The right to education means that the State should make adequate provision for educating its citizens. Education sharpens intellect, equips individuals with the capacity to work and trains them in the art of citizenship.
Citizenship has been defined “as the contribution of one’s instructed judgment to the public good.”
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Education is an indispensable condition to free individual development and makes man fit for the tasks of citizenship. Laski says, “In the long run, power belongs to those who can formulate and grasp ideas.”
An uneducated individual can neither understand politics nor can he become vigilant about his interests and consequently his actual participation in the affairs of the State is generally negligible.
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Such a citizen is bound to be the slave of others. He will not have the opportunity to rise to the fall stature of his personality. “He will go through life a stunted being whose impulses have never been ordered by reason into creative experiment.”
This means the failure of democracy, for the people who are ultimate masters will not be able to exercise their franchise intelligently or perform their other civic duties satisfactorily. Hence, the democratic slogan is: “Educate the masters.” Apparently, the right to education is a civil right, but really, it is a political right as it safeguards them.
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Right to education does not, however, mean an identical intellectual training for all citizens. It only means provision for that type of education which should give an equal opportunity to all citizens in that branch of knowledge for which they have an aptitude. Then, there should be a compulsory minimum level of education below which no one may fall, if he is to conform to the standard of a good citizen.
Every citizen should have at least as much education as may enable him to weigh, judge, choose, and decide for himself. “He must be made to feel that this is a world in which he can by the use of his mind and will shape at once outline and substance.”