RP-Department of Educational Management Policy & Curriculum Studies

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Browsing RP-Department of Educational Management Policy & Curriculum Studies by Author "Akattu, Enock"

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    Realization of the Right to Education Towards Free Primary and Secondary Education For All in Kenya
    (Msingi Journal, 2016) Akattu, Enock
    This paper evaluates the state of education as a human right and demonstrates that it is possible to implement and ultimately protect the right to education within a domestic context. Despite its importance, the right to education has received limited attention from scholars, practitioners and international and regional human rights bodies as compared to other economic, social and cultural rights (ESCRs). NGOs have been increasingly interested in using indicators to measure and enforce a stateā€˜s compliance with its obligations under international human rights treaties. Education is one of the few human rights for which it is universally agreed that the individual has a corresponding duty to exercise this right. This paper first of all draws up an inventory of the many international instruments which mention the right to education and analyse them in order to obtain a more precise idea of the content of this right, which often appears blurred. The paper also discusses the right to education as it is guaranteed in articles 13 of the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), article 28 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (ICRC) and article 13 of the Protocol of San Salvador. The enjoyment of many civil and political rights, such as freedom of information, expression, assembly and association, the right to vote and to be elected or the right of equal access to public service depends on at least a minimum level of education, including literacy. Similarly, many economic, social and cultural rights, such as the right to choose work, to receive equal pay for equal work, the right to form trade unions, to take part in cultural life, to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and to receive higher education on the basis of capacity, can only be exercised in a meaningful way after a minimum level of education has been achieved. Similarly, this paper discusses education in Kenya as a basic need and a human right (enhancing access, participation, retention, achievement and quality of schooling) to girls and boys and by extension women and men especially with the promulgation of the new Constitution of Kenya 2010 that recognizes education as a Bill of Rights and everyone is bound by the Bill of Rights. This means that all people in Kenya must respect education as a human right. The Bill binds all government institutions and state officers. They are required to respect human rights and deal appropriately with the special needs of individuals and groups in our society. In this paper, the provision of education in the first 4 to 18 years of schooling is considered to be basic, thus a basic right in Kenya.