PASSED: The Right to Education

[Meekinos]

Category: Education
Area of Effect: Educational

The World Assembly,

Acknowledging the importance of education as a contributing factor to self and community betterment;

Understanding the importance of an individual's growth through continual learning;

Believing that equal opportunity learning will better the community as a whole;

Further acknowledging a nation's right to an education system that is custom tailored to its needs;

Hereby,

1. Mandates that Member States shall:
a) Not restrict the pursuit of learning for its citizens;
b) Promote learning and education within its borders;
c) Ensure affordability for its citizens if it has a user-pay system, so that even the lowest income earners are able to send their children to school and return to school in order to better themselves, without incurring a burdensome debt;
d) Create its own national standards for teachers to ensure a reasonable level of competence;
e) Establish a standard curriculum for its students based on its own needs and future goals;
f) Ensure that the tools needed for learning are made available to all;
g) Not force a citizen to end their education upon reaching age of majority.

2. Whereas no formal government funded educational system exists, Member States shall:
a) Allow its citizens to pursue their education abroad;
b) Allow for the private sector to provide education.

3. Emphasises that this Resolution does not affect a member state's right to have:
a) Religious schools and religious teaching;
b) Vocational schools with specific focuses;
c) Academic schools at primary, secondary and post-secondary levels;
d) Home-schooling systems;
e) Any other form of educational system;
f) Any level of government to control the education system.

co-authored with Charlotte Ryberg

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To endorse/approve this proposal, go here: The Right to Education

Your support will make this vision possible. Each endorsement brings us closer to reaching the ideal balance for education amongst all member nations of the World Assembly.

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Our goal is to create an education act that will be accepted by the majority. We have refrained from defining many aspects of education for that reason. We left that out because it has in the past created problems. We feel that by creating a basic template that each nation can then go on to make its own rules based on a starting point.

EDIT - We have added to this act since originally posting. We intend to refrain from making anything too specific. We want to strike a middle ground.

We amended this to reduce the number of words/characters used in order to allow for expansion.

EDIT 2 - We have scrapped the original version of this proposal. The general intent has remained the same; the format and a bit of the wording has been tweaked and will continue to be tweaked until it is ready to be tabled for the delegates to approve. We welcome input on the current version that we have here.

EDIT 3 - tweaked to make use of the new coding now available for all WA proposals.

EDIT 4 - The title of the proposal has been changed from Education Access Act to The Right to Education. The majority of the proposal has been condensed, with excess language removed.

[Bergnovinaia]

isn't this already covered by a multitude of different acts?

[Meekinos]

isn't this already covered by a multitude of different acts?

We have looked through. We're looking to create a single standard. The rights are covered, but since citing other resolutions would be a House of Cards violation, we have purposely included it in here so we don't have to rely on other resolutions.

[Bergnovinaia]

I know that your nation is way older than mine but wouldn't it also be banned if it's already covered by other acts?

[Meekinos]

I know that your nation is way older than mine but wouldn't it also be banned if it's already covered by other acts?

The first part is covered, but we like to be thorough. It could be amended out very easily, as the rest doesn't come up. We checked through previous acts and the only notably education-based one was Access to Science in Schools (General Assembly Resolution #48).

It could of course be rewritten as:

1) No member nation shall unreasonably restrict the pursuit of learning for its citizens.

But then you would run into problems. I had thought of using that wording, but I could foresee a number of problems with it.

Now, if you could find one where this would be in direct conflict, please share, because I didn't find one.

[Absolvability]

The Charter of Civil Rights covers about half of this proposal. The whole anti-discrimination thing needs to be deleted or this will be illegal. While I understand your reasoning for having including it, you can no more commit an act of duplication than you can of contradiction.

While I appreciate the fact that you didn't try to outline and mandate any specific curriculum, I believe you will need to go into more detail about exactly what oppurtunities are provided to students... and how we might go about providing them. Otherwise, frankly, the proposal just doesn't have enough meat to it. Especially after you delete the necessary items.

