The right to education in international human rights law is contained in number of international treaties. The most comprehensive coverage of the right is found within the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) under articles 13 and 14. The primary level of education is an essential and integral phase in the development of a child, without the right to education children are unable to realize other rights. This research assesses the functionality of the Egyptian primary education system and its compliance with the international human rights standards of education, specifically the utilizing the 4-A schematic. The indicators included in the 4-A system are defined and analyzed in accordance to the primary level of education. A brief modern history of the Egyptian education system is provided in order to understand current trends. The issues facing the Ministry of Education â are centralization, aid for education and social and economic gaps â and their analysis provides greater insight into the compliance of the state. The final section of this research measures and analyzes the Egyptian system with the international standards in direct correlation to the human rights indicators that comprise the 4-A schematic. There are pockets of defacto discrimination, mostly social-economic that exists within the Egyptian primary education system and by international standards these facets of discrimination should take the highest priority for reform for the Ministry of Education. Other elements detracting from the provision of the right to education includes the quality of education in Egypt and equality. Stronger educational policies that are sharply focused, with targets for implementation being set; comprehensive legislation; and greater levels of awareness and civic engagement are needed in order to protect the right to education at the primary education level.

In July 2010, the Right to Education Project convened a consultative workshop, Beyond statistics: measuring education as a human right, with the aim to explore reactions from human rights, development and education experts on its set of indicators and its use in the field. This document presents the reflections and comments that emerged from the consultation.

Key resource
The Right to Education Initiative (RTE) developed over 200 indicators, based on international human rights law, intended to be used as a tool to evaluate States’ progress towards the full realisation of the right to education, to identify violations of the right to education, and to enable civil society to hold governments to account for their obligations regarding education.  The indicators serve as a foundation for RTE’s work – both as a means for promoting monitoring and advocacy with civil society and as a tool that is imbedded throughout RTE’s work more generally.