Human Rights Education (HRE) represents a crucial part of the Bangladeshi school’s curriculums which is a vital part of the primary, secondary, and higher secondary school level textbooks. Human Rights expert believes that human rights education is one of the best ways of empowering people for promoting dignity and highlighting skills, it is beneficial for our community and society.
Receiving ethical knowledge from formal learning in various government or non-government institutions including family, school, college, university, society and mass media is the right of every human child. All are helping to develop our inner skills, personality, mental strength and promote ours owns respect.
Bangladesh after getting independent in 1971 emphasized on rights based education for children in applying those in history, civics, politics, poetry, tales, social science, and other textbooks. Children also learn about their rights with the help of supplementary reading materials through ‘Child-to-Child Approach’.
With the help of primary and secondary-level textbooks, students can boost up their knowledge about citizens’ rights and the higher- secondary civics textbook mentioned that those who are noncitizens should also enjoy all other social rights enjoyed by citizens which was also the subject issue of human rights, also mentioned in the articles of Universal Deceleration of Human Rights (UDHR).
The children in the primary stage are supposed to learn about 53 terminal compatibilities, such as:
· love and respect for all creation
· tolerance for all religions
· respect for all people without any discrimination
· respect for parents, teachers, neighbors, and their duties, performance, and qualification toward them
· social awareness
· awareness of rights and duties as a member of society
· tolerance for other opinions
· capability to express their own opinion
· defense of both rights and obligations
The students can be aware of social rights, moral values and legal rights through human rights education. All these compatibilities are directly related to the provision of the UN Declaration. Children have the right to their parents’ care is shown by the textbook of environmental social studies in grade -3 in Bangladesh. The character of a mother as cook, nurse, doctor, teacher or family caregiver should also be described in lessons.
According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) Article 25 (a) mentioned that everyone has the right to an adequate standard of living for the health and welfare of himself and his family and this right includes access to food, clothing, shelter, medical and other necessary social services and security in case of unemployment, illness, disability, widowhood, old age, or another inability to live due to unavoidable reasons. According to Article 25(B), everyone is entitled to special assistance in motherhood and childhood. All children will enjoy the same social security, whether they are born out of wedlock or within wedlock. In this regard, according to the Declaration taking care of father and mother is the full-time duty of the children.
Not only take care but also respect them, follow their orders, listen to what they say, nurse them when they are sick are the duty of the children according to the Declaration. Rights and in the chapter of primary school level textbook duties of children are also discussed, although from the beginning they should have been presented. But the question is why are the rights of children recognized by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
During the First World War thousands of children lost their parents and relatives, it was so pathetic. In Geneva, an international conference was held for taking care of them, declared that children have rights also. Millions of children got orphaned during the Second World War. There are two articles in The Declaration (UDHR) that ensure the rights of children. The first Monday of October has been observed as Children’s Day by the Declaration. The UN General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child on 20 November 1989 and after one year it came into force. Most of the countries ratified that and after being ratified by Bangladesh children’s rights have been incorporated into the legal system.
Pupils should learn human rights by text materials such as social science, civics, English and Bangla pieces of literature. The school curriculum can play a crucial role in this regard; also can put due emphasis on the effective domain to the students so that they may become humanistic, democratic-minded, and tolerant. Finally, we must be aware of the need to improve the curriculum. We urgently need more and more concepts of human rights issues in the textbooks to incorporate more and more democratic ideals.
In this regard, the OIC-IPHRC has strongly recommended that the member states of OIC should be inspired to make human rights education (HRE) in all the institutions and should involve the student. For this reason, it is mandatory to impart education to students in human rights and the decision makers in education must make HRE compulsory in all institutions from elementary levels.
(Mr. Shahriar is a student of Department of Law & Human Rights, University
of Asia Pacific).
