Is education a right or a privilege?
Is receiving a QUALITY education a right that every human being on earth has or is it only for the privileged bunch who can afford to pay for it? For a privileged bunch who are deemed more deserving?
According to Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, EVERYONE has the RIGHT to an education. Everyone. Every girl, every boy, every women and every man has the right to a free primary education and has the right to access higher education.
I am stressing this point because even though the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was proclaimed in December of 1948, people are still having a hard time understanding this very simple document.
April 14th, 2017 was the three year anniversary of the kidnapping of the Chibok schoolgirls in Borno State, Nigeria by Boko Haram. There are many reasons why this act of terror is an atrocity, but what has always been so striking to me is the fact that these girls were taken just because they were getting an education or a specifically "Western" education. These girls were at school, preparing for their exams, when this tragedy befell them.
Unfortunately, girls attending school is not a something that is universal across the continent of Africa. Even within my country of Nigeria, far too many girls are being kept from achieving their full potential by completing school.
Those girls, and girls everywhere, have RIGHTS. This is something the world is too slow to realize.
Girls are still kept at home to cook and clean rather than being sent to school. Girls sometimes miss up to a week of school a month when they start menstruating, that is if these girls are allowed to continue school once they start menstruating. Girls are married off to strangers and old men for money. Girls are trafficked for sex, bodies moving across borders, bodies passed around by sexual deviants. Girls are bought and sold. This is atrocious. This is terror against our girls and it needs to stop.
Yes, these things also happen to boys and men. While I understand that fully, I am not addressing that right now.
Our girls, our children have a right to an education and we, as the world, need to start upholding this right. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was not written just to use paper. This is an international declaration that ALL countries need to uphold. Our children need to go to school. We need to start holding countries accountable.
We even need to hold the United States accountable.
It seems that in this country, only the privileged get a good education. The poor, the marginalized, the black and brown children cannot even get up to date textbooks and a school with appropriate resources to give their students a head start.
Education is a right because it is essential. We need to start acting like it is.
