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Right to education

This page is about the right to education and how it must be put into place for every child as a fundamental human right.

What is the right to education, how many people are denied the right to education, why does it matter, what do we mean by a right to education, who is responsible for enforcing the right to education, ​what do governments need to do to about the right to education​, what must countries do to meet their obligations.

Education is a basic human right for all and is important for everyone to make the most of their lives. Other human rights include the right to freedom from slavery or torture and to a fair trial.

Having an education helps people to access all of their other human rights. Education improves an individual’s chances in life and helps to tackle poverty.

According to the the most recent figures available from the  UNESCO Institute for Statistics in July 2016 , 263 million children and youth are out of school.

This includes 61 million children who should be in primary school, 60 million of lower secondary school age (ages 12 to 14) and 142 million who are aged between 15 and 17.

Girls and children from sub-Saharan Africa are most likely to be missing out on their education.

Armed conflict also means that children struggle to get an education – 22 million children of primary school age are affected by this. 75 million children and adolescents have had their education directly affected by conflict and emergencies.

Education reduces poverty, decreases social inequalities, empowers women and helps each individual reach their full potential.

It also brings significant economic returns for a country and helps societies to achieve lasting peace and sustainable development. Education is key to achieving all other human rights.

Every person is entitled to a quality education without discrimination, which means:

• A compulsory free primary school education for every child
• Secondary school (including technical training) must be available to everyone – states must work towards providing this for free
• Higher education must be equally accessible, with countries working towards the goal of making this free
• Fundamental education for those who missed out on primary school should be encouraged and available

It also means parents have the right to choose schools for their children and for individuals and organisations to set up schools that meet minimum standards.

Theirworld also believes that every child should have access to two years of free, quality pre-primary education.

Governments must provide good quality education and make sure all children can access it, without discrimination.

This is an international legal obligation and governments can be held accountable for failing to provide education for all its citizens.

Education has been recorded as a basic human right in international law since 1948. It is included in many documents and treaties including:

• Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)
• Convention Against Discrimination in Education (1960)
• International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966)
• Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (1979)
• African Charter on Human and People’s Rights (1986)
• Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989)
• World Declaration on Education for All: Meeting Basic Learning Needs (1990)
• The Dakar Framework for Action: Education for All (2000)
• Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006)
• UN General Assembly Resolution on the Right to Education in Emergency Situations (2010)

Governments must guarantee that education in their country or state is:

• Available.  There must be adequate materials, classrooms, trained teachers and so on – so that a quality education is available to every child.
• Accessible.  Schools must be within reach, suitable for disabled children and fit for purpose. They must be affordable for all children. There must be no discrimination for gender, race, religion or any other reason.
• Acceptable.  Education must be of a high quality and include relevant information that is appropriate. Children with disabilities have the right to the same quality of education.
• Adaptable.  Schools and school systems must be suitable for the communities they serve.

Governments have to make sure all children can get the education they are entitled to by doing the following:

• Removing anything that prevents access to quality education, such as repealing laws that cause discrimination
• Preventing individuals or groups from stopping children from being educated
• Taking steps to make sure children can get a quality education – this could include building schools or training teachers

The international community knows that achieving the full extent of the right to education will take time and resources.

Governments must put plans in place to meet the minimum standard of free, compulsory primary education and then take steps to extend the right to education to every child.

The right to education without discrimination is part of the minimum standard and must be created immediately.

It’s very important that governments continue to work towards the full right to education and don’t allow plans to stall or be delayed.

As well as governments, other organisations and individuals play a part in making sure that all children can access quality education. These include intergovernmental agencies such as UNESCO, international financial institutions, businesses, civil societies and parents.

Right to Education : Situation around the world

Situation of children’s right to education worldwide.

Today, education remains an inaccessible right for millions of children around the world. More than 72 million children of primary education age are not in school and 759 million adults are illiterate and do not have the awareness necessary to improve both their living conditions and those of their children.

Causes of lack of education

Marginalisation and poverty.

For many children who still do not have access to education, it is notable because of persisting inequality and marginalization.

In developing and developed countries alike, children do not have access to basic education because of inequalities that originate in sex, health and cultural identity (ethnic origin, language, religion). These children find themselves on the margins of the education system and do not benefit from learning that is vital to their intellectual and social development.

Undeniably, many children from disadvantaged backgrounds are forced to abandon their education due to health problems related to malnutrition or in order to work and provide support for the family.

Financial deficit of developing countries

Universal primary education is a major issue and a sizeable problem for many states.

Equally, a lack of financial resources has an effect on the quality of teaching. Teachers do not benefit from basic teacher training and schools, of which there are not enough, have oversized classes.

This overflow leads to classes where many different educational levels are forced together which does not allow each individual child to benefit from an education adapted to their needs and abilities. As a result, the drop-out rate and education failure remain high.

Overview of the right to education worldwide

Most affected regions..

As a result of poverty and marginalization, more than 72 million children around the world remain unschooled.

Sub-Saharan Africa is the most affected area with over 32 million children of primary school age remaining uneducated. Central and Eastern Asia, as well as the Pacific, are also severely affected by this problem with more than 27 million uneducated children.

Additionally, these regions must also solve continuing problems of educational poverty (a child in education for less than 4 years) and extreme educational poverty (a child in education for less than 2 years).

Essentially this concerns Sub-Saharan Africa where more than half of children receive an education for less than 4 years. In certain countries, such as Somalia and Burkina Faso, more than 50% of children receive an education for a period less than 2 years.

The lack of schooling and poor education have negative effects on the population and country.  The children leave school without having acquired the basics, which greatly impedes the social and economic development of these countries.

Inequality between girls and boys: the education of girls in jeopardy

Today, it is girls who have the least access to education. They make up more than 54% of the non-schooled population in the world.

This problem occurs most frequently in the Arab States, in central Asia and in Southern and Western Asia and is principally explained by the cultural and traditional privileged treatment given to males. Girls are destined to work in the family home, whereas boys are entitled to receive an education.

In sub-Saharan Africa, over 12 million girls are at risk of never receiving an education. In Yemen, it is more than 80% of girls who will never have the opportunity to go to school. Even more alarming, certain countries such as Afghanistan or Somalia make no effort to reduce the gap between girls and boys with regard to education.

Although many developing countries may congratulate themselves on dramatically reducing inequality between girls and boys in education, a lot of effort is still needed in order to achieve a universal primary education.

• Understanding the right to Education
• Read more about the condition of children worldwide
• OHCHR, Special Rapporteur on the right to Education
• www.right-to-education.org
• Wikipedia, Education
• Education International
• UNESCO, Education
• UNESCO, Education for all: Reaching the marginalized
• HREA, Study guides: Right to education
• Unicef, State of the World’s Children 2010
• Unicef, State of the World’s Children 2004: Girls, Education & Development

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The World Bank Group is the largest financier of education in the developing world, working in 94 countries and committed to helping them reach SDG4: access to inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all by 2030.

Education is a human right, a powerful driver of development, and one of the strongest instruments for reducing poverty and improving health, gender equality, peace, and stability. It delivers large, consistent returns in terms of income, and is the most important factor to ensure equity and inclusion.

For individuals, education promotes employment, earnings, health, and poverty reduction. Globally, there is a  9% increase in hourly earnings for every extra year of schooling . For societies, it drives long-term economic growth, spurs innovation, strengthens institutions, and fosters social cohesion.  Education is further a powerful catalyst to climate action through widespread behavior change and skilling for green transitions.

Developing countries have made tremendous progress in getting children into the classroom and more children worldwide are now in school. But learning is not guaranteed, as the  2018 World Development Report  (WDR) stressed.

Making smart and effective investments in people’s education is critical for developing the human capital that will end extreme poverty. At the core of this strategy is the need to tackle the learning crisis, put an end to  Learning Poverty , and help youth acquire the advanced cognitive, socioemotional, technical and digital skills they need to succeed in today’s world. 

In low- and middle-income countries, the share of children living in  Learning Poverty  (that is, the proportion of 10-year-old children that are unable to read and understand a short age-appropriate text) increased from 57% before the pandemic to an estimated  70%  in 2022.

However, learning is in crisis. More than 70 million more people were pushed into poverty during the COVID pandemic, a billion children lost a year of school , and three years later the learning losses suffered have not been recouped .  If a child cannot read with comprehension by age 10, they are unlikely to become fluent readers. They will fail to thrive later in school and will be unable to power their careers and economies once they leave school.

The effects of the pandemic are expected to be long-lasting. Analysis has already revealed deep losses, with international reading scores declining from 2016 to 2021 by more than a year of schooling.  These losses may translate to a 0.68 percentage point in global GDP growth.  The staggering effects of school closures reach beyond learning. This generation of children could lose a combined total of  US$21 trillion in lifetime earnings  in present value or the equivalent of 17% of today’s global GDP – a sharp rise from the 2021 estimate of a US$17 trillion loss. 

Action is urgently needed now – business as usual will not suffice to heal the scars of the pandemic and will not accelerate progress enough to meet the ambitions of SDG 4. We are urging governments to implement ambitious and aggressive Learning Acceleration Programs to get children back to school, recover lost learning, and advance progress by building better, more equitable and resilient education systems.

Last Updated: Mar 25, 2024

The World Bank’s global education strategy is centered on ensuring learning happens – for everyone, everywhere. Our vision is to ensure that everyone can achieve her or his full potential with access to a quality education and lifelong learning. To reach this, we are helping countries build foundational skills like literacy, numeracy, and socioemotional skills – the building blocks for all other learning. From early childhood to tertiary education and beyond – we help children and youth acquire the skills they need to thrive in school, the labor market and throughout their lives.

Investing in the world’s most precious resource – people – is paramount to ending poverty on a livable planet.  Our experience across more than 100 countries bears out this robust connection between human capital, quality of life, and economic growth: when countries strategically invest in people and the systems designed to protect and build human capital at scale, they unlock the wealth of nations and the potential of everyone.

Building on this, the World Bank supports resilient, equitable, and inclusive education systems that ensure learning happens for everyone. We do this by generating and disseminating evidence, ensuring alignment with policymaking processes, and bridging the gap between research and practice.

The World Bank is the largest source of external financing for education in developing countries, with a portfolio of about $26 billion in 94 countries including IBRD, IDA and Recipient-Executed Trust Funds. IDA operations comprise 62% of the education portfolio.

The investment in FCV settings has increased dramatically and now accounts for 26% of our portfolio.

World Bank projects reach at least 425 million students -one-third of students in low- and middle-income countries.

The World Bank’s Approach to Education

Five interrelated pillars of a well-functioning education system underpin the World Bank’s education policy approach:

• Learners are prepared and motivated to learn;
• Teachers are prepared, skilled, and motivated to facilitate learning and skills acquisition;
• Learning resources (including education technology) are available, relevant, and used to improve teaching and learning;
• Schools are safe and inclusive; and
• Education Systems are well-managed, with good implementation capacity and adequate financing.

The Bank is already helping governments design and implement cost-effective programs and tools to build these pillars.

Our Principles:

• We pursue systemic reform supported by political commitment to learning for all children. 
• We focus on equity and inclusion through a progressive path toward achieving universal access to quality education, including children and young adults in fragile or conflict affected areas , those in marginalized and rural communities,  girls and women , displaced populations,  students with disabilities , and other vulnerable groups.
• We focus on results and use evidence to keep improving policy by using metrics to guide improvements.   
• We want to ensure financial commitment commensurate with what is needed to provide basic services to all. 
• We invest wisely in technology so that education systems embrace and learn to harness technology to support their learning objectives.   

Laying the groundwork for the future

Country challenges vary, but there is a menu of options to build forward better, more resilient, and equitable education systems.

Countries are facing an education crisis that requires a two-pronged approach: first, supporting actions to recover lost time through remedial and accelerated learning; and, second, building on these investments for a more equitable, resilient, and effective system.

Recovering from the learning crisis must be a political priority, backed with adequate financing and the resolve to implement needed reforms.  Domestic financing for education over the last two years has not kept pace with the need to recover and accelerate learning. Across low- and lower-middle-income countries, the  average share of education in government budgets fell during the pandemic , and in 2022 it remained below 2019 levels.

The best chance for a better future is to invest in education and make sure each dollar is put toward improving learning.  In a time of fiscal pressure, protecting spending that yields long-run gains – like spending on education – will maximize impact.  We still need more and better funding for education.  Closing the learning gap will require increasing the level, efficiency, and equity of education spending—spending smarter is an imperative.

• Education technology  can be a powerful tool to implement these actions by supporting teachers, children, principals, and parents; expanding accessible digital learning platforms, including radio/ TV / Online learning resources; and using data to identify and help at-risk children, personalize learning, and improve service delivery.

Looking ahead

We must seize this opportunity  to reimagine education in bold ways. Together, we can build forward better more equitable, effective, and resilient education systems for the world’s children and youth.

Accelerating Improvements

Supporting countries in establishing time-bound learning targets and a focused education investment plan, outlining actions and investments geared to achieve these goals.

Launched in 2020, the  Accelerator Program  works with a set of countries to channel investments in education and to learn from each other. The program coordinates efforts across partners to ensure that the countries in the program show improvements in foundational skills at scale over the next three to five years. These investment plans build on the collective work of multiple partners, and leverage the latest evidence on what works, and how best to plan for implementation.  Countries such as Brazil (the state of Ceará) and Kenya have achieved dramatic reductions in learning poverty over the past decade at scale, providing useful lessons, even as they seek to build on their successes and address remaining and new challenges.  

Universalizing Foundational Literacy

Readying children for the future by supporting acquisition of foundational skills – which are the gateway to other skills and subjects.

The  Literacy Policy Package (LPP)   consists of interventions focused specifically on promoting acquisition of reading proficiency in primary school. These include assuring political and technical commitment to making all children literate; ensuring effective literacy instruction by supporting teachers; providing quality, age-appropriate books; teaching children first in the language they speak and understand best; and fostering children’s oral language abilities and love of books and reading.

Advancing skills through TVET and Tertiary

Ensuring that individuals have access to quality education and training opportunities and supporting links to employment.

Tertiary education and skills systems are a driver of major development agendas, including human capital, climate change, youth and women’s empowerment, and jobs and economic transformation. A comprehensive skill set to succeed in the 21st century labor market consists of foundational and higher order skills, socio-emotional skills, specialized skills, and digital skills. Yet most countries continue to struggle in delivering on the promise of skills development. 

The World Bank is supporting countries through efforts that address key challenges including improving access and completion, adaptability, quality, relevance, and efficiency of skills development programs. Our approach is via multiple channels including projects, global goods, as well as the Tertiary Education and Skills Program . Our recent reports including Building Better Formal TVET Systems and STEERing Tertiary Education provide a way forward for how to improve these critical systems.

Addressing Climate Change

Mainstreaming climate education and investing in green skills, research and innovation, and green infrastructure to spur climate action and foster better preparedness and resilience to climate shocks.

Our approach recognizes that education is critical for achieving effective, sustained climate action. At the same time, climate change is adversely impacting education outcomes. Investments in education can play a huge role in building climate resilience and advancing climate mitigation and adaptation. Climate change education gives young people greater awareness of climate risks and more access to tools and solutions for addressing these risks and managing related shocks. Technical and vocational education and training can also accelerate a green economic transformation by fostering green skills and innovation. Greening education infrastructure can help mitigate the impact of heat, pollution, and extreme weather on learning, while helping address climate change. 

Examples of this work are projects in Nigeria (life skills training for adolescent girls), Vietnam (fostering relevant scientific research) , and Bangladesh (constructing and retrofitting schools to serve as cyclone shelters).

Strengthening Measurement Systems

Enabling countries to gather and evaluate information on learning and its drivers more efficiently and effectively.

The World Bank supports initiatives to help countries effectively build and strengthen their measurement systems to facilitate evidence-based decision-making. Examples of this work include:

(1) The  Global Education Policy Dashboard (GEPD) : This tool offers a strong basis for identifying priorities for investment and policy reforms that are suited to each country context by focusing on the three dimensions of practices, policies, and politics.

• Highlights gaps between what the evidence suggests is effective in promoting learning and what is happening in practice in each system; and
• Allows governments to track progress as they act to close the gaps.

The GEPD has been implemented in 13 education systems already – Peru, Rwanda, Jordan, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Islamabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sierra Leone, Niger, Gabon, Jordan and Chad – with more expected by the end of 2024.

(2)  Learning Assessment Platform (LeAP) : LeAP is a one-stop shop for knowledge, capacity-building tools, support for policy dialogue, and technical staff expertise to support student achievement measurement and national assessments for better learning.

Supporting Successful Teachers

Helping systems develop the right selection, incentives, and support to the professional development of teachers.

Currently, the World Bank Education Global Practice has over 160 active projects supporting over 18 million teachers worldwide, about a third of the teacher population in low- and middle-income countries. In 12 countries alone, these projects cover 16 million teachers, including all primary school teachers in Ethiopia and Turkey, and over 80% in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Vietnam.

A World Bank-developed classroom observation tool, Teach, was designed to capture the quality of teaching in low- and middle-income countries. It is now 3.6 million students.

While Teach helps identify patterns in teacher performance, Coach leverages these insights to support teachers to improve their teaching practice through hands-on in-service teacher professional development (TPD).

Our recent report on Making Teacher Policy Work proposes a practical framework to uncover the black box of effective teacher policy and discusses the factors that enable their scalability and sustainability.

 Supporting Education Finance Systems

Strengthening country financing systems to mobilize resources for education and make better use of their investments in education.

Our approach is to bring together multi-sectoral expertise to engage with ministries of education and finance and other stakeholders to develop and implement effective and efficient public financial management systems; build capacity to monitor and evaluate education spending, identify financing bottlenecks, and develop interventions to strengthen financing systems; build the evidence base on global spending patterns and the magnitude and causes of spending inefficiencies; and develop diagnostic tools as public goods to support country efforts.

Working in Fragile, Conflict, and Violent (FCV) Contexts

The massive and growing global challenge of having so many children living in conflict and violent situations requires a response at the same scale and scope. Our education engagement in the Fragility, Conflict and Violence (FCV) context, which stands at US$5.35 billion, has grown rapidly in recent years, reflecting the ever-increasing importance of the FCV agenda in education. Indeed, these projects now account for more than 25% of the World Bank education portfolio.

Education is crucial to minimizing the effects of fragility and displacement on the welfare of youth and children in the short-term and preventing the emergence of violent conflict in the long-term. 

Support to Countries Throughout the Education Cycle

Our support to countries covers the entire learning cycle, to help shape resilient, equitable, and inclusive education systems that ensure learning happens for everyone. 

The ongoing  Supporting  Egypt  Education Reform project , 2018-2025, supports transformational reforms of the Egyptian education system, by improving teaching and learning conditions in public schools. The World Bank has invested $500 million in the project focused on increasing access to quality kindergarten, enhancing the capacity of teachers and education leaders, developing a reliable student assessment system, and introducing the use of modern technology for teaching and learning. Specifically, the share of Egyptian 10-year-old students, who could read and comprehend at the global minimum proficiency level, increased to 45 percent in 2021.

In  Nigeria , the $75 million  Edo  Basic Education Sector and Skills Transformation (EdoBESST)  project, running from 2020-2024, is focused on improving teaching and learning in basic education. Under the project, which covers 97 percent of schools in the state, there is a strong focus on incorporating digital technologies for teachers. They were equipped with handheld tablets with structured lesson plans for their classes. Their coaches use classroom observation tools to provide individualized feedback. Teacher absence has reduced drastically because of the initiative. Over 16,000 teachers were trained through the project, and the introduction of technology has also benefited students.

Through the $235 million  School Sector Development Program  in  Nepal  (2017-2022), the number of children staying in school until Grade 12 nearly tripled, and the number of out-of-school children fell by almost seven percent. During the pandemic, innovative approaches were needed to continue education. Mobile phone penetration is high in the country. More than four in five households in Nepal have mobile phones. The project supported an educational service that made it possible for children with phones to connect to local radio that broadcast learning programs.

From 2017-2023, the $50 million  Strengthening of State Universities  in  Chile  project has made strides to improve quality and equity at state universities. The project helped reduce dropout: the third-year dropout rate fell by almost 10 percent from 2018-2022, keeping more students in school.

The World Bank’s first  Program-for-Results financing in education  was through a $202 million project in  Tanzania , that ran from 2013-2021. The project linked funding to results and aimed to improve education quality. It helped build capacity, and enhanced effectiveness and efficiency in the education sector. Through the project, learning outcomes significantly improved alongside an unprecedented expansion of access to education for children in Tanzania. From 2013-2019, an additional 1.8 million students enrolled in primary schools. In 2019, the average reading speed for Grade 2 students rose to 22.3 words per minute, up from 17.3 in 2017. The project laid the foundation for the ongoing $500 million  BOOST project , which supports over 12 million children to enroll early, develop strong foundational skills, and complete a quality education.

The $40 million  Cambodia  Secondary Education Improvement project , which ran from 2017-2022, focused on strengthening school-based management, upgrading teacher qualifications, and building classrooms in Cambodia, to improve learning outcomes, and reduce student dropout at the secondary school level. The project has directly benefited almost 70,000 students in 100 target schools, and approximately 2,000 teachers and 600 school administrators received training.

The World Bank is co-financing the $152.80 million  Yemen  Restoring Education and Learning Emergency project , running from 2020-2024, which is implemented through UNICEF, WFP, and Save the Children. It is helping to maintain access to basic education for many students, improve learning conditions in schools, and is working to strengthen overall education sector capacity. In the time of crisis, the project is supporting teacher payments and teacher training, school meals, school infrastructure development, and the distribution of learning materials and school supplies. To date, almost 600,000 students have benefited from these interventions.

The $87 million  Providing an Education of Quality in  Haiti  project supported approximately 380 schools in the Southern region of Haiti from 2016-2023. Despite a highly challenging context of political instability and recurrent natural disasters, the project successfully supported access to education for students. The project provided textbooks, fresh meals, and teacher training support to 70,000 students, 3,000 teachers, and 300 school directors. It gave tuition waivers to 35,000 students in 118 non-public schools. The project also repaired 19 national schools damaged by the 2021 earthquake, which gave 5,500 students safe access to their schools again.

In 2013, just 5% of the poorest households in  Uzbekistan  had children enrolled in preschools. Thanks to the  Improving Pre-Primary and General Secondary Education Project , by July 2019, around 100,000 children will have benefitted from the half-day program in 2,420 rural kindergartens, comprising around 49% of all preschool educational institutions, or over 90% of rural kindergartens in the country.

In addition to working closely with governments in our client countries, the World Bank also works at the global, regional, and local levels with a range of technical partners, including foundations, non-profit organizations, bilaterals, and other multilateral organizations. Some examples of our most recent global partnerships include:

UNICEF, UNESCO, FCDO, USAID, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation:  Coalition for Foundational Learning

The World Bank is working closely with UNICEF, UNESCO, FCDO, USAID, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as the  Coalition for Foundational Learning  to advocate and provide technical support to ensure foundational learning.  The World Bank works with these partners to promote and endorse the  Commitment to Action on Foundational Learning , a global network of countries committed to halving the global share of children unable to read and understand a simple text by age 10 by 2030.

Australian Aid, Bernard van Leer Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Canada, Echida Giving, FCDO, German Cooperation, William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, Conrad Hilton Foundation, LEGO Foundation, Porticus, USAID: Early Learning Partnership

The Early Learning Partnership (ELP) is a multi-donor trust fund, housed at the World Bank.  ELP leverages World Bank strengths—a global presence, access to policymakers and strong technical analysis—to improve early learning opportunities and outcomes for young children around the world.

We help World Bank teams and countries get the information they need to make the case to invest in Early Childhood Development (ECD), design effective policies and deliver impactful programs. At the country level, ELP grants provide teams with resources for early seed investments that can generate large financial commitments through World Bank finance and government resources. At the global level, ELP research and special initiatives work to fill knowledge gaps, build capacity and generate public goods.

UNESCO, UNICEF:  Learning Data Compact

UNESCO, UNICEF, and the World Bank have joined forces to close the learning data gaps that still exist and that preclude many countries from monitoring the quality of their education systems and assessing if their students are learning. The three organizations have agreed to a  Learning Data Compact , a commitment to ensure that all countries, especially low-income countries, have at least one quality measure of learning by 2025, supporting coordinated efforts to strengthen national assessment systems.

UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS):   Learning Poverty Indicator

Aimed at measuring and urging attention to foundational literacy as a prerequisite to achieve SDG4, this partnership was launched in 2019 to help countries strengthen their learning assessment systems, better monitor what students are learning in internationally comparable ways and improve the breadth and quality of global data on education.

FCDO, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation:  EdTech Hub

Supported by the UK government’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the EdTech Hub is aimed at improving the quality of ed-tech investments. The Hub launched a rapid response Helpdesk service to provide just-in-time advisory support to 70 low- and middle-income countries planning education technology and remote learning initiatives.

MasterCard Foundation

Our Tertiary Education and Skills  global program, launched with support from the Mastercard Foundation, aims to prepare youth and adults for the future of work and society by improving access to relevant, quality, equitable reskilling and post-secondary education opportunities.  It is designed to reframe, reform, and rebuild tertiary education and skills systems for the digital and green transformation.

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Common challenges and tailored solutions: How policymakers are strengthening early learning systems across the world

Compulsory education boosts learning outcomes and climate action

Areas of focus.

Data & Measurement

Early Childhood Development

Financing Education

Foundational Learning

Fragile, Conflict & Violent Contexts

Girls’ Education

Inclusive Education

Skills Development

Technology (EdTech)  

Tertiary Education

Initiatives

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Collapse and Recovery: How the COVID-19 Pandemic Eroded Human Capital and What to Do About It

BROCHURES & FACT SHEETS

Flyer: Education Factsheet - May 2024

Publication: Realizing Education's Promise: A World Bank Retrospective – August 2023

Flyer: Education and Climate Change - November 2022

Brochure: Learning Losses - October 2022

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Global Education Newsletter - June 2024

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Learning Can't Wait: A commitment to education in Latin America and the ...

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Essay On Right To Education

500 words essay on right to education.

Education enables individuals to put their potentials to optimal use. Moreover, it makes them a thinker and correct decision-maker. This is possible because of getting access to knowledge from the external world. Thus, education opens new windows to the outside world. Through an essay on right to education , we will discuss its importance and benefits.

Importance of Right to Education

Education is an essential condition to free individual development. It is what can make a person fit for the tasks of citizenship. Moreover, when you are not educated, you will hardly understand politics or stay vigilant about national interests.

Thus, participation in state affairs is going to be negligible only. In other words, a citizen like that will be no less than a slave to others. This will prevent them from rising in the stature of their personality. Usually, others will make decisions for that person.

Consequently, it will be a failure of democracy. The right to education is a civil right that safeguards individuals from all this. While it does not guarantee an identical intellectual training of everyone nonetheless, it does provide provisions for that type of education.

Without the right to education, people won’t be able to get live their life as they wish to, especially those who cannot afford it. It ensures that everyone gets an equal right to education so that we all can develop as a society without leaving anyone section out.

Thus, the right to education can be life-changing for people who wish to change their lives and break the old-age cycle. It helps individuals to get equal access to education like any other citizen without any discrimination.

Benefits of Right to Education

There are many benefits which the right to education provides us with. Firstly, it has brought many changes in society in terms of ease of education. Further, it ensures a consistent fee structure for all.

In other words, schools cannot make any sudden hikes in fees so people don’t suffer from it. After that, it also ensures that everybody gets an education easily by making it available to everyone.

A lot of underprivileged students cannot find ample resources despite having talent. Thus, it ensures that they can rightfully pursue their education. Consequently, it increases the literacy rate of a nation.

This is without a doubt a great advantage for any country. Moreover, it removes any kind of discrimination especially for people belonging to different economic backgrounds. Similarly, it applies to disabled people as well.

Most importantly, it ensures that schools offer seats to those who cannot afford to pay their fees. Thus, it helps the underprivileged people to partake in it thereby making education reach all sectors of society.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Conclusion of Essay on Right to Education

All in all, every citizen must get a chance to get access to education which will enable them to judge, weigh and make decisions for themselves. It is a life-changer for many people all over the world especially those belonging to the underprivileged sector to outshine.

FAQ of Essay on Right to Education

Question 1: Why is education important for child development?

Answer 1: Education offers children to learn with diversity. Thus, children will develop healthy social interaction by blending in with other kids belonging to different cultures and backgrounds. Moreover, it can boost their self-esteem and self-confidence.

Question 2: Why is the right to education important?

Answer 2: The right to education is essential as it is a human right and indispensable for the exercise of other human rights. Quality education strives to guarantee the development of a fully-rounded human being. Similarly, it is one of the most powerful tools which can lift socially excluded children and adults out of poverty.

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Speech on Right to Education

• Updated on  
• Sep 15, 2022

The Constitution (Eighty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2002 inserted Article 21-A in the Constitution of India to provide “free and compulsory education of all children in the age group of six to fourteen years as a Fundamental Right” in such a manner as the State may, by law, determine. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, which represents the consequential legislation envisaged under Article 21-A, means that every child has a right to full-time elementary education of satisfactory and equitable quality in a formal school which satisfies certain essential norms and standards. Education bridges the gap between poverty and prosperity. Education gives you wings to fly high. Class 9 and 10 students have to prepare speeches as part of the CBSE ASL evaluation. Let us explore a few samples of speech on the right to education.

Also Read: Figures of Speech

Check out our essay on peer pressure

Speaking Task: Speech on Right to Education (2 minutes)  ≈ 250 Words

Good morning everyone! I am XYZ and today I am presenting an insightful and impactful speech on the right to education. Allan Bloom once quoted “Education is the movement from darkness to light” It is crucial that quality education is delivered to the people because it is the educated individuals and their decisions that are instrumental in the economic growth and prosperity of a country. With the aim of bridging the gap between poverty and prosperity, the right to education act was launched in the year 2009 and under this act, children up to 14 years of age were provided with free and compulsory education. Enforcement of this act helped people realize that education is their fundamental right and people should never let go of the opportunity to get themselves educated.

As a result of the right to education, the literacy rate will increase and the unemployment rate in the country will decrease, which will automatically facilitate the economic growth of the country. With an increase in economic growth, there will be an equitable income distribution among people and it will also help in establishing an egalitarian society as education helps people think and act in an objective and broad manner. 

Also Read: Speech Writing

Speaking Task: Speech on Right to Education(5 minutes) ≈ 400 Words

Good morning everyone. My name is XYZ and my ASL topic is speech on the right to education. The right to education is a fundamental human right that is a powerful tool for socially and economically marginalized children and adults to use to help them get out of the vicious cycle of poverty. It also includes the right to free education. Freedom of education refers to the right granted to humans to pursue the education of their choice without restriction.

 As quoted by Nelson Mandela “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” and I fully agree with him because education changes human nature in a desirable way as the changes brought about by education are boundless and positive in nature. The right to education (RTE) act was launched in the year 2009 to provide free and compulsory elementary education to children between 6 and 14 years of age. According to RTI, the state must cover up for the obstacles faced by children attending schools. Be responsible for enrolling the child and ensuring completion of the required eight years of education. Education helps to surpass irrational restrictions, promoting equality, systematic functioning of a diverse country like India. Education reduces unemployment and improves the standard of living of people. Education increases people’s productivity and creativity. It encourages entrepreneurship and technological advancement. It plays a crucial role in ensuring economic, social progress and improving income distribution. 

Education aids in the transmission of knowledge required to comprehend and process new information and to implement new technologies. Innovation is a direct consequence of imparting quality education to people. Education is vital for the economic growth and prosperity of a country. The right to education is a fundamental right of every citizen that should not be snatched from them because education gives meaning to life and replaces an empty mind with an open one.

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This was all about the speech on right to education. For the latest updates around study blogs, you can follow us on Instagram , Twitter , Facebook . Leverage Edu wishes you all the best for all your future endeavours. If you want to get into your dream course in a high-ranked global university, you’ll need more than just good grades; you’ll also need flawless application because the competition is fierce. You may enlist the assistance of Leverage Edu specialists to assist you with the application process so that you can realize your goals. Call us immediately at 1800 57 2000 for a free 30-minute counselling session.

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Yes, Religion Should Be Taught in School—But It Needs to Be Done Right

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Controversies regarding religion in the classroom in the United States are as old as the public school system itself. Most recently, a Louisiana law mandates that posters of the Ten Commandments be hung in every classroom in the state , while in Oklahoma, the state government has mandated that the Bible be taught to all public school students .

Whether these two policies are violations of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment establishment clause will be litigated in the courts in short order. Ultimately, these particular laws will be judged based on the details of how they will be implemented, funded, and enforced on those who refuse or neglect to comply.

As a public school teacher getting ready to begin my 17th year in the classroom teaching both politics and religion in a politically diverse district, I can say with certainty that both of the religious documents centered by the aforementioned new laws—the Ten Commandments and the Bible—do have a place in public school.

However, I have a few questions for leaders involved in the implementation and enforcement of laws like the ones in Louisiana and Oklahoma.

• Will your students have the opportunity to be exposed to other religious texts such as the Torah, the Quran, the Bhagavad Gita, or the Tripitaka (just to name a few) to compare and contrast their historical and present impact on societies around the world?
• Will your students have the opportunity to learn about other religious codes of ethics, including but not limited to the Five Pillars of Islam, the Mitzvot of Judaism, or the Five Precepts of Buddhism? If you hang the Ten Commandments, will you also hang the others?
• Will your policies also engage students in discussions of why humans are or are not religious at all? Will you make all students, even the nonreligious ones, feel welcome to learn in your schools?

I am all for policies that answer these questions in an inclusive way and that empower students by leading them to ask and answer big questions about religion and its impact on all of us. How can students leave our schools knowing about the world if they don’t study religion in school? How can they collaborate with their neighbors and colleagues to build stronger communities and democracies when they don’t know what others value?

Some have argued that the policies in Louisiana and Oklahoma and any others like them should be rejected on their face because they violate the spirit of secularism expressed by Thomas Jefferson in his Letter to the Danbury Baptists in 1802. In that letter, Jefferson wrote the now-famous phrase “a wall of separation between church and state,” which has been a rallying cry for those concerned about religious liberty and whose sentiments have been reified by multiple U.S. Supreme Court rulings throughout American history.

This has brought many to the conclusion that religion has no place in public schools. In fact, every year I hear some questions from my colleagues and students wondering if my high school course, called Religion and Society, is a violation of Jefferson’s vision and the Constitution.

This is an understandable point of view, but religion and school are not antithetical to each other. From a historical perspective, in fact, religion and education have been inextricably linked in the United States. Religion taught academically at the K-12 level is not only legal but essential.

Many states currently have standards that include explicit instruction in the history of religion in America and around the world including the history and social science framework in my home state of California where the word “religion” is mentioned a couple hundred times. Religion is a mover of history, and it influences our politics every day. Omitting the study of religion from social studies education is malpractice.

For nearly two decades, I have witnessed firsthand the tremendous impact that a deep and diverse study of religion has had on my students. Religious studies courses should be an essential part of any comprehensive public school education. My students have developed into compassionate scholars and citizens because of their engagement with diverse religious perspectives. I hope that all students in the United States will have the same opportunity someday.

Some might say that religion can be done at home, and that is true in a limited sense, but religion at home tends to focus on one religious perspective only, which eliminates the opportunity for kids to grow as citizens in a pluralistic society.

One of the many purposes of our education system is to prepare our students for citizenship in a diverse community. We must lead students to read critically and think deeply about ideas that they agree with and disagree with. These exercises are essential for the development of student intellect and identity.

Engaging in criticality about historical and ethical ideas like the ones presented in the Ten Commandments and the Christian Bible is essential for preparing our students for an adult life where they will live, work, and vote alongside people with different views. However, when the study of religions is uncritical and monocultural, we lose the citizenship mission of public education.

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Graphics explain: How has college enrollment changed in the past decade?

Rising college tuition costs, the COVID-19 pandemic, and a bungled FASFA rollout have impacted the financial circumstances of many prospective college students. After several years of declining enrollment, the numbers spiked up about 1.2% in the 2023-2024 academic year,  the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center reported. Enrollment numbers remained below pre-pandemic levels of 16 million.

While it's too early to track the impact tuition costs will have on enrollment numbers for the upcoming semester, some students have already said they're opting out of college due to the financial aid fiasco .

USA TODAY identified undergraduate enrollment trends from the past decade to see who is attending college, the most common fields of study and how the pandemic impacted enrollment.

Here's what you need to know about changes in college enrollment:

College enrollment upticks in 2023

Undergraduate enrollment increased by about 176,000 students in fall 2023, according to a  report published earlier this year by the National Student Clearinghouse. That’s a spike of about 1.2% from the previous fall.

About 15.2 million undergraduate students enrolled in college for the 2023-2024 academic year. The biggest growth came at community colleges, which gained 118,000 students this fall. Private, for-profit colleges also experienced an uptick in enrollments.

The Department of Education has not yet published their data on total undergraduate enrollment for Fall 2023.

Four-year universities and two-year colleges experienced dramatic declines in enrollment since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March of 2020. Undergraduate numbers  fell by 15% between 2010 and 2021 , according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Who is most likely to enroll in college?

Women made up nearly 60% of all college students enrolling in Fall of 2022, the Education Department found, up from 56.6% eight years earlier. For several decades women have outnumbered men as college enrollees and attendees, but the gender gap has only widened.

FASFA fiasco: For low-income students, FAFSA can be a lifeline. When it didn't work, they were hardest hit.

College enrollment by major

For students graduating with an associate degree or bachelor's degree, business and health professions and related programs were the top three most common fields of study, the Education Department said.

For the past decade, business has been the most common degree granted to graduating students.

In the 2021-2022 academic year, these were the top five most common bachelor degrees granted by field of study:

• 18.2% in business
• 12.9% in health professions and related studies
• 7.7% in social sciences and history
• 6.1% in psychology
• 6.3% in biological and biomedical sciences

Graphics explain: How are college costs adding up these days and how much has tuition risen?

Why is college enrollment declining?

College tuition has become unaffordable for many prospective students. For those who do pursue higher education, many will be paying nearly two-fold what their parents paid for an undergraduate education 20 years earlier. 

According to the Education Data Initiative,  the average cost of college tuition and fees at public four-year institutions has risen 179.2% over the last two decades.

At the same time, difficulty applying for financial aid upended the college decision-making process, and disrupted the lives of many students. USA TODAY previously reported that delays and technical problems with the FASFA form left many economically disadvantaged students scrambling for financial aid, jeopardizing their college aspirations. 

Contributing: Zachary Schermele, USA TODAY

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• JFK Assassination Debate

JFK Files: Did the Sovereign Nation of Cuba Have a Right to Install Missiles?

By Benjamin Cole Yesterday at 02:18 AM in JFK Assassination Debate

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Benjamin cole.

Here is a question I have never seen asked in JFK circles;

Did the sovereign nation of Cuba, c. 1962,  have the right to install missiles on its own land? 

Many in the JFKA research community admire JFK's foreign policies, in which JFK tended to lean in favor of the colonized, as opposed to the colonizers. I agree with this aspect of JFK's legacy. 

Cuba was, of course, a Spanish colony from 1492 to 1898, when the US bested Spain, and Cuba operated for four years under the "occupational authority" of the US.  

The US in 1902 somewhat withdrew:

"Following the defeat of Spain in 1898, the United States remained in Cuba as an occupying power until the Republic of Cuba was formally installed on May 19, 1902. On May 20, 1902, the United States relinquished its occupation authority over Cuba, but claimed a continuing right to intervene in Cuba."

https://history.state.gov/countries/cuba#:~:text=Following the defeat of Spain,right to intervene in Cuba.

Of course, Cuba could be said (and the US left-wing has said) to have operated as colony for US capital interests form 1902 to 1961. Then came along the Castro-led revolution, which became a communist government-dictatorship.

But still, in brief, for whatever flaws he had, Castro could be said to have decolonized Cuba (and has remained a hero in some left-wing circles ever since, along with Che Guevara, for doing exactly that). 

OK. So the US helped mount the BoP invasion in 1961 (a regime change op, to put it mildly) and through to October 1962, the Kennedy Administration was developing plans for a large-scale invasion of Cuba. No way of knowing if Cuba was aware of these plans. See:

U.S. planned a 261,000-troop invasion force of Cuba, newly released documents show

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Kevin Balch

Yes, although I believe the idea was proposed by the Soviets.

This would be a violation of the Monroe Doctrine, but then the Monroe Doctrine was not international law.

The CMC was a response to US Jupiter missiles placed in Turkey to reinforce US/NATO credibility in the wake of Sputnik. The US at the time (late 1957) did not have an operational ICBM and the shorter range Jupiter was deployed closer to the USSR to fill in the gap. There were a few years of tortuous negotiations with NATO members states for approval and the Jupiter had some development problems so the missiles were not actually deployed in Turkey until 1961, after the Eisenhower administration segued into the Kennedy administration. By that time, the US had an operational ICBM (Atlas) as well as the Polaris which was launched from submarines so the Jupiters were obsolete.

Consideration was given to cancelling deployment of the Jupiters but after the BoP and the less than successful Vienna Summit, it was again decided that US credibility needed to be reinforced.

Khrushchev considered the Jupiters to be a first-strike weapon because they were liquid fueled (which took hours) and would be sitting ducks unless they were launched at the outset. Plus the short flight times would give little warning. He was also likely concerned about the command and control of the weapons given that Turkey was a long time antagonist of Russia.

Resolving the CMC was achieved by secretly agreeing to remove the missiles. Concerns about disrupting the unity of the NATO alliance and upsetting the Turks delayed the decision on pursuing this approach which was considered very early on in the CMC, allowing the crisis to escalate to dangerous levels.

So not only was the NATO alliance a cause of the CMC, it also delayed its resolution. NATO is a war-promoting organization as we’ve seen in the Balkans and now in Russia-Ukraine. The American voter is too damned dumb to realize this. I wish the Europeans would tell us to Kiss Off but if sabotaging the Nord Stream pipelines didn’t do it (notice the complete lack of interest about what the investigations concluded?) it’s not likely.

1 hour ago, Kevin Balch said: Yes, although I believe the idea was proposed by the Soviets. This would be a violation of the Monroe Doctrine, but then the Monroe Doctrine was not international law. The CMC was a response to US Jupiter missiles placed in Turkey to reinforce US/NATO credibility in the wake of Sputnik. The US at the time (late 1957) did not have an operational ICBM and the shorter range Jupiter was deployed closer to the USSR to fill in the gap. There were a few years of tortuous negotiations with NATO members states for approval and the Jupiter had some development problems so the missiles were not actually deployed in Turkey until 1961, after the Eisenhower administration segued into the Kennedy administration. By that time, the US had an operational ICBM (Atlas) as well as the Polaris which was launched from submarines so the Jupiters were obsolete. Consideration was given to cancelling deployment of the Jupiters but after the BoP and the less than successful Vienna Summit, it was again decided that US credibility needed to be reinforced. Khrushchev considered the Jupiters to be a first-strike weapon because they were liquid fueled (which took hours) and would be sitting ducks unless they were launched at the outset. Plus the short flight times would give little warning. He was also likely concerned about the command and control of the weapons given that Turkey was a long time antagonist of Russia. Resolving the CMC was achieved by secretly agreeing to remove the missiles. Concerns about disrupting the unity of the NATO alliance and upsetting the Turks delayed the decision on pursuing this approach which was considered very early on in the CMC, allowing the crisis to escalate to dangerous levels. So not only was the NATO alliance a cause of the CMC, it also delayed its resolution. NATO is a war-promoting organization as we’ve seen in the Balkans and now in Russia-Ukraine. The American voter is too damned dumb to realize this. I wish the Europeans would tell us to Kiss Off but if sabotaging the Nord Stream pipelines didn’t do it (notice the complete lack of interest about what the investigations concluded?) it’s not likely.

Thank you for your collegial comments, even if we disagree, as we do about the present situation between NATO and Russia. 

But back to early 1960s. It is troubling to ponder, even under the Kennedy Administration, the US was persistently staging hostile actions against Cuba, including the BoP, but other actions too numerous to detail, and was devising plans (1962) for a large-scale invasion. 

Cuba, whatever we feel about the communist dictatorship, certainly had reasons to fear an invasion, and re-colonization by the US capitalist class. So they sought a deterrent, and that was the missiles. 

In this scenario, the Kennedy Administration actually caused the CMC, first by displaying open bellicosity towards Cuba and perping the actual attempt at invasion and regime-change at the BoP. No wonder Cuba wanted a deterrent.

Secondly, the Kennedy Administration then unilaterally decided Cuba, a sovereign nation, had no right to arm itself with missiles (about the only deterrent that would be effective). 

This view of the CMC is different.

JFK might have shown great judgement once the CMC unfolded. But it was the Kennedy Administration that created the crisis in the first place---first by trying to invade Cuba and other regime-change ops, and then by unilaterally declaring if Cuba did not rid itself of the missiles then a nuclear war would result. The Kennedy Administration is the uncomfortable picture of bully, chastened only when Cuba got its missiles. 

Well, interesting what one comes across when reading primary materials. 

Can’t disagree with anything you have said.

James DiEugenio

Kennedy did not create the CMC Ben and Kevin.

And the installation was not about Cuba.  At least that is not what JFK thought.

The installation in Cuba consisted of about 60 medium and long range ICBM's in 5 missile regiments. The long range ones could fly about 2400 miles.

There were 28 nuclear  bombers.

There were 7 nuclear bearing submarines.

Just the  submarines carried 1 megaton warheads.  Which was 5 times the power of the Nagasaki bomb.

So in other words, the Russians could now hit about 100 cities in the continental US.  This was a very potent first strike.  One that would have killed tens of millions.

In addition, there was a wing of the the current MIG, plus  a 45,000 motorized infantry, many missile defense systems, and the coup de grace, tactical nukes.

These were of 2 varieties, a short range one of about 25 miles, and a long range one of about 80 miles.  These would have incinerated any invasion force crossing over from Florida.

These were not for defensive purposes.  This was a first strike that was being protected by layers of supplementary missiles, aircraft, and thousands of Soviet advisors. But beyond that it had all been done in secret.  Without the U2, they might never have been discovered. And then the Russian foreign minister lied to Kennedy about it right in the Oval Office.  That one shocked him.  If one listens to the tapes, and reads the introduction to the book, since Nikita K was always trying to stampede JFK about Berlin, Kennedy clearly thought that this was what it was about.  It was not about an invasion, because the size and scope of this force would be like killing a fly with a howitzer.

No, Kennedy thought this was going to be used to blackmail him over Berlin. And he says it more than once.  And JFK was not going to allow that because to him that would roll up the Atlantic Alliance.

For the record, Kennedy had two perfect opportunities to invade Cuba and he did not.  If Nixon had been president during the Bay of Pigs, Cuba would be a colony of the USA today.  And Johnson thought Kennedy's reaction to the CMC was way too mild. He can barely hide his disdain.

Sorry to break up your paddle ball game.

39 minutes ago, James DiEugenio said: I can. Kennedy did not create the CMC Ben and Kevin. And the installation was not about Cuba.  At least that is not what JFK thought. The installation in Cuba consisted of about 60 medium and long range ICBM's in 5 missile regiments. The long range ones could fly about 2400 miles. There were 28 nuclear  bombers. There were 7 nuclear bearing submarines. Just the  submarines carried 1 megaton warheads.  Which was 5 times the power of the Nagasaki bomb. So in other words, the Russians could now hit about 100 cities in the continental US.  This was a very potent first strike.  One that would have killed tens of millions. In addition, there was a wing of the the current MIG, plus  a 45,000 motorized infantry, many missile defense systems, and the coup de grace, tactical nukes. These were of 2 varieties, a short range one of about 25 miles, and a long range one of about 80 miles.  These would have incinerated any invasion force crossing over from Florida. These were not for defensive purposes.  This was a first strike that was being protected by layers of supplementary missiles, aircraft, and thousands of Soviet advisors. But beyond that it had all been done in secret.  Without the U2, they might never have been discovered. And then the Russian foreign minister lied to Kennedy about it right in the Oval Office.  That one shocked him.  If one listens to the tapes, and reads the introduction to the book, since Nikita K was always trying to stampede JFK about Berlin, Kennedy clearly thought that this was what it was about.  It was not about an invasion, because the size and scope of this force would be like killing a fly with a howitzer. No, Kennedy thought this was going to be used to blackmail him over Berlin. And he says it more than once.  And JFK was not going to allow that because to him that would roll up the Atlantic Alliance. For the record, Kennedy had two perfect opportunities to invade Cuba and he did not.  If Nixon had been president during the Bay of Pigs, Cuba would be a colony of the USA today.  And Johnson thought Kennedy's reaction to the CMC was way too mild. He can barely hide his disdain. Sorry to break up your paddle ball game.

None of the Soviet missiles deployed in Cuba were ICBMs. They were a mix of IRBMs and MRBMs. Plus the tactical nukes. At the time, the Soviets only had about 20 ICBMs all based in Soviet territory. That’s why the shorter range missiles were were placed in Cuba so they could reach the US.

The Soviets did have a nascent ballistic missile submarine fleet (the first one was K-19 which had a bad reactor accident so I don’t know how reliable they were) but I don’t recall it playing a direct role in the CMC. The submarine borne nuclear warheads were actually nuclear nuclear tipped torpedoes for anti-ship or anti-submarine action. A bit of overkill to be sure! It was one of these that came close to being used against American ships enforcing the blockade with depth charges.

Kennedy did think it was a Soviet gambit over Berlin but Khrushchev was thinking of nuclear parity and supporting Cuba.

I don’t recall LBJ saying much at all on the EXCOMM tapes.

The US deployment of Jupiters in Turkey was a deliberate decision with JFK’s full awareness and should have been recognized as a provocative act. The reconsideration during JFK’s early months should have factored in the possibility that Cuba could now serve the same purpose  for the Soviets as Turkey for the US/NATO, but that’s the fault of his national security advisors.

JFK also painted himself into a corner during the 1960 campaign with his charges of a “missile gap”. He was briefed by the CIA in August 1960 that the missile gap did not really exist. I’m going to have to watch the debates with Nixon to see if he mentions a missile gap. The administration later quietly admitted that the missile gap did not exist.

If a missile can fly 2400 miles in the Western Hemisphere from north to south that makes it intercontinental.

Which is why they were moved there.

We will never know why Nikita did what he did.  In fact, even the Russians never understood why he did it.

Towards the end Kennedy asked Johnson what he thought. I noted this in my review of the CNN special on LBJ.  He made it clear that he thought we were giving up too much for too little.

As I said, Kennedy thought the Jupiters were being replaced by Polaris.  And in fact they were being so as I proved in Black and white.

I don't know what you mean by painting himself into a corner with a missile gap.  JFK knew in 1961 because McNamara briefed him that there was no missile gap which Symington had mislead him about.  

There was simply no excuse for what Nikita decided to do.  It was foolhardy and very dangerous to move a first strike 90 miles away into Cuba.   It would have been a different thing if Moscow would have signed a formal treaty with Havana. That was something that could have been talked about and negotiated with probably the same results.  But to do this all in secret? 

Excuse me, it was from my review of Updegrove's book on JFK.  Here is LBJ during the CMC:

But what is important here in regard to Updegrove is that in reading the transcripts, Johnson was siding with the hawks. At a meeting on October 27, 1962—towards the end of the crisis when Kennedy was trying to corral the confidence of his advisors for an agreement—Johnson was not on board. He said, “My impression is that we’re having to retreat. We’re backing down.” He then said we made Turkey insecure, and also Berlin:

People feel it. They don’t know why they feel it and how. But they feel it. We got a blockade and we’re doing this and that and the Soviet ships are coming through. (May and Zelikow p. 587)

He then said something even more provocative in referring to a U2 plane shot down by Cuba, “The Soviets shot down one plane and the Americans gave up Turkey. Then they shoot down another and the Americans give up Berlin.” (Ibid, p. 592) He then got more belligerent. He said that, in light of this, what Khrushchev was doing was dismantling the foreign policy of the United States for the last 15 years, in order to get the missiles out of Cuba. He topped off that comment by characterizing Kennedy’s attitude toward that dismantlement like this: “We’re glad and we appreciate it and we want to discuss it with you.” (ibid, p. 597) It’s reading things like that which makes us all grateful Kennedy was president at that time.

The answer is who gives a crud. The sovereignty of this state or that state hasn't meant much since WWII, if in fact it ever did.

The reality is that Kennedy was tasked with keeping the U.S. safe, and the U.S. would have been less safe with nukes in Cuba. Castro, if I recall, said he had every intent of using them. 

A rough equivalent today would be Iran putting nukes up in Haiti. Would that be a good thing for anyone? Would an American president stand for that? I don't see how.

Now, I know some would like to conflate JFK's attack on poor Cuba's sovereignty by denying them nukes with Putin's invasion of Ukraine. But it's apples and oranges. Ukraine used to have nukes. But dismantled them. And there was no plan to replace them. 

