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This article participates on the following special index pages:
New Constitution-making process - Index of articles
Right
to education in the draft Constitution captured
Students
Solidarity Trust
November 02, 2012
Now that the second
stakeholders' conference has come and gone SST maintains the
position that the right to education be enshrined in the new constitution
informed by views of students consulted in the past three and half
years.
As part of its programming, the SST which is one of the leading
voices within the education sector in the country, started campaigning
for the right to education to be enshrined in the new supreme law
of the land soon after the signing of the Global
Political Agreement [GPA] that mandated the government
of national unity through Article IV to come up with a new democratic
and people-driven constitution. Indeed it is true that the Lancaster
House cease-fire document
which the country is still using as the supreme law of the land
and which has to date been amended a record 19 times still remains
silent on the right to education notwithstanding the importance
of education in the new millennium and the global village in which
we find ourselves in. In a normal and functional democracy the 19
amendments should have taken care of the right to education as a
way of showing the nation's appreciation of the fundamental
importance of education. Now when such an important human right
standard is not enshrined in the constitution it becomes very difficult
for anyone in the country to take the government to court for failure
to provide education or failure to make education affordable and
accessible and this kind of scenario benefits the government which
has got the duty to provide affordable education to its citizens.
Is this not the reason why the government has been failing to make
the right to education enforceable by enshrining it in the constitution,
one wonders?
Zimbabwe is part of the league of nations called the United Nations
(UN) and sits in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and
as such is bound by the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) of 1948. In fact progressive
nations have over the years incorporated into their national laws
most of the rights enshrined in the UDHR in line with the last paragraph
of the UDHR preamble which states verbatim " Now, Therefore
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN
RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all
nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society,
keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching
and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and
by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their
universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the
peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories
under their jurisdiction."
Through Article 26(1) of the UDHR every individual has got a right
to education and it goes on to state that education shall be free,
at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education
shall be compulsory while technical and professional education shall
be made generally available and higher education shall be equally
accessible to all on the basis of merit. Underlying all this is
the fact that everyone has got a right to education and member states
of the UN are obliged to domesticate this section by enshrining
it in their national laws. But 32 years down the line our country
has been failing to do such a simple act for obvious reasons some
of which have been alluded to supra and this is the reason why the
Students Solidarity Trust has been vigorously campaigning through
print and electronic media for the right to education to be enshrined
in the constitution. This is the framework within which the SST
made numerous forays to the four corners of the country visiting
such remote areas as Hauna in Mutasa district, Nkayi in Matebeleland
north province and Mabasa Growth Point in Zvishavane amomg many
other places to raise critical awareness ahead of the Copac (Constitutional
Parliamentary Committee) outreach teams that the right to education
must be a constitutional right and holding several meetings with
constitution making stakeholders.
In line with article 6 of the Global Political Agreement Copac embarked
on a nationwide outreach program gathering the views of the populace
and due to bickering by the political parties to the GPA and funding
challenges the process took over 3 years. Finally after all the
confusion, heated verbal exchanges, trade-offs, accusations by some
organisations within the civic society about the process, coaching
of the populace by some political parties the constitution making
process came to a logical conclusion and came up with the draft
that was made public in July after being presented to the principals
and the second stakeholders' conference has been held.
One of the areas that the new draft has captured well as compared
to the current Lancaster House Constitution is the bill of rights
where all fundamental human rights have been captured. The Draft
has got an entire chapter on fundamental rights, interpretation
of such rights and how such rights can be limited. Chapter 4.32
of the draft constitution reads verbatim;
(1) Every citizen and permanent resident of Zimbabwe has a right
to -
(a) a basic State-funded education, including adult basic education;
and
(b) further education, which the State, through reasonable legislative
and other measures, must make progressively available and accessible.
(2) Every person has the right to establish and maintain, at their
own expense, independent educational institutions of reasonable
standards, provided they do not discriminate on any ground prohibited
by this Constitution.
(3) A law may provide for the registration of educational institutions
referred to in subsection (2) and for the closing of any such institutions
that do not meet reasonable standards prescribed for registration.
(4) The State must take reasonable legislative and other measures,
within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realisation
of the right set out in subsection (1).
The message that the SST took to the four corners of the country
that the right to education must be a constitutional right seem
to have been captured well by the drafters of the Zimbabwean constitution
through subsection (1)(a) and (b). This will provide (if the constitution
is adopted) the national framework upon which reasonable legislative
and other measures by the legislature may then follow to provide
flesh and meaning to achieve the progressive realisation of the
right captured through subsection (1). In terms of subsection (4)
the State has got a duty to (a) put in place a necessary legislative
framework through the legislature to achieve the right to education
as set in subsection (1), (b) to employ other measures at its disposal
to achieve the same and (c) to use available resources at its disposal
to achieve, through progressive realisation the right to education.
When the State fails in one or the other to discharge its duties
as mentioned above the citizens will have a right to take the State
to court to enforce the right to education as enshrined through
subsection (1) of the draft constitution. In short the right to
education will become an enforceable right if this draft
constitution is adopted in its current form by the people of Zimbabwe
through a referendum
scheduled to be held later in the year.
Visit the Students
Solidarity Trust fact
sheet
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