Global education strategies formally divide the world in two parts. A low threshold has been laid down for the poor (primary education as a long-term goal) while the rich continue performing to a much higher standard (secondary education for all and lifelong learning to follow).

The right to education should have globally institutionalised a minimal entitlement for all humans premised on its two characteristics: (1) that it is a human right rather than an entitlement limited to citizens, and (2) that governmental human rights obligations are universal rather than circumscribed by national borders. This has not happened and the global trend is, in fact, in the opposite direction. Two general findings of the annual educational assessments by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) have described that trend:

• the proportion of private funding of primary and secondary education tends to be higher in countries with low levels of GDP per capita, and
• education reproduces existing patterns of privilege.

This section of the report examines the dichotomy of assessment, definitions and practices in this part of the world when it comes to education. It looks at the Wealthy West examining the history behind the establishment of a universal public system and uses this argument to make the case for applying the same principles and practice in poorer countries. In addition, policy-based charges in primary school in this region are discussed highlighting the need to scrutinize the fate of the poor in rich countries.
The tyranny of statistical averages portrays these countries as having universalized education but this is often not the case.

The link between the elimination of child labour and free and compulsory education formed part of the oldest international human rights law.

All-encompassing and compulsory education was introduced in many of today’s post-industrializing countries in the 19th century. Education was gradually made free because experience showed that it would never actually become compulsory unless it was also free. The four key arguments behind universal, state-funded education in 1877 in New Zealand were:

• social control,
• the need for an educated electorate,
• investment in economic productivity, and
• equal individual rights.

The report notes how surprisingly little has changed regarding these four arguments in more than a century.

It is against this background that this section examines the laws and policies in the wealthy, mostly post-industrializing countries to discern the incidence of free and for-fee models of education.

Definitions of free education include a range of subsidies provided to offset the cost of enrolment, tuition, books, meals, computers, sports, transportation for children who live far from school, as well as extra-curricular activities.

Although compulsory education in public schools is free in all 34 countries, generous interpretations of the meaning of free are not shared amongst all Western countries. Charges have been introduced in some countries and these are explored in some depth.

Types of direct charges in public primary education