[Meekinos]

The Charter of Civil Rights covers about half of this proposal. The whole anti-discrimination thing needs to be deleted or this will be illegal. While I understand your reasoning for having including it, you can no more commit an act of duplication than you can of contradiction.

While I appreciate the fact that you didn't try to outline and mandate any specific curriculum, I believe you will need to go into more detail about exactly what oppurtunities are provided to students... and how we might go about providing them. Otherwise, frankly, the proposal just doesn't have enough meat to it. Especially after you delete the necessary items.

It's easier to add in than to remove, which is why I took this approach.

So, I will be taking out the first, or at least just rewording it so it is less like the Civil Rights Charter.

[Absolvability]

So, I will be taking out the first, or at least just rewording it so it is less like the Civil Rights Charter.

1) Each member nation shall not be restrict the pursuit of learning for its citizens based on any of the following:
a) sexual orientation
b) religious and/or political beliefs
c) ethnic, cultural and national background
d) gender and/or age
e) socio-economic status
f) marital status;

How easy the clause is to recognize isn't the issue. It needs to be removed. It'll make your proposal easier to categorize anyway. You're writing about education, so stick to it.

[Meekinos]

So, I will be taking out the first, or at least just rewording it so it is less like the Civil Rights Charter.

1) Each member nation shall not be restrict the pursuit of learning for its citizens based on any of the following:
a) sexual orientation
b) religious and/or political beliefs
c) ethnic, cultural and national background
d) gender and/or age
e) socio-economic status
f) marital status;

How easy the clause is to recognize isn't the issue. It needs to be removed. It'll make your proposal easier to categorize anyway. You're writing about education, so stick to it.

I changed it to be about education and the pursuit of learning. I had been unsure about the wording earlier. It should reflect the purpose of this act now.

[Absolvability]

Now we're getting somewhere. I especially like the part you added about ensuring affordability. This might finally bridge the gap between myself and Ambassador Mongkha in regards to the possible interaction between Access to Science in Schools and the Charter of Civil Rights.

I wonder what levels of education you're including in this however? I have to admit that, in many nations, college is unnecessarily expensive. However there are often large gaps between the prices of a more ordinary college and some ivy league university. Prestige costs money... and perhaps that isn't the college's fault. As far as elementary and high school, I agree that they should be next-to-free... which is to say that a small tax increase would be all but unavoidable.

Also, in regards to Clause 5 of your proposal, what levels of education do you mean to entail? And surely you don't mean to say that more specific vocational pathway courses will be limited??

[Meekinos]

Now we're getting somewhere. I especially like the part you added about ensuring affordability. This might finally bridge the gap between myself and Ambassador Mongkha in regards to the possible interaction between Access to Science in Schools and the Charter of Civil Rights.

Glad to hear.

I wonder what levels of education you're including in this however? I have to admit that, in many nations, college is unnecessarily expensive. However there are often large gaps between the prices of a more ordinary college and some ivy league university. Prestige costs money... and perhaps that isn't the college's fault. As far as elementary and high school, I agree that they should be next-to-free... which is to say that a small tax increase would be all but unavoidable.

I am thinking about that still. I am considering primary and secondary. Post-secondary is up in the air because of political ideology. Our goal is to appeal to the greatest number of delegates, and we realise that some nations may not want to put money into that area. We're going to see what works best. For now, I'm just thinking of how to expand in that area. This is a good point.

Also, in regards to Clause 5 of your proposal, what levels of education do you mean to entail? And surely you don't mean to say that more specific vocational pathway courses will be limited??

My objective is not to limit any line. We have avoided mentioning the specific lines because it may alienate some. With something as sensitive as education and mostly guarded by the majority of nations, I want my proposal to appeal to as many as possible. In previous ones I've drafted, I made the error of trying to be specific and it hurt the proposal.

[Meekinos]

I added in clause 6 and 10, and added another line to the opening statement. I hope it is more robust while still being neutral enough for the majority.

