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Challenges to Learning and Teaching
Human Rights
Jefferson R. Plantilla

No one went to class in order to learn but only to avoid getting marked
absent. The class is reduced to reciting lessons from memory, reading
the book and once in a while, answering one or other trivial, abstract,
profound, cunning, enigmatic questions. True, there was no shortage oflittle sermons (sermonitas)--they were always the same--about humility,
submission, respect for the religious...

T

The phonographs (los fonografos) played, some well, others bad; others stuttered and were prompted. He who recited without a mistake earned a goodmark while he who committed more than three mistakes a bad one.

his is a quote from El Filibusterismo,1 a late 19th century novel written by
Jose Rizal.2 In describing a class in physics, he was criticizing the state of
the Spanish colonial education system in the Philippines. The novel uses theword “phonographs” to refer to the students, since they have to parrot whatever
the textbooks provide or the teacher said. The novel expresses the situation of thestudents: some students memorize and recite well; others do not do so and get
bad grades.
Though a fictional account, the 19th
century classroom situation described in thenovel reflects to a large extent the criticisms
about school education today. Rote learning
has long been seen as an inappropriate way ofeducating young people. Some of the frequently
mentioned components of modern educationrefer to critical thinking, active learning, andthe learning of lifeskills. School education is
supposed to prepare young people to become
productive and active members of society inthe future. Nobody argues against this goal of
education.
In the context of a modern society thatstresses competition and accumulation of wealth,parents want to ensure that their children are

ensured of a place in the best private company
or government office by having a diploma fromthe best private or public university.

The Goal of Education
Jose Rizal has been known for promoting
education as the best way towards a better
future. He learned from the more advanced
countries in Europe at that time that education created the capacity of the people to be
free from oppression and opened opportunities for economic progress. He would like thepeople to open their minds to new ideas anduse them.3 Within the late 19th century colonial

149

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HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION IN ASIAN SCHOOLS

society context in the Philippines, he wanted
the Filipinos to overcome colonial thinking,and embrace the new, liberal ideas in Europe
particularly those that relate to freedom fromany form of domination (political or religious).
He wrote to Filipino women who wanted to be
educated in the Spanish language to reflect onsome ideas including the following:
All men are born equal, naked, without bonds.
God did not create man to be a slave; nor did heendow him with intelligence to have him hoodwinked, or adorn him with reason to have him
deceived by others. It is not fatuous to refuse toworship one’s equal, to cultivate one’s intellect,
and to make use of reason in all things. Fatuous
is he who makes a god of him who makes brutesof others, and who strives to submit to his whims
all that is reasonable and just.4

Translated into educational terms, educationmeans freedom from ignorance and bondage,
and the proper cultivation of intelligence innate
in each person. It also means that education
makes the person act with reason and sense ofjustice, and not act on whims.
There is a strong resonance of these ideas intoday’s human rights conception of education.
Article 29 of the Convention on the Rights of
the Child provides:
1.	States Parties agree that the educationof the child shall be directed to:(a) The development of the child’s
personality, talents and mental andphysical abilities to their fullest potential;(b) The development of respect forhuman rights and fundamental
freedoms, and for the principles enshrined in the Charter of the United
Nations.
Education is not merely a classroom affair.
It is meant for life after school. It has societal

value. In one case study of a rural school in
the Philippines in the 1960s, it was found thatwithout a link between the school and the community the knowledge and skills learned inside
the classroom were forgotten after leaving theschool. As observed by the researcher
If modern education has to be a vehicle for social and cultural change, educators must reckon
with the significance of continuity between theclassroom instruction and community life where
the school operates.5

One important thing to note in this report isthe standard used in analyzing school education,
namely, that modern education is a vehicle forsocial and cultural change. Modern education
is a vehicle for new ideas that should promotesocial progress and economic prosperity.
Delinking the classroom from the world (orthe community where the school is) is likewise
unproductive from a personal viewpoint. It
would not achieve meaningful education. A
more recent experience in China echoes thisview:6After several exciting weeks at the university, I
soon became disappointed about the lessons. The
teaching method in the university was the sameas in the elementary school and middle school,
the teacher talking and talking, just asking thestudents to make notes and remember them. If
you got good marks in your examinations, you
would be considered a good student. There wasseldom a connection with real life. Sitting on thechair in the classroom was like being put into a
prison. I escaped from the prison, the classroom,and spent most of my time in the library andon the internet, reading books and magazines
about education, farming and gardening, to get
the knowledge and information that I needed.
Studying and working for my dream was moresatisfying!

Challenges to Learning and Teaching Human Rights  151

This student yearned to know more about
the world but education inside the classroom
did not provide the knowledge that she/hewanted. How many students would do thesame, taking the initiative to learn more outside
the classroom to satisfy their thirst for knowledge about real life? It should be a shame forany school for failing to make their students
learn about things that should matter most in
their future lives.
This leads to the problem of relevance of
education to the lives of the students. Those
who know what they want to do in the futuretake the initiative to learn about their interest
in whatever way possible, as in the case of theChinese student.
But who determines what is relevant to thestudents? In cases of families who can afford
good (and expensive) education, the parents
are likely to choose schools that provide theirchildren with the kind of education they like.
In the “economically-developed city-state”
Singapore, parents may not choose schools that“stick to the basics.” Madrassas that employ the“progressive madrassa model,” which combines
religious studies with academic studies, may
not be that attractive to the members of the
Muslim community in Singapore. Parents may
find secular schools providing not just academic
studies but also more “exposure to other cultures and [give] more opportunities to explore
other endeavors” such as sports and art.7 This
option does not exist however for many parents
who can only (or hardly) afford to send theirchildren to public schools.

