universal education

Question 1

EARLY CONCEPTS OF UNIVERSAL EDUCATION

Answer 1

MIDDLE AGES TO INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
- education was gradually on the rise. However, it was often associated with wealth and power, or certain trades such as religion. Thus, illiteracy was common for most of the population.
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CHURCH
- in the european education system, church played largest role in early education
- provided religious education for the congregation
- 19th century saw english churches beginning to give free education on Sundays

Question 2

REFORMS OF UNIVERSAL EDUCATION

Answer 2

INVOLVEMENT OF GOVERNMENT
- with the rise of church schools, goverments became involved and funded these church and ‘public’ government schools
- european governments created and controlled own schools

EDUCATION ACT 1870 (UK)
- made education compulsory form the ages of 5 to 10 –> Australia followed suit public instruction Act 1880 (NSW)

PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ACT 1880 (NSW)
- made primary education free and compulsory
- made primary education secular

TODAY IN AUSTRALIA
- requires all children to attend school from ages of 6 to 15
- variations between states, e.g. NSW has school leaving age of 17
- literacy rates are high with 99% and 75% of people finishing high school

Question 3

international recognition of universal education

Answer 3

UNIVERAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
- univeral education now considered important to increase a country’s development
- Article 26: free, compulsory primary education

MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS (MDG)
- set in 2000
- 8 goals that the UN and all 189 member nations agree to commit to help achieve by 2015
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Question 4

grey areas in universal education

Answer 4

• second millenium goal wasn’t actually met, since international agreements such as the MDG and the UDHR require a huge amount of international cooperation and work country to country and within individual countries. Financial, corruption, war, and governing issues all create barriers for these kind of agreements being executed
• thus, still 57 million primary school aged children out of school. Howver, this is an improvement from the 100 million out of school in 2000