Article 26 – Education

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What does this right mean?

Education is a human right. The article guarantees everyone has the right to primary education. Lower education is mandatory, but parents have the right to choose which education this will be. An example of this choice playing a big role is the choice between religious and public education.

He who opens a school door, closes a prison.

What is the history of this right?

In Europe, education was the responsibility of parents and the church for a long time. With the advent of the Enlightenment in the 18th and 19th centuries, the state received a more active role, in which primary education became available to everyone. This is because before that time, education was mostly for the richer population. Many poor families let their children work in order to earn a little more.

Before the right to education was included, the laws on child labour were made stricter first, for instance by restricting the number of hours per day children were allowed to work. In 1917, the Constitution of Mexico already guaranteed free education. Many countries followed this example. In 1948, this role was included in Article 26 of the UDHR. The right to education has been generally recognised ever since. However, there are still roughly 251 million children who have no access to adequate education according to UNESCO in 2024.

Where and how is this right documented?

The right to education is included in Article 26 of the UDHR. The article first documents that education is a part of government care and further elaborates on the constitutional guarantees of public education. Since 1917, the right to education has been included in the Constitution of the Netherlands, specifically in Article 23. In the Constitution of the Netherlands of 1814, education was also already mentioned as a government task. Until 1917, there was much discussion on the funding of public and particular education. In that year, the difference in funding between both was finally abolished. The article was changed over time, but it did mostly stay the same.

At an international level, the right to education was documented in Article 13 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966), and Article 14 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU. Articles 28 and 29 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) also state the right to education itself (Article 28) and the goal of education (Article 29): the development of the child, teaching respect for human rights, to live in peace and tolerance with various cultures and with respect for the environment. There is also a Convention against Discrimination in Education (1960).

How topical is this human right?

In the Netherlands, too, the principle is that lower education is free. But parents still often face unexpected costs, which result in education not always being free. For instance, it has since become more than common for schools to ask for a ‘voluntary parental contribution’. In the Netherlands, schools are allowed to ask for such contributions under certain conditions. There are legal requirements for them. For instance, schools are required to publish in their school guides how high the parental contributions are, whether or not they are voluntary, and that it is not allowed to exclude children from activities if the parental contribution is not paid. A pupil may not be refused if parents do not pay the voluntary contribution.

A parental contribution is often used for additional activities, such as school trips, excursions or a Christmas dinner. But sometimes also for mandatory laptops or tablets. The advent of modern IPad classes and laptop schools has made this contribution only higher. And how voluntary would that contribution then be? If you cannot pay it, you do not have to. Right? But to parents with lower incomes, not paying is often not an option socially speaking. They feel group pressure, are afraid their children will be marginalised or that they will be seen as stingy.

Another current discussion on the right to education is the lottery system at some secondary schools. Most primary-school seniors choose which secondary schools they want to attend. But in more and more places in the Netherlands, lotteries have to be held for placements at secondary schools. Some schools are more popular than others, but each school has limited available places. In primary education, too, it can happen that children cannot attend their preferred schools. The Dutch Primary Education Act (Wet op het Primair Onderwijs, WPO) states that parents can register their children to a primary school from the age of 3 years. But some primary schools still use preferential policies, for instance to create a good balance between the numbers of boys and girls. This kind of preferential policy is not allowed, in order to prevent discrimination.