Parental Rights and Education in Central & Eastern Europe

The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights gives parents the ‘right to choose the kind of education that is given to their children.’ The paper cites examples from the UK and elsewhere to explain how and why, in practice, the state often has its say in how children are to be educated. This provides a context for a discussion of parental rights in relation to education of children across five countries in Central & Eastern Europe: Hungary, Poland, Romania, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The paper also considers the possibility of home-schooling in these countries, while using the UK and Germany as a basis for comparison. Drawing on the author’s own experience as a policy advisor in England, the paper then considers the theory and the practice of parental rights in a liberal state. The paper then considers the importance of the family as the foundation of civil society - and discusses the very different approaches of the state to parental rights in Scotland and the Netherlands. The paper concludes by identifying the questions that should be asked by observers who are
concerned at the reduction in parental rights in many countries.