Elimination of discrimination in modern educational system Essay

Elimination of discrimination in modern educational system - Essay Example More than 40 years ago, the nations of the world asserted the right to education through the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Human rights are those fundamental rights, which are crucial to live and develop as human beings with dignity (World Declaration on Education for All, 1990). But in 1990 they observed that despite remarkable efforts around the globe to ensure the right to education for all, more than 100 million children, including at least 60 million girls, have no access to primary schooling; more than 960 million adults, two-thirds of whom are women, are illiterate, and functional illiteracy is a significant problem in all countries, industrialized and developing; more than one-third of the world's adults have no access to the printed knowledge, new skills and technologies that could improve the quality of their lives and help them shape, and adapt to, social and cultural change; and more than 100 million children and countless adults fail to complete basic education programs; millions more satisfy the attendance requirements but do not acquire essential knowledge and skills. The Jomtien World Conference on Education for All (1990), thus, set the goal of Education for All. UNESCO, along with other UN agencies, and a number of international and national non-governmental organizations, has been working towards achieving this goal - adding to the efforts made at the country level (UNESCO 2003). Human Rights Day 2009 observed on 10 December focused on non-discrimination. "Discrimination targets individuals and groups that a vulnerable to attack: the disabled, women and girls, the poor, migrants, minorities, and all those who are perceived as different" (Ban Ki-moon, 2009). UN reports about an estimated 650 million persons with disabilities worldwide, or 10 per cent of the global population, with approximately two-thirds living in developing countries. Despite encouraging developments there are still an estimated 113 million primary school age children not attending school. 90% of them live in low and lower middle income countries, and over 80 million of these children live in Africa. Of those who do enroll in primary school, large numbers drop out before completing their primary education (UNESCO 2004). The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, often referred to as CRC or UNCRC, is the first legally binding international instrument to incorporate the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of children. They are founded on respect for the dignity and worth of each individual, regardless of race, color, gender, language, religion, opinions, origins, wealth, birth status or ability and therefore apply to every human being everywhere (UNICEF, 2008). As of November 2009, 194 countries are signatories to this and they have ratified, accepted, or acceded to it. EXCLUSION UNESCO leads the global 'Education for All' movement, aiming to meet the learning needs of all children, youth and adults by 2015. According to UNESCO, today, 75 million children are excluded from the realm of education mainly due to poverty, gender inequity, disability, child labor, speaking a minority language, belonging to an indigenous people, and living a nomadic or rural lifestyle. 72 million children are still not enrolled at all in school and of this more than half are girls. Children in the rural areas and urban slums have hardly any