Right to Education in Bangladesh: An Appraisal for Constitutional Guarantee

Abstract: Education is a process in developing humans on acquiring knowledge and practicing skills for the intrinsically inherent onward progress of the society. Human development can be categorically ascribed as impossible without education as it has all along been the backbone of the society and the precondition for the proliferation of thriving civilization, hence, "˜Education' is recognized as a human right in various international instruments.  The Constitution of Bangladesh  declared that education was free and compulsory and also the State shall adopt effective measures for the purpose of establishing a uniform, mass oriented and universal system of education.  For this purpose, the Education Policy  in Bangladesh has been accordingly passed and the draft of Education Law  is on the way to become an Act. These imply emphasis on education that should be kept in a legal framework to keep pace with the competitive contemporary world. Bangladesh is a stakeholder of those international instruments recognizing education as a human right. Thus, Bangladesh cannot deny the responsibilities attendant in the instruments. Moreover, a constitutional incorporation of education as a Fundamental Principles of the State Policy is an implied obligation to irrevocably recognize it as a Fundamental Right or to give it a constitutional guarantee. Recently, numerous countries, both the East and the West, neighboring countries of Bangladesh recognized education as a right along with a constitutional guarantee because the pursuit of knowledge is obligatory for any individual and in a sense; Bangladesh can be cited as a good example in this regard.