How can primary education be both compulsory and a right?
The compulsory nature of primary education stems from the idea that the best interests of children are served by not allowing them to refuse education below a certain level.24 Are the two things necessarily in conflict? A comparison may be made with voting which is both a right and a duty in Australian law. Hodgson sees an ‘apparent inconsistency’. He suggests a reading of the word ‘compulsory’ to mean that ‘no person or body can prevent children from receiving a basic education’.25 Nowak comments that ‘Education is one of the few human rights for which it is universally agreed that the individual has a corresponding duty to exercise this right’.26 The element of compulsion serves to highlight the fact that neither parents, nor guardians, nor the State are entitled to treat as optional the decision as to whether the child should have access to primary education . It should be emphasized, however, that the education offered must be adequate in quality, relevant to the child and must pro
