As the Chinese philosopher, Lao Tsu, once said “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” It means that teaching somebody how to do things matters more than doing it for them. Education ensures people or more specifically, future generations have the ability to survive in society and to create something meaningful in their lives. Moreover, the continuation of education allows a nation’s development to grow economically. Without education, a nation’s ability to grow is hindered as they do not have access and knowledge to the most basic information. However that is not to say that it should be everyone’s right to go onto further education, this should be earned on people’s effort but not their ability to pay in order to ensure that education at the higher level is not only for the rich which disadvantages the poorer amongst society. If education was a privilege only for the wealthy, the scholarships wouldn’t have to exist.
Education is also now considered a right by significant organizations. According to article 26 from The Universal Declaration on Human Rights states, “everyone has the right to education”. After that, many other international groups including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the UNESCO Convention against Discrimination in Education have recognized and spread that education is a right to everyone. It is already and universally regarded as a human right, and people must begin to take action to give everyone
According to Equality Human Rights, rights are basic rights and freedoms that belong to every person in the world, from birth until death. They apply regardless of where you are from, what you believe or how you choose to live your life. These basic rights are based on shared values like dignity, fairness, equality, respect and independence. Regardless of one’s background, education is meant to be accessible to everyone. It is only unfortunate that many influential and aggressive parts of the world do not feel the same and stop people from their right to education.
Education not being a right would also happen to violate the right of freedom of speech. Back in April 2015, the kidnapping of the Chibok schoolgirls in Borno State, Nigeria by Boko Haram. Definitely, it is not a situation to be overlooked, but keep in mind that these girls were being taken away due to receiving an education because they were learning and understanding how the world is supposed to be, how they can survive in society. The girls were kidnapped on the day they were about to take their exams. One of the possible reasons why they were stopped was because the Boko Haram didn’t want the girls to be influenced by other media and to have an
opinion of their own. These girls SHOULD have rights to learn. These girls had an opinion and wanted to pursue their dreams. Not making education a human right is the same as prohibiting people to pursue their dream and career. It stops people from developing their own opinions and voicing it out.
To conclude, education gives people a chance to pursue their careers and to create opinions and a voice. It also has already been universally regarded as a human right, which means it should be accessible to any person despite their upbringing and background.
I am so happy that Pia undestands her right to education and that she knew it is indeed a necessity. Its good to know that at her young age she understands that every child, boy or girl should be given equal rights to be educated, to share their ideas and contribute to a better society and a better world. Good write up Pia, continue on voicing out your ideas.
Very well said. The same ideals were expressed by the Philippine hero Dr. Jose Rizal in his essay entitlled “To The Young Women of Malolos”. In this famous work, Rizal wrote of his wish and desire for women to be offered the same opportunities as men in the field of education. He emphasized in this essay like in his novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, freedom of thought and the right to education to the “indio” as a means to free them from bondage.
Bill Gates was a college drop out. He build a company where his former classmates who finished their education degree was employed to work for him.
While I agree that pursuing highet education is one of the recipes to success, having an idea, and executing that idea, and making the idea realized is most important.
In life, be it about economics for example, what really work effectively is not all the theories about the subjects taught in classrooms, but it is the common sense. The understanding of the current events and how to improve it further.