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Human Rights in The World Bank 2020 Education Strategy

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The World Bank and Education

Part of the book series: Comparative and International Education ((CIEDV,volume 14))

Abstract

At the outset of the World Bank’s new Education Strategy 2020. Learning for All (hereafter, WBES 2020), the right of all children to access education is proclaimed together with a ringing endorsement of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Yet, human rights do not feature again in the document. Our critique concerning the rhetoric behind the World Bank strategy as an attempt to colonize the human rights discourse, embraces Uvin’s sardonic sentiment “like Moliere’s character who discovered that he had always been speaking prose, that human rights is what these development agencies were doing all along. Case closed; high moral ground safely established” (Uvin, 2010, p. 165).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, University of Johannesburg, South Africa

    Salim Vally

  2. Curry School of Education, University of Virginia, U.S.A.

    Carol Anne Spreen

Authors
  1. Salim Vally
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  2. Carol Anne Spreen
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Maryland, U.S.A.

    Steven J. Klees

  2. Stanford University, U.S.A.

    Joel Samoff

  3. University of Maryland, U.S.A.

    Nelly P. Stromquist

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© 2012 Sense Publishers

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Vally, S., Spreen, C.A. (2012). Human Rights in The World Bank 2020 Education Strategy. In: Klees, S.J., Samoff, J., Stromquist, N.P. (eds) The World Bank and Education. Comparative and International Education, vol 14. SensePublishers, Rotterdam. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6091-903-9_12

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