Right to education.

Equal opportunity
The right to education is one of the fundamental rights which is part of the second
generation of rights, called negative rights. This right ensures the education for children and
youngsters, but also their professional training in order to integrate them in the society and on
the labour market later in their life. Regarding its content, it is a social-cultural law, social
because of the great number of its receivers, and cultural because of his purpose.

Because of its importance, the right to education is regulated at both internal and
external level, by a series of international pacts and conventions. Therefore, the Romanian
Constitution provides for this right in the article 32 which states that education of all forms is
conducted in the Romanian language and in state units, public education is free, the state
granting social scholarships for pupils and students from disadvantaged families and ensures
the freedom of the religious education.

Moreover, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides in the article 26 for
everybody’s right to education. Education must seek the entire development of the human
personality and the sense of dignity and to strengthen the respect of the human rights and the
fundamental freedoms. Through education, every person should become capable of playing a
useful role in a free society, it should favour the understanding, tolerance and the friendship
between all nations and all racial, ethnic and religious groups and encourage United Nations’
activities for the maintenance of peace. The ECHR contains in the first Protocol, at the second
article the provision according to which: “Nobody’s right to education can be refused. The
state, exercising the function which it will take in educational domain, will respect the
parents’ right of providing this education according to their religious and philosophical
beliefs.” The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union also guarantees the right
to education in the article 14.

The constitutional text implies a few regulations regarding the manner of achieving the
education:

-The education of all forms is conducted the Romanian language. This regulation must
be interpreted regarded the official character of the Romanian language, referred to in article
13 from the Constitution. The Constitution offers, though, the possibility that, by law, the
state can decide that the education can take place in a language of international circulation,
this regulation proving the fact that the state supports the students to be instructed in another
language other than the official one. The advantage is that it gives the Romanian students the
possibility of having contact with students from other countries, the Romanian schools the
possibility of exchanging experience with schools from other countries and it facilitates the
students’ future studied in universities in foreign countries. Due to the protection the
Romanian state gives to its citizens, including the ones that belong to national minorities, and
for the application of the principle of equality, the Constitution provides for the right of
people belonging to national minorities to learn their native language and the right to be
taught in that language.
 -The public education is free, according to the law. The constitutional text regards only
the public education as being free, not also the private and the confessional education, but not
the entire public education is free. The constitution leaves the possibility for the law to
establish the rules applicable in the matter of free education. As a result, the state grants social
scholarships to students from disadvantaged families and to institutionalized students. As a
rule, the compulsory education is also free.

-The higher education benefits from academic autonomy. The academic autonomy
means the possibility of each university to establish its own rules, to exercise academic
freedom without any political, ideological, religious interference, to set their national strategic
orientations of the academic education.

-The religious education is organised and is held according to each cult’s specific
requirements. Regarding the religious education in public schools, it must be taken into
account of the respect of the freedom of the conscience of each person and the avoidance of
the indoctrination or the compulsion of anybody to embrace some religion. Regarding the
confessional education, it must be taken into account of the professional training of the
teachers, according to each cult’s general requirements.

Being a right guaranteed by the Constitution, it is required that in a democratic state

there must exist equal opportunities for every child and young person. Equal opportunities
represent the concept according to which every human being is free to develop the personal
capabilities and choose without limitations imposed by strict roles. Equal opportunities are
based on the insurance of the complete participation of each person to the economic and
social life, with no difference of sex, religion, age, disabilities or ethnic origin. Lately, the
Romanian school has been confronting with different problems, among which the tuition for
disadvantaged children or for those with special educative requirements. Various studies
signal the existence of inequalities in the access and participation in a quality education. The
limited material resources of the schools, the poor motivation for participating in educational
activities, the low educational aspiration, the school drop-out, the violence in schools, the
discrimination are problematic aspects of the entire educational system in Romania, but which
particularly affects the students from disadvantaged social groups.

The provenience social environment and the parents have a high importance regarding
the children’s participation in education, not only by providing the basic needs, but also by
supporting the physical and intellectual development and representing their interests in the
community and in the relation with the educational establishment. The exercise of the parental
and community influence over the schools represents the main way to express the children’s
needs, especially of those from disadvantaged social groups, regarding the participation in
education. The best solution for an educational system that satisfies the needs of every student
proves to be the inclusive education, characterised by the following principles: each student’s
right to education, based on equal opportunities; no student can be excluded from the
education nor can be discriminated based on race, religion, color, ethnicity, sex, language or
disabilities; school is adapting to the student’s needs; the individual differences between the
students represent a source of richness and diversity, and not a problem. The implication of
parents from disadvantaged social groups, by representing the specific interests of
unprivileged students, can stimulate the decisional processes towards some actions meant to
support equal opportunities in education. However, the membership in a disadvantaged social
group is frequently correlated with a low civic participation, a poor confidence in authorities
and a limited capacity of influencing institutional decisions.

A series of studies have identified the factors that cause a low participation in
education amongst disadvantaged population. Living in rural environment is a main factor
that favours educational inequalities. Low educational scores at writing, reading, Mathematics
and Science knowledge are based on the discrepancies between the schools in the rural and
urban environment. Poverty is another important cause to children’s low participation in
education. Even though education is theoretically free, it does not mean that participation in
education does not imply costs, even financial ones. Discrimination is another factor that
limits the access to education. The participation of an ethnical minority in the educational
system is strongly influenced by the existent relations between the minority and the majority.

Equal opportunity means offering multiple options for different capabilities and skills,
“an education for each and every one”, an education open for every person, regardless of age
and socio-economic conditions, but also an education for each individual, depending on its
specific needs, avoiding homogenization and encouraging diversity, which shall create the
premises of equal opportunity on access in social life. This option was supported by equal
opportunity policies, which has as an objective the combat of exclusion and exacerbated
selection, the training of basic competence for everybody, “Second chance”-type education
for those who had left the educational system, integrating the formal education with the non-
formal and informal education, in order to extend the learning situations.