5 hours ago, James DiEugenio said: I can. Kennedy did not create the CMC Ben and Kevin. And the installation was not about Cuba.  At least that is not what JFK thought. The installation in Cuba consisted of about 60 medium and long range ICBM's in 5 missile regiments. The long range ones could fly about 2400 miles. There were 28 nuclear  bombers. There were 7 nuclear bearing submarines. Just the  submarines carried 1 megaton warheads.  Which was 5 times the power of the Nagasaki bomb. So in other words, the Russians could now hit about 100 cities in the continental US.  This was a very potent first strike.  One that would have killed tens of millions. In addition, there was a wing of the the current MIG, plus  a 45,000 motorized infantry, many missile defense systems, and the coup de grace, tactical nukes. These were of 2 varieties, a short range one of about 25 miles, and a long range one of about 80 miles.  These would have incinerated any invasion force crossing over from Florida. These were not for defensive purposes.  This was a first strike that was being protected by layers of supplementary missiles, aircraft, and thousands of Soviet advisors. But beyond that it had all been done in secret.  Without the U2, they might never have been discovered. And then the Russian foreign minister lied to Kennedy about it right in the Oval Office.  That one shocked him.  If one listens to the tapes, and reads the introduction to the book, since Nikita K was always trying to stampede JFK about Berlin, Kennedy clearly thought that this was what it was about.  It was not about an invasion, because the size and scope of this force would be like killing a fly with a howitzer. No, Kennedy thought this was going to be used to blackmail him over Berlin. And he says it more than once.  And JFK was not going to allow that because to him that would roll up the Atlantic Alliance. For the record, Kennedy had two perfect opportunities to invade Cuba and he did not.  If Nixon had been president during the Bay of Pigs, Cuba would be a colony of the USA today.  And Johnson thought Kennedy's reaction to the CMC was way too mild. He can barely hide his disdain. Sorry to break up your paddle ball game.

Thanks for your comments. 

I am still troubled that, even under the Kennedy Administration, the US conducted the unsuccessful regime-change BoP op, many other hostile and belligerent ops against Cuba, and also planned a large-scale, 261,000-troop invasion of the Cuba (I am trying to find out if Castro was aware of these large-scale invasion plans). 

Cuba, having decolonized itself from Americans capitalists under Castro (an autocratic communist who I dislike) then faced reasonable fears of re-colonization, under the Kennedy Administration. 

Cuba, relatively small, could not defend itself with conventional forces. 

Read the JFK Orange Bowl speech below if you have doubts about where JFK stood on Cuba. JFK vowed to install to the BoP brigade in Havana, and supplant Castro. JFK vowed another regime-change op in Cuba, even after the CMC!

Maybe Castro took these vows to heart.  

https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-miami-the-presentation-the-flag-the-cuban-invasion-brigade

How can we have doubts about what JFK wanted to do in Havana? 

My take: JFK could have avoided the whole CMC if early on his presidency he made plain and clear to all there would no hostile actions towards Cuba, a sovereign nation. JFK should have never approved the BoP op, and he should have suffocated Cuba invasion plans in the crib. 

Castro, for his part, should not have agreed to more than a small number of nuclear weapons in Cuba, enough for a deterrence. 

Neither JFK, Castro, or Khruschev played this very well, IMHO. 

Yes, Nixon, Curtis E. LeMay, any number of other public figures were worse than JFK on what they proposed during the CMC. There were hawks laced through the Kennedy Administration. 

LBJ, not JFK, got us into Vietnam big-time (although JFK put 15,000 troops there). 

But egads, JFK effected and promised and vowed regime-change ops for Havana repeatedly. How was Castro supposed to respond? 

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Kickstart Your New Hire’s Success by Connecting them to the Right People

• Julia Phelan

Three tips to help an employee identify who knows what and how everyone fits together.

As a manager, onboarding a new hire isn’t just about providing manuals and login information, it’s about setting the employee up to operate autonomously in their role and feel comfortable within the organization. To do this, leaders need to emphasize the importance of developing strategic relationships with colleagues across the company who can share critical knowledge, and help contextualize and speed up their learning. There are three keys ways managers can help employees engage in internal networking, and thus boost their productivity, sense of belonging, engagement, and retention: 1) Create a knowledge map that shows who knows what within the company; 2) Create a prioritized networking list of people they should meet and why; and 3) Initiate relationship building to facilitate connections for your new employee.

A standard operating procedure for onboarding is to front-load new employees with presentations and written resources , such as handbooks, e-learning modules, or manuals. These can be helpful — but only to a point. Learning new processes and navigating new environments is not just about content acquisition. Much of your organization’s important knowledge and expertise resides in people, and   not all companies are tapping into this valuable resource. One study found that 20% of employees reported that their company didn’t do anything to facilitate networking between them and their coworkers.

• JP Julia Phelan , Ph.D. is a learning design consultant and expert in applying learning science principles to create effective learning experiences. She works with organizations to help build a strong workplace learning culture by improving training design, implementation, and outcomes. She is the co-founder of To Eleven , and a former UCLA education research scientist. Connect with her on LinkedIn .

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Social justice and equity: key principles for guiding action on the right to education

“There is a widespread concern today over the growing inequalities around the world, not only among nations but also within countries,” says Mr Kishore Singh, former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education. He spoke to UNESCO about the state of the right to education to mark the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights .

“The gap between rich and poor all over the world caused by unbridled neo-liberal economy has become dramatic and its impact on education systems and the right to education is quite serious, resulting in increasing disparities and inequities in education,” he says.

According to the former UN Special Rapporteur, “the empowering role that education can play in reversing this growing inequality is of paramount importance, but the first step would be to expand opportunities for good quality public education so that all children have access to education as a right.”

International legal framework of the right to education

Mr Singh emphasizes that the right to education without discrimination or exclusion is an internationally recognized universal right. In 1945, before the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was proclaimed, UNESCO’s Constitution clearly formulated the mission of the Organization and the responsibility of Member States for ensuring “full and equal opportunities for education for all”. The UNESCO Convention against Discrimination in Education, adopted in 1960, laid down two fundamental principles of the right to education: equality of opportunity in education and non-discrimination. This Convention influenced other UN human rights conventions adopted subsequently as regards the provisions on the right to education, Mr Singh observed.

Education as a public good

The former Special Rapporteur says that States have an obligation and responsibility to comply with international norms and principles, and to take normative actions to ensure that the right to education is fully realized and to preserve education as a public good.

“The right to education is an overarching right, essential for the exercise of all other human rights,” he says. “Its  ‘empowering role’  can lift people out of poverty and equip them with skills, competencies and values that are beneficial not only to themselves, but to society as a whole.”

Safeguarding education from forces of privatization

Mr. Singh stated that the mushrooming of privatization of education over the past few decades is a matter of deep concern, threatening the concept of education as a public good. “Education is being commercialized, leading to greater inequities in society and gross violation of the principles and norms of the right to education. Because of this phenomenon and false propaganda in favour of privatization, the public education system is shrinking while privatization creates a social segregation and inequities.”

“The privatization in education is a big threat to the Education 2030 Agenda and runs counter to the commitments by governments from all over the world to ensure good quality education free of costs, at least till secondary stage,” states Mr Singh. “In private educational institutions run by individual proprietors and enterprises, peoples’ economic status determines access to education, based often on exorbitant and unregulated fee.” He emphasizes that any discrimination based on economic status or social situation is outlawed by UNESCO’s Convention against Discrimination in Education and other international human rights conventions. And the Convention on the Rights of the Child adds “property” among the prohibited ground of discrimination in access to education. The former Special Rapporteur stresses the urgent need of stringent regulatory measures, with sanctions for fraudulent practices.

Concern about use of digital devices in education

On the use of ICTs in education and digital devices, Mr Singh recognizes the benefits these entail  for providing access to information but he is also concerned about the ‘digital divide’ and inequality that these create.

Pointing out that these are mere tools and should not be allowed to substitute face-to-face learning pedagogies and human contact in imparting education, Mr Singh warns against multiple risks that use of ICTs and digital devices carry, especially as regards human faculty for concentration and reflections.

“Digital devices in education are yet another commercial entry points, and unfortunately, they can also be used in a negative way by fostering access to pornographic sites with risk of sexual abuse or exploitation, cyberbullying , as well as to content that is aggressive  and violent  etc. while undermining the quality of learning. ”

For Mr Singh, social justice and equity are two core principles of the United Nations system for peace and development. “Social justice and equity should remain at the forefront of measures taken by States in order for the right to education to be protected, promoted and fully and equally enjoyed by all citizens.“

• Join UNESCO’s #RightToEducation campaign and help spread the word about this key human right that has the power and potential to transform lives around the world.

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