Distance Learning and the ‘Right’ to an Education
Posted on March 11, 2008 by David Gray
This link takes you to a special edition of The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, an e-journal published by Athabasca University in Canada. The central question in the spotlight of this special issue: “What is the Role of Distance Education in the Implementation to the Right to Education?”
With specific reference to higher education versus primary or secondary education, the question is interestingly framed. It assumes there exists a global agreement that education is a right. While I’m not certain such global concurrence exists, let us lay that issue aside in favor of tackling the fundamental question. Is education a right? Or, as some might argue, is it a privilege?
In a lead editorial in this special issue, Barbara Spronk, Visiting Graduate Professor at Athabasca University, opens with a review of the United Nations’ 1948 Declaration of Human Rights which includes Article 26. Among other things, Article 26 states that everyone has a right to education.
But whether you agree with the United Nations or not, whether you think education is a right or a privilege, this special issue contributes much to the conversation on the role of distance learning technology in meeting a growing, worldwide need for more educational options and opportunities, in more places, for more people, in more preferred ways, and in defiance of the traditional barriers that have created a world of educational haves and have-nots.
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