Children are the greatest gift of God. They require special attention since they are the most vulnerable members of society. Parents, families, teachers, communities, and Government share the responsibility to ensure that children are safe and secure from all kinds of harm and grow up in nurturing environments. A few special legal rights were made by putting children’s best interest (under the age of 18) in mind. And, education is considered the most fundamental right for every child.
Education should never be treated as a privilege. Every child has an equal right to education. The UN Conventions have published several articles on the Child’s Rights that focus on their academic writing services. Education is a key cultural and social right that plays an essential role in reducing child labor and poverty. The right to education is an inherent right for every child.
It is a prime concern for the UK that children enjoy the right to education. They need to ensure children reach their full potential with proper education. Education among children also decreases vulnerability in inequality, poverty, and social exclusion.
However, the UK Government still needs to work on three major areas to ensure every child has access to education such as:
Availability of education
- Children with SEN and disabilities have experienced a lack of suitable educational provision. Flexible continuum educational provision must be available in each English Local Authority (LA) to meet the needs of children with SEN and disabilities. In many of the areas in LA, there is a lack of suitable education provision for children with Aspergers and autism syndrome.
- Children in custody often do not receive proper full-time education under the National Curriculum.
- 135,000 children fail to attend school each year for instances like medical needs, bullying exclusion, or school phobia. The Government has even failed to provide them with suitable alternative educational provisions. Even though the alternative education provision children in some cases receive, they are often poor quality and not sufficient
- 1000,000 children go ‘missing’ from school each year, and the Government has even failed to identify them and provide them with proper education.
Acceptability in education
- Relationships education is made compulsory in English schools. However, it failed to form part of the National Curriculum. Failing to include relationships education as a National Curriculum subject negatively impacted the quality of overall education in schools.
- Children are often denied the right to participate in many substantive and procedural aspects of the education system. For example, children usually are not given the right to express views about school admission. As per empirical studies, school participation tends to happen on a one-off or isolated basis. Several students complained regarding not being effectively participated in the running of their schools.
Access to Education
The Government needs to ensure equal access for all children in the UK. Here are some cases:
- Many asylum-seeking and refugee children have experienced unacceptable delays while gaining access to education. There are many children who could not attend school due to financial obstacles.
- There are many children from minority ethnic backgrounds who are still experiencing unequal access to education and educational attainment.
- The Government has failed to provide equal educational opportunities to children with SEN and disabilities.
Adaptability of education
- Children with SEN require different teaching methods, but unfortunately, many mainstream schools in the UK could not effectively adapt their curriculum, systems, and teaching methods to meet their needs.
Here are some valid recommendations to improve the fundamental right of education for children:
Children in custody
Children in detention must have the basic fundamental right of education Government must ensure that LA takes full responsibility for maintaining proper education in detention. It is also necessary that juvenile detention facilities work more closely with them. The Statement of Special Education Needs should be continued for children in juvenile detention facilities.
Children in immigration detention
It should be mandatory for asylum-seeking children to be educated at community schools rather than immigration education. The Government must introduce monitoring and assessment mechanisms to regularly assess and improve the quality of education offered to detained children.
Children with SEN and disabilities
The Government should conduct an audit to identify areas where there is a lack of suitable provision that students with SEN and disabilities are experiencing. There should be resources both in mainstream and alternative school settings to make sure there is a range of sufficient education provisions for meeting the needs of children with SEN and difficulties.
Bullying in schools
Bullying in schools should be considered a serious offense, and Government must share best practices for tackling bullying. There must be anti-bullying strategies to respond to particular types of bullying, which include homophobic, racism, and bullying children with SEN and disabilities. The Government should make it mandatory for schools to develop more direct work with children for implementing anti-bullying strategies.
Lack of participation in education
Children must have a separate statutory right for appealing against school admissions, and exclusion decisions, and the Government should make sure of it. Children must have a statutory right to participate in school decision-making, which also includes the right to participate in school councils.
SUMMING UP,
It is the Government’s fundamental duty to ensure every child receives proper education. The right to education also secures their well-being and lets them participate effectively in society. Despite education being the fundamental law for children, it is still lacking in many areas. The Government did not implement the right to education completely and thus made several recommendations for ensuring education compliance.
