Why do we need human rights-based education in New Zealand?

In many ways our education system is already "human rights-based". The right to education is established in the Education Act. New Zealand education policy requires early childhood education services and schools to respect basic rights such as safety, non-discrimination and cultural identity, to aim at development of the talents and abilities of the individual to the fullest extent, and to promote human rights values such as equity, inclusion and participation for the common good. "Respect for human rights" is to be "encouraged, modelled and explored" in English-medium schools.

But the human rights thread is often not explicitly recognised, nor the power of the human rights framework as an integral part of a professional approach to education realised. This hardly helps us address some key human rights challenges:

• Education participation and success rates are disproportionately low for some groups; standards in education vary;

• There is discrimination, bullying and harassment in too many learning commuities, particularly over race, disability, sexual orientation and gender
• Lack of respect for the rights of others is a widespread community concern

• Most New Zealanders have little formal knowledge or understanding of human rights.

There are strong reasons to believe that a human rights approach to education can impact positively upon attitudes to and achievement in education, the development of a culture of respect and responsibility, and effective participation in society.

Effective citizenship is one of the agreed primary goals of education of the young. Citizenship is about rights and responsibilities. It is acknowledged that one of the challenges facing us in education is preparation for global citizenship of a diverse but increasingly interconnected world. As Fernando Reimers (Harvard Graduate School of Education) argues, "Rigor and excellence in teaching mathematics, or in sciences, are defined by reference to universal standards in the disciplines, not to local preferences. There should be similar universal standards norming [with] the civic and global education content of a curriculum… aligned with universal standards of rights and justice…." -- human rights.