1 Agenda 2063 and the Right to Education
The right to education is clearly articulated in the following African regional human rights treaties: article 17(1) of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (1981), article 11 of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (1990), and article 12 of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (2003). Collectively, these human rights instruments have defined a uniquely African approach to the realisation of the right to education that ‘must ensure, inter alia, the availability , accessibility , and acceptability of the education provided to children’. 1 In what is known as the Talibés Case, 2 the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC) , drawing on the Children of Nubian Descendants Case‚ 3 underscore that ‘[c]hildren have responsibility to their family, society and country under article 31 of the Charter; and, as such, they can discharge these obligations only when they get the necessary education’. 4 The implications are manifold: it places the right to education as a foundational right fundamental to the realisation of other rights, and to the discharge of obligations to family, society, and state.
How does the ‘right to education’ relate to the African Union’s (AU) Agenda 2063 ? The ‘right to education’ is not explicitly referenced in the AU’s Agenda 2063, yet access to education, particularly for women and girls, is recognised as being central to economic growth and sustainable development priorities. As a development plan, Agenda 2063 follows the creation of economic development strategies that began with the Lagos Plan of Action for the Economic Development of Africa 1980–2000 and culminated with the 2001 New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). NEPAD created new political, economic, and corporate governance structures resulting in an overly complex relationship between states, regional treaty-based bodies, and international organisations. By the mid-2000s, this vast array of executive, advisory, financial and decentralised institutions and bodies were tasked with redefining African economic self-sufficiency in a globalised world. Recognising that the success of economic and social development required local ownership, Agenda 2063 articulates an inclusive vision of endogenous participation in long-term sustainable development goals grounded in human rights. The right to education and other basic human rights are indirectly referenced throughout the Agenda 2063 Framework Document and in the seven interconnected development aspirations . 5 The contributors to this volume have taken up the challenge to clearly translate and interpret development goals and aspirations, and in so doing, they offer concrete examples of education law and policy.
2 African Perspectives on the Realisation of the Right to Education: Law and Policy
The authors of this book draw from their diverse backgrounds in law, policy, and activism to present original case studies from Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Uganda, and Liberia. The essays do not claim to cover the breadth of education legal and policy initiatives that have been taken up by African states and communities since 2013. Rather, they critically outline the challenges and opportunities of the realisation of the right to education as it relates specifically to Agenda 2063 . The book is structured in two main parts that cover similar themes about the need for inclusive and participatory development in the realisation of the right to education; part one focuses on law and part two focuses on policy.
Ngozi Chuma-Umeh explores Nigeria’s domestic commitment to the realisation of universal primary education and addresses the challenges of the realisation of the right of universal education in a plural, multicultural, federal state. She highlights the importance of focusing educational laws, policies, and resources on every learner, including vulnerable groups such as disabled children, and she concludes that universality and equality ought to be taken up as concomitant policy strategies towards the realisation of the right to education. Ashwanee Budoo advocates a human rights-based approach to budget allocation. She argues that the adoption of the implementing legislation for international and regional human rights law has not signalled the realisation of rights at a local level in human rights-based policies. Ashwanee relies on the provisions of the Maputo Protocol to call for an enhanced budgetary approach to the realisation of rights to education. In a jurisprudential analysis of human rights education by Mohammed Enesi Etudaiye and Muhtar Adeiza Etudaiye, they discuss the mainstreaming of human rights education, according to an endogenous perspective on the right of access to the right ‘type’ of education. Their focus on Nigerian legal institutions exposes the present-day limits of Human Rights and Constitutional Law education, which has thus far excluded African Jurisprudence and the African nature of human rights and development. Understanding the central role teachers should play in the realisation of access to education, Azubike C. Onuora-Oguno focuses on the welfare of teachers from a human rights law perspective. He draws on sources from international human rights law and policy and advocates for a rights-based approach to ‘teacher malaise in Nigeria’. Mariam Adepeju Abdulraheem-Mustapha’s contributes an empirical-based case study concerning the barriers to the realisation of the right to education in Nigerian borstal institutions. Her study provides a clear understanding of the limits of the enforceability of constitutional protected socio-economic rights, including the right to education in Nigeria. In concluding part one, Olanike Adelakun-Odewale addresses the need for inclusive education to make the focus on the girl child a priority. Her essay contends that existing cultural and religious norms and practices that favour educating boys over girls are a significant impediment to the realisation of the right to education. She presents a unique theory of ‘resource sharing’ of available family resources in order to remedy this gender-based practice.
Part two of the book focuses on issues of policy and strategic development. Veronica Fynn Bruey takes up the topic of the human resource development of women and children by providing a critical legal assessment of Liberia’s ability to achieve good governance, democracy, and the respect for human rights, justice, and the rule of law . Her chapter outlines numerous social and political setbacks that Liberia has faced as a result of a protracted civil war, many of which have stalled Liberia’s 10-year implementation plan for Agenda 2063 . Michael Addaney compares the educational policies of Ghana and South Africa from a macro and micro perspective and emphasises the importance of local ownership of Agenda 2063 . Sylvia Ivy Tayebwa critiques Ugandan education policies for failing to encourage the realisation of social and economic rights. She places access to education as a central tenet to the Africa 2063 vision of long-term social and economic development. In representing the minority divide and calling for greater respect for all irrespective of race, colour, or sexual orientation, David. N.C. Ikpo critically evaluates links between social exclusion and the existing Nigerian education legal framework. He evaluates practices and policies that have failed to address the effe...