ABSTRACT
Equality has long been a major goal of education around the world. As early as 1948, Article 26 of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights stated that, “everyone has the right to education” and, “education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stage”. In line with this declaration, most governments profess a commitment to equality, and have taken various steps to provide at least basic education to all of their citizens regardless of the ways in which governments have interpreted the notion of equality, as well as their limited ability to fund measures working towards the goal of equality in education. The production of social and human capital has often been cited as one of the main reasons for supporting the goal of equality in education. And indeed, there is a great deal of credible evidence to suggest that an investment in education not only provides personal benefits to individuals, in terms of their earning capacity, but also has the potential to benefit whole communities, in both economic and social realms. There has therefore been a major push by intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), like the World Bank, the OECD and UNESCO, and non-governmental organizations, for universal access to primary education, while the demand for secondary and tertiary education has also grown rapidly.
