Other constitutions

Other constitutions can also provide a useful guide to robust provisions. See our consitutional database for the further enquiry

The following are two examples of right to education provisions from constitutions from different countries. Which do you think is the more robust and provides for the most government responsibility and which is the weakest guarantee.

Example i.

Everyone has the right to education.
Mandatory school education is determined by law.

Mandatory education and general high school education in public schools are free.

Albania

Everyone has the right to education.
Mandatory school education is determined by law. – by this law or need further law to provide for mandatory education?
Mandatory education and general high school education in public schools are free. – The only thing that is certain is that everyone should have the right to education (no group or individual should be denied education), everyone should attend school and it should be free. However, it is not clear who should provide the education. It is certainly arguable that the State would/should provide it but the law actually says nothing to obligate them to do so - real weakness as the provision suggests that no one could really be held accountable for the non-provision of education.

Secondly, by providing that education must be mandatorily school based does not allow for freedom of education to choose whether education outside of a school environment might be better for a particular child and also places the government in a position where it can dictate what a child learns.

Example ii

Establishing a uniform, mass-oriented and universal system of education and extending free and compulsory education to all children to such a stage as may be determined by law.

Bangladesh

The State shall adopt effective (key word) measures for the purpose of:

Establishing a uniform, mass-oriented and universal system of education and extending free and compulsory education to all children to such a stage as may be determined by law. – Compared to the second line of the Albanian provision, the limiting ‘ as may be determined by law’ is only to decide to what stage this free education is to extend, not to decide whether to even put in place free education.

The Bangladeshi provision confers far greater responsibility on the government than the Albanian one. It should be noted that both provisions include the vital aspect that the right to education should be made available for all.