illustrations, tables, charts, figures, photographs and boxes. This book must be read, it must be grasped and not the least, it must be viewed. * Professor Theo van Boven, Director of the United Nations Division of Human Rights 1977-1982, University of Maastricht *
With vivid and concrete examples, Katarina Tomasevski points out how governments violate the right to education. Investing in education is indispensable for effective political participation and for enabling individuals to sustain themselves. It is the key for the preservation of cultural values and the foundation for the elimination of discrimination. The author has performed a most valuable task. Her work is a call to the conscience of the world and a poignant plea to halt the dangerous trend of denying that education is a human right. * Socia Picado, President, Inter-American Institute of Human Rights *
Anyone who cares about the right of every child to education should read this book. Policy makers, directors of international financial institutions, teachers, parents and students will be enlightened and challenged. No sacred cows are exempt from scrutiny. As she has done in her reports as UN Special Rapporteur on the right to education, Katarina Tomasevski reveals the inconsistencies in the policies and practices than not only deny access to education but also result in discrimination. The right to education is the bridge to enjoyment of all other human rights * this book clearly makes the links and challenges those who care to work for change." *
