On The Right To Education

In modern society, education is a fundamental stage in the process of a person's growth, and it is also an essential means to prepare people for qualities required by modern society. However, whether the behavior to receive education should be classified as legal right or included in legal obligation is an issue worth our careful consideration. This involves the fundamental problem about how to cognize and view human being themselves. In the time of carrying forward the right and being featured by the right, the ethic to provide conveniences for man rather than treat man as a tool determines that the acceptance of education definitely and absolutely is a person's right in essence. Right to education, as an important component part in the system of fundamental right, is of great importance different from other basic rights, because whether right to education is fully appreciated tends to be the prerequisite for the appreciation of other basic rights. In other words, everything is human oriented. Meanwhile it is also an important foundation for society to be in virtuous operation. Therefore, the research into the right to education is demanded by the development of human race.The right to education is no longer a fresh research focus in legal circle, but as far as our country is concerned, the research into the right to education is now in the ascendant rather than in an outdated excess of enthusiasm. This judgment is derived from the analyses and assessment on current research into the theory of the right to education in the legal circle of our country, and also from the investigation on the present appreciation of the right to education in our country. Generally speaking, more introductive than intensive research into the right to education have been done in our academics. It is far from satisfaction for the right to education to be fully enjoyed in current situation. Inequality is just a sign indicating the present situation of the right to education in our country. In essence, the right to education is believed to place people under the obligation to receive education.The thesis is divided into four chapters, and its details are described as follows: Chapter one, the theoretical background for the production of the right to educationThis chapter mainly analyzes the evolution of the outlook on civil education held by Englishmen and Frenchmen, and tries to seek the evolutionary law of the educational concept and system from the evolution of people's outlook on education: As far as educational receivers are concerned, education has experienced the evolution from obligation to right, and from liberty to social right. At that time in Great Britain, the main role, played by the state in educational cause, evolved from the passive non-interference of classical laissez-faire, into positive interference of new laissez-faire, and the civil right to receive education was positively guaranteed as a social welfare. In the process of development, Adam Smith, Multhus, John S. Mill and other theorists of laissez-faire, based on the passive state of classical laissez-faire, made their original theoretical contribution to people's educational problems. Thomas H. Green's theory of welfare state provided influential support in theoretical aspect for the emergence of the right to education. Meanwhile, under the inspiration of liberty, equality, and fraternity, French civil educators and thinkers interpreted civil education as an important cause that should be implemented by the state.On the issue of civil education, they formed the sense that civil education is an unavoidable sacred duty of the state; the development of civil education is dependent on the establishment of a complete civil educational system; compulsory education is implemented in elementary education, every child enjoys the equal chance to receive education whatever his or her origin, sex, family background is; receiving civil education is not only the basic right of an individual, it is also a duty that every citizen needs to shoulder for the state. They believed that through the implementation of civil education, students'civil awareness could be developed, and such qualities as responsibility for one's government, loyalty to the state could be trained, too. From the perspective of equality, Utopian socialists demanded that everyone should enjoy equal right to receive education. In the belief that"God grants human right", French thinkers developed the thought of equal right to receive education, which became an important origin in the production of the right to education.Chapter two, the right to education and social equalityIn the thesis the author first analyzes the concept and characteristics of the right to education, which is featured by both liberty and social right. In the development of history, the right to education was accepted as liberty in the first place. When the thought of welfare state arose, the right to education then contained the characteristic of social right, and became a basic right with complex features. Therefore, receiving education experienced the process from state-free laissez-faire to state-governed situation, until the stage of educational liberty that requires the state to provide educational condition and chances. The feature of receiving education is also evolved from obligation to right, from private right to public right, i.e. the right to education is evolved from the stage of liberty to the stage of liberty submerged in social right, until the stage of liberty guaranteed by social right. Secondly, in this thesis the author discusses the function of the right to education. The existent value of the right to education lies in its guarantee for citizen's existence, growth, and development, and for the development of the state and society. Therefore, the right to education is displayed in three aspects: it can promote self-realization of individuals, social development, and social equality. Finally, in this thesis the author looks into the correlation between the right to education and social equality, and mainly explores the equal theory of the right to education, especially the transformation from the formal equality to substantial equality. This transformation is not a unique phenomenon of the right to education that serves as the fundamental right, but it is the transformation realized for ensuring fundamental social equality. In the distribution of fundamental right, especially the right concerning people's basic living standard, we firstly should persist in equal treatment of compulsory style. Obstacles to citizen themselves and social arrangement lead to the little chance to guarantee citizen's fundamental right, if it is carried out only in accordance with the equal treatment of compulsory style. Therefore, in order to guarantee every citizen's existence with human honor, special treatment must be given to those weak minorities, i.e. the equal treatment in the sense of weak style can guarantee the possibility that their fundamental right is realized in social life. The right to education, as a fundamental right, is also characterized by the equal treatment in terms of compulsory style and weak style. That is the unity of formal and substantial equality. In this thesis the author also illustrates features of the equal the right to