Human rights standards do not prescribe the specific actions States must take in order to implement the right to education. Rather States are granted the discretion to decide for themselves the most appropriate means by which to comply with their obligations and realise the right to education.International law does, however, require States to adopt various measures toprogressively realise the right to education.

This step will help you identify and expose cases in which State actions (or inaction) contribute to the creation, perpetuation or exacerbation of deprivations or inequalities in the enjoyment of the right to education, as identified in Step 2. This step is crucial for building the case that there has been a violation of the right to education.

While Step 2 focused on the realisation of the right to education from the perspective of theright-holder, this step, like Steps 4 and 5, is meant to help you assess the extent to which the State, as the primaryduty-bearer, is complying with its human rights obligations.

This step will guide you to select the most appropriatestructural andprocess indicators, gather the appropriate data, compare that data to the relevant benchmarks and finally interpret that data.