Competition-oriented Education
For more than a decade at least, educatorsand governments have been calling for an education system that responds to the needs of thetime – creativity, capacity to resolve problems,
knowledge with relevance to the needs not onlyof one’s self but also of the family and com-munity, lifeskills, etc. In human rights terms,
what is needed is education that facilitates thefull development of human potentials and that
ultimately serves the society as a whole. But
more importantly, from a human rights perspective, is the social concern of education interms of the fulfillment or realization of suchhuman potentials through the fulfillment or
realization of human rights and fundamental
freedoms within the premises of the school.
How else can we realize our potentials if we are
restricted in the way we think and move inside
the classroom and the school?
There are reasons why students might suffer
restrictions in their effort to develop their own
potentials to the full.
Among the Chinese community in Singapore and Malaysia kiasu plays an importantconsideration on the way students should
experience education. Kiasu, meaning fear of
losing out, provides the social pressure on bothstudents and parents to aim at higher grades andmore knowledge and skills in order to ensure
capacity to compete in the “real” world. Suchpressure translates into long hours of study andconstant pressure on the students to be academically ahead. Those who can afford resort
to after-school tutorial lessons, not to keep up
with the lessons in school but to move muchfurther ahead and be ensured of passing theuniversity entrance examinations.
Chiam Heng Keng explains the impact of
kiasu:8
Kiasu is the “fear of losing out” in Hokkien, oneof the Chinese dialects. This term was first coinedin Singapore but it reflects the culture of manynations, not only in Asia but also in other developed countries. Teaching children while they
are still in the mother’s womb, Glen Doman’s
method of using flash cards to teach babies andSmart’s Readers to teach young children to readbeyond their age are examples of a wide range ofavailable methods to enable children to have ahead start. Parents’ and society’s relentless pres-

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sure for children to run and win the academic
race is probably a main cause of mental disorderand social problems. Studies have shown thatdelinquency is masked depression. Mental disorder is manifested in the inability of children’s(later in their adult life) inability to manage
their emotions. Turning to drugs is one of themeans to escape from feelings of helplessness,inadequacy and other psychosocial problems.
Unfortunately, we do not realize the extent of
the mental disorder because the percentage ofthem who break down is small during the schooldays. Domestic violence, drug abuse (including
alcoholism), incest, road rage and white collar
crimes are some of the manifestations of themental disorder which begins with the pressure
to achieve good results no matter what the cost.
Article 28 and Article 31 of the Convention on
the Rights of the Child are blatantly violated byparents, society and the State.

The practice of having a head start in education unfortunately has become ingrained inmany societies, and has become part of business.
After-class tutoring has become another sourceof income for low-salaried teachers, and quite a
big business in more developed countries.
The juku or after-school tutorial class is acommon feature in the life of many primaryand secondary students in Japan who would
like to pass the entrance examinations of thebest senior secondary schools (both public andprivate) and of the best universities (also public
and private). Parents in Korea also resort toafter-school tutorial and pray for help in making
their children pass the entrance examinations of
the best schools or universities in the temples
for the God of Wisdom.
Juku in mid-1990s is described as follows:9
For a fee, a child can obtain tutorial services orparticipate in classes specifically designed to teachexam-taking techniques. Jukus cover what are
called the five basic subject areas, Japanese language, mathematics, English language, scienceand social studies. Class sizes are usually small,up to about ten students, but some may be larger
or smaller. Classes last about two hours andconvene from two to three days a week.
Parents judge the success of the juku simply
on results. They want to know if it will help thechild pass the exam. So the job of the juku is notnecessarily to teach so that the child understands
the subject matter. Its job it only to show how
efficiently it can get the student through the subject he is having problems with, how successfully
it can get the child through the entrance exam.
To this end, jukus use any means available. A
representative example is the myriad mnemonic
expressions Japanese children use as rote memory
tools.

There are still many Japanese primary andsecondary students in the 2000s who go home
at 10 pm after their juku classes. Today, the jukus remain as ubiquitous as they were decades
before, with over 50,000 of them all over thecountry. The supposed lower capacity of publicschools to prepare the students for the university entrance examination led more students tothe jukus with full support from the parents andthe local community. In the words of a parent
whose child entered the desired university:10
Thanks to juku, my son was able to get into a
good public high school,” she says. “Without it,
he wouldn’t have made it to university.”

The head of a community group sponsoring
cheaper juku classes in Tokyo remarked:11
It’s the job of teachers to teach students the basics
of subjects equally. They can’t teach students how
to pass entrance exams individually.

In mid-2000s the thriving business of the jukus reflected the state of education in Japan:12
Conventional wisdom has long had it that university entrance exams are the deciding factor
in a person’s long-term earning power; in otherwords, entrance to the right university is thoughtChallenges to Learning and Teaching Human Rights  153

to pave the way to a secure, well-paid job at arespectable company. But now, this pressure extends further back, with many parents claimingthat a person’s future is largely dependent onentry to the right junior high school. As competition to get into prestigious public schools has
become tougher, trust in state-run schools has
been further eroded due, in part, to the “flexible
education” system the government introduced in
2002, which encouraged the expansion of private
schools through various tax breaks.

After-school tutorial for the sake of passing
university examinations is true in many Asian
countries particularly for middle-class families.
The basic idea is to make their students compete well in school, in order to become readyto live a life of competition at work or in any
business endeavor.
But the results did not seem to make muchdifference, in terms of performance in international examinations. One report states:13
Despite all the hysteria over sending children to
the best schools, and the spike in the growth of
the juku business, a 2004 survey by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development showed that Japanese students’ math andreading abilities have fallen behind those of theircontemporaries from Hong Kong and Korea.

The results of international examinations
drive governments in richer countries such as
Japan to devise ways to stop the slide to lower
academic achievements. But these efforts arealