The right to education in international human rights law: A Systematic Study of the Purpose of Education and an Argument for a Holistic Approach to Education Drawing Contextual Instances from Nigeria

Abstract

IHRL requires education to focus on the ‘full development of the human personality and the sense of its dignity’, and thereby establishes a relationship between education and the ability to lead life with human dignity, which this thesis argues to be the ‘human right purpose’ of education. This makes ‘human dignity’ a concept of interest in this thesis. With the rise of neo-liberalism and associated human capital theory (HCT) in the 1960’s, a complementary and often competing purpose of education arose, which is argued to be an ‘economic purpose’ because it uses economic principles to interpret education delivery. This has remained a dominant approach amongst States. This thesis argues that designing education for the pursuit of an economic purpose is ‘narrow and instrumental’ and therefore does not promote the use of education to produce roundly developed individuals. Nigeria as an E-9 country is used as a case study to demonstrate the contextual significance of these approaches in the real world. The contributions of Amartya Sen (which are based on welfare economics) and Martha Nussbaum (which are based on moral and political philosophy) in their formulation of the human capabilities approach (CA) are relied upon to provide a richer understanding of the purpose of education and its relationship with human dignity. Nussbaum’s philosophical version is argued to be helpful in clarifying human dignity in IHRL. The failure of economic principles (i.e. HCT and associated neo-liberal policies) to promote universal access to schooling and the promotion of a purpose of education not consistent with the human right purpose; and the need for education delivery to adopt a holistic approach instead of an exclusively narrow economic approach allowed this thesis to argue for a comprehensive approach to education. In doing so, it draws from IHRL, HCT and the CA to construct the fundamental purpose of education using human dignity. This thesis progresses in three stages. Part I through Chapter One discusses the standard setting provisions of IHRL, identifying two important purposes of education i.e. the human right and social purposes of education and argues that the need to promote the use of reason justifies the recognition of the right to education in IHRL. Chapter Two discusses the use of HCT and associated neo-liberal values to interpret education in the exclusive pursuit of an economic purpose and argues that this approach though useful is quite narrow and instrumental. Part II uses Nigeria as a case study to contextually consider these approaches in the real world, as one of the E-9 countries characterised by a large illiterate population, poor education record and challenges of access to compulsory education. This Part, comprising of chapters Three and Four, illustrates the dominance of economic principles in education and its effects on access to, and the contents of education. It uses the E-9 countries to give a broader illustration of the challenges of access to schooling that have been exacerbated by the application of economic principles in education. Part III, compromising of chapters Five, Six and Seven, bringing Parts I and II together, argues the significance of increased universal access to schooling and the need for education delivery to focus on the pursuit and achievement of human dignity. It starts by setting out the relevance of the CA in the discussion of the purpose education should be meant to achieve. Nussbaum’s philosophical version is helpful in clarifying human dignity beyond the ability to use reason and draws from the merits of HCT in education to construct a more comprehensive approach to education called the ‘fundamental purpose’ using human dignity. This Part argues that while the construction of the fundamental purpose does not have an answer to all the problems in the complex process of education delivery, it however provides the basis to start discussing some of the key issues identified in Part II.