Is a good education a right or privilege?

In the current world situation, education plays an important role which could solve the global problems and push the development in almost every field especially economy and society. (Sesha,2012). Education is not only offering the world or the country to prevent bad things from happening, but also to change individual life as well. As an essential tool in human life, education is being debated by many people under the motion of whether it is a right or a privilege? I completely support that education is the rights for everyone, not for a group of people. Everyone should have their own rights to get education. 

Everyone must get an equality in education. The right to get education has been recognized in a number of international and regional legal instruments including treaties, conventions, covenants, charters. (organization, 2018).  For example, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 started in article 26 about the equality of education. After that, numerous conventions have reaffirmed such as UNESCO Convention against Discrimination in Education in 1960, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in 1979, Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989. Those conventions also provide the guarantee for all kind of people; they are men, women, children, refugees, migrants, the black, the white, different religions or ethnic groups who can access to education without any discriminations. Just like Cambodia, the increasing of children between 3-5 years old, who access to education had increased from 82% in 2007 to 97% in 2017. More than that, people who live in province such as Mondulkiri and Ratanakiri provinces are able to get education even they are ethnic groups. In Phnom Penh city, the diverse religions also can study together without any problems. This is clearly show that people have an equality rights on education. 

A good education flash people mind to join in the social work which allows all citizens to be a part of developing their country. Education pushes people to think correctly and forces the country to become more peaceful. For example, King Sihanouk, who is an educated person, helps gain independent for Cambodia from France colonizer. Because of his knowledge from the western country, he uses those skills to encourage Cambodian to love their own country, and together form a group of people to go against the aggressive France colonizer. As a result, we successfully gain the independence in 1953. This shows us that education is the most powerful weapon that can change the whole country from one regime to others. 

Everyone has their own rights to get education in order to improve the living standard and make their daily life become more convenient. Education is the only way that shifts people from an extreme poverty to become rich and successful. When we get education, we can find a good job to do with a higher salary. We can use the spare money from our daily expenses to buy what we need or want including houses, cars, phones, clothes and many more. People's life would be difficult if we don't have enough facilities and furniture to use in a particular situation. At the same time, many electronic devices and other inventions that people use today are created by educated people. Meaning that those inventions come from the knowledge that we have learned combining with each person talented and creativity. This is how education makes our life become more colorful.

Some people argue that education must be a privilege because it's a waste of time and money. We have to pay a lot money to buy textbooks, related materials and school fee. If we don’t study, we must save a lot money. Also, we have to spend almost 20 years to finish general knowledge and college school, so if we use those time to work, it helps increase our profit and solves financial problem in the family. Only the one who have time and no financial problem can access to education. But if we think that invest in education is like growing a tree, we will find out the differences ending. We cannot get the fruit in the first or second year, we have to wait for four to five years to get an enormous benefit. In the fifth year, the fruit will come out, so we can enjoy it for the rest of our life. But the years that we were waiting is very hard; we have to spent money and time on taking care of them. Education also the same as growing a tree, we have to wait until we graduated, then we find the job, earn some money, and we can pay back to those years that we suffer. So, education must be a right for everyone to has. 

In conclusion, each person has the right to learn and get higher education. It is not a privilege for individuals or specific group of people. When people are educated, their life will be better, and we can use it to develop our country so that the world will live in peace. Due to its benefits, people should grab their opportunity to learn since we have born and use it wisely in our daily life to improve our living conditions.

References:

Sesha. (2012, March 21). Role of Education in our life. India Study Channel. Retrieved from: https://www.indiastudychannel.com/resources/150187-Role-Education-our-life.aspx

Organization. (2018). International Law. The Right to Education Initiatives. Retrieved from: https://www.right-to-education.org/page/about-us