CITIZEN What are the barriers to the right to education globally?
Around the globe, millions of children are denied their right to an education for a variety of reasons:
• Many children live in countries where the government is unable or unwilling to properly fund public access to education.
• Many children live in areas made unsafe by war or conflict, where schools are forced to close or even attacked.
• Many children are forced into child labour and miss out on an education because they have to work.
• In some countries, girls are discouraged or even barred from attending school.
• ‘Period poverty’ is an issue worldwide: being unable to afford sanitary products can mean that some girls miss days of school each month.
• In the developing world, one in three girls is married before she turns 18 (sometimes much earlier). Very few girls succeed in staying in school once they are married.
• Even in the developed world, children with disabilities can struggle to access education. Their situation is many times worse in poorer countries.
EXPLORE
BRICK IN THE WALL
Now that you have read about the barriers to education that many children face, do you feel more positive about school or lucky that you get to attend?
Your teacher will draw a brick wall on the board. Each person should contribute one word that sums up how they feel about being able to go to school, until all of the bricks are filled in.