education.Chapter three, the right to education in the stage of compulsory educationFirstly, the thesis interprets and reflects the compulsory education system. From the perspective of right, this chapter interprets and reflects on compulsory educational system. It is, to some degree, trying to research into the right to education in the stage of compulsory education. There exist drawbacks in the interpretation of compulsory education in the educational circles and pragmatic circles of our country, such as the neglect of liberty enjoyed by receivers when they receive education supplied by the state, the neglect of right to be involved in the selection of educated contents, the right to select a university for receiving education, and the prevention from the state's violation to the basic liberty. Without the element of liberty, it is impossible for the right to education to become a right in the stage of compulsory education, i.e. it will lose its meaning as a right. Then, compulsory education is just a mandatory right that people are forced to accept, but more accurately, it should be described as an obligation. Therefore, the compulsory education, if it is lack of the content mentioned above, is by no means our original intention in designing the educational system.Whether compulsory educational system can promote social equality and people's self-realization is a problem that must be considered. Some scholars believe that the compulsory education system is a modern invention, which is incapable of solving problems mentioned above. However, through analyses, we discover that compulsory education practically possesses the function to solve problems mentioned above. Secondly, in this thesis the author also analyzes the compulsory subject under the compulsory educational system. The author has the sense that the receiver of the compulsory education is not the compulsory subject, but family, society and the state should play principal roles in the compulsory educational system, and among them, the state's duty is an absolute duty, i.e. the state is the fundamental compulsory part. Meanwhile, the author explores the duties that the state needs to shoulder in the compulsory education. Thirdly, in the thesis the author analyzes the present operation of compulsory educational system in our country. Through analyses, we believe that our government hasn't completely or properly fulfilled its investment in compulsory education. The present financial system of compulsory education in our country exist such problems as insufficient supply of funds, imbalanced development of education, improper distribution of governmental responsibilities, and incomplete transfer payment system of education funds.The actual causes include the dissymmetry between the financial resources owned by government at different levels and the responsibilities of compulsory education, the lack of auxiliary measures after reform policies are issued, and incompleteness in financial regulations of education, except for such reasons as a large population, vast territory, imbalanced development of economy, dual structures in rural and urban areas and other practical reasons. All these factors hinder the balanced development of compulsory education. In terms of compulsory education, the attitude of the state determines whether it can be realized. As far as the present economic standard is concerned, the state finance should be capable of taking up the basic educational funds in the stage of compulsory education. So-called insufficiency of financial power is more likely caused by insufficient efforts made by financial authorities. Finally, in this thesis the author analyzes the current situation of the compulsory education in our country, and put forward the viewpoint that the center government should play the committed part in the investment in compulsory education. In this way, problems that exist in the operation of compulsory educational system can be dealt with appropriately.Chapter four, undergraduates'the right to education and university autonomyThis is the discussion on the right to education in the stage of non-compulsory education. Firstly, in this thesis the author analyzes undergraduates'the right to education, referring to those subjects who achieve the studying status to enter higher educational institutions or other educational agencies in accordance with the law, and they enjoy the right to study by means of teaching condition. Next, the author analyzes the differences between undergraduates'the right to education and their right to education in the stage of compulsory education. Meanwhile the author also explores the limits of undergraduates'the right to education. Secondly, in the thesis the author analyzes university autonomy. As a system, university autonomy refers to a higher educational institution's independence from the state and other social powers, and the university may independently make decisions on internal management, financial and administrative affairs, and draw up policies on education, researches, work of auxiliary departments, and other relevant activities. Independent development is a valuable pursue of university autonomy system. Meanwhile, the author analyzes the evolution of university autonomy in western countries and the limitations of autonomy. The fundamental law is to admit that the university should hold limited autonomy. Finally, the author discusses the right of university students and the limits of university autonomy. Through analyses, the author has the sense that every higher educational institution should be positioned as governmental corporation. Differentiation of different types of legal relationships between governmental corporation and its users is beneficial for providing all-round way of judicial aid, which lays the foundation for reforming current system of administration and supervision. On the basis of above discussion, the author analyzes the relationship between university and its students. The author believes that the determination of the relationship between university and students as one with special right accords with the legislative practice of our country and the operation practice of the university. Once the relationship between the university and students is determined as one with the characteristic of special right,"the important theory"should serve as the applicable standard for legal reservation principle in order to guarantee the fundamental right of students. Next the author discusses the limitations of university autonomy in our country. The author thinks that the practice that a university terminates a student's qualification of attendance is involved in discipline measures against the student, and this should be under the limitations of judicial intervention; while setting academic standards is out of the judicial intervention. In the thesis the author also collates and stipulates the relationship of right and duties among the state, university and education receivers.The research into the right to education must be rationally carried out in accordance with the national condition. In the sense of our country, the road to guarantee the full realization of the right to education is a long and tough course, which requires our continuous exploration and practice in the background of establishing a country with socialist legal system.