See us at the INSPIRE Education Summit

Join us at the FREE INSPIRE Education Summit (18-25 Nov), organized by two of our Founding Members, Progressive Education and Limitless. On World Children's Day (20 Nov), Je’anna Clements and Sifaan Zavahir, will be launching the Declaration on Child Rights-Centric Education at 12:00 GMT

Welcome to Rights-Centric Education

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International Human Rights law, from its inception, has affirmed that education shall be directed to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. As the discourse on Human Rights evolved, it has consistently reiterated this through various instruments and articulated its meaning with increasing precision and detail.

But... it has not produced the intended results in practice.

Why? Because these aims of education were simply superimposed on existing mainstreamed practices of education - without really questioning whether those practices themselves respected Human Rights.

The system of education that is now the "standard" everywhere in the world is derived from a system of Compulsory Education that emerged in the 18th century, in an era where Children were seen as chattel. Although curricula, pedagogies and technology have evolved since then, from a Human Rights' perspective, nothing much has changed in education, not even with Children being recognized as the subjects of their own rights in 1989 (by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child).

While there is much that has been said on the need to shift from Teacher-Centric / Exam-Centric education to Child-Centric / Learner-Centric education, that has been based on a pedagogical shift (teaching methods) and is largely more rhetoric than results. Nevertheless, the name "Rights-Centric Education" was chosen to take advantage of this terminology being known, to convey that Education should be centered on Rights, the Human Rights of all participants. Within this, the present thrust of the RCE Network is in advocating for Child Rights, but there is no barrier to programs advancing, say, Educator's Human Rights or Climate Rights.

We have seen that this idea has resonated with many people who are passionate about education around the world. That is why over 160 individuals and organizations have consented to their name being listed as a Founding Member.

What's next:

  1. Public Launch of the Declaration of Child-Rights Centric Education at the INSPIRE Education Summit on 20th November at 12:00 UTC (Join online for free for this, and other sessions at the summit on 18-25 November, by registering here.) 
  2.  You can sign the Declaration even before the public launch here (Note: Children can also sign). We see the declaration not only as an assertion to defend Human Rights in Education, but also as an accessible means for people to come together to support it's realization
  3. We have finalized the Articles of Association that confirms the objectives, membership, decision making, communication etc of the RCE Network. And now anyone (including Children) can join the RCE Network as a Member by filling in this form.
  4. We are working on the RCE Framework, the civil society led implementation of the proposal approved by the UN General Assembly as part of the First Phase of the World Programme on Human Rights Education for a Rights-Based Quality Assurance System for Education. (This is also referenced in the Declaration). We would like to launch this in early 2025.

We hope you will support us in whatever ways that you can.