It's Time to Expand the Right to Education

ABSTRACT International law guarantees all children free primary education. Although pre-primary and secondary education have been recognised to differing degrees as part of the right to education, there is no obligation under international human rights treaties to provide either for free. This omission is inconsistent with children's rights otherwise guaranteed under international law. Including only free primary education under the right to education, but not free pre-primary or free secondary education, may have been a recognition of countries’ limited available resources when the right was incorporated into legal treaties, beginning in 1960. However, after decades of economic growth and increasing evidence of the economic benefits to society of expanding access to education, that position deserves to be revisited. Various options exist to expand the scope of the right under international law to guarantee free pre-primary and free secondary education. A new optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child could provide a way toward finally realising a right to free education for all children.