[Linux and the X]

Could 10(e) be rephrased as "have any other form of educational system"? Not all nations rely upon formal schools.

[Meekinos]

Could 10(e) be rephrased as "have any other form of educational system"? Not all nations rely upon formal schools.

That is an excellent suggestion. We have taken it under consideration and added it in.

[Malikov]

Meekinos wrote:
b) even the lowest income earners can return to school in order to better themselves without incurring a crippling debt;

I know that this is a triviality, but under what this says right now, one could assume the the debt incured has to actually cripple you. Including a defenition of "crippling debt", or doing a quick re-word, would clear this up though.

This proposal has my full support. Great job writing this.

[Meekinos]

Meekinos wrote:
b) even the lowest income earners can return to school in order to better themselves without incurring a crippling debt;

I know that this is a triviality, but under what this says right now, one could assume the the debt incured has to actually cripple you. Including a defenition of "crippling debt", or doing a quick re-word, would clear this up though.

This proposal has my full support. Great job writing this.

Thank you for your input.

"3 b) even the lowest income earners can return to school in order to better themselves without incurring a burdensome debt;"

We changed the end wording. We welcome your input on the change and any other suggestions you may have.

[New Rockport]

We in New Rockport have no federal educational system. Education is administered through a department of education in each state. Therefore, sections 2 through 8 could be problematic. We could support this resolution if it allowed for education to be administered by sub-national entities rather than the federal government.

Respectfully submitted,
Silvana Rossi
Ambassador to the World Assembly, Republic of New Rockport
Delegate to the World Assembly, Region of Albion

[Linux and the X]

I believe 10(e) would cover that situation.

[Meekinos]

We in New Rockport have no federal educational system. Education is administered through a department of education in each state. Therefore, sections 2 through 8 could be problematic. We could support this resolution if it allowed for education to be administered by sub-national entities rather than the federal government.

Respectfully submitted,
Silvana Rossi
Ambassador to the World Assembly, Republic of New Rockport
Delegate to the World Assembly, Region of Albion

We had anticipated this, and we understand that this is a legitimate concern.

We have purposely included two clauses to cover this eventuality; one for where there is no form of education, and where there is education but it is handled by non-federal entities. We also anticipated through this that education would be the jurisdiction of the provinces/states/prefectures etc, which is why we refrained from dictating which entity can control education. On closer examination we see how this could be a problem.

We believe you've brought up a good point, we have amended clause 10 to address this issue.

[Meekinos]

The current draft (which is posted back at the top for your viewing convenience) needs feedback from the delegates here. We would like to know if it needs to be changed. One of the changes is that we wanted to ensure that there was no restriction on what level of government could run it. We have tidied up some of the proposal's opening statements so it is more concise.

[Buffett and Colbert]

IT IS HEREBY proposed that this honourable assembly accept that each member nation shall:

8) Not force a citizen out of school simply for reaching age of majority maturity;

Hasn't this been covered already anyway?

[Meekinos]

IT IS HEREBY proposed that this honourable assembly accept that each member nation shall:

8) Not force a citizen out of school simply for reaching age of majority maturity;

Hasn't this been covered already anyway?

I do not believe it has. There are no ratified resolutions as far as I could tell. There are proposals though...

As for the changes, the first is fine. I do wonder about the second. Why 'maturity' instead of majority?

[Charlotte Ryberg]

The "age of maturity" best describes the age that a child legally becomes an adult, as specified by national law. The "age of majority" seems to describe the average age of the population.

[Linux and the X]

The term "age of majority" is already used in international law.

[Meekinos]

The "age of maturity" best describes the age that a child legally becomes an adult, as specified by national law. The "age of majority" seems to describe the average age of the population.

I thought it was age of majority, which is also suffrage, when a child legally becomes an adult. Maturity is open too far too much interpretation. Also, I have seen age of majority used in most resolutions. If you could point me to a WA precedent where maturity was used, it would be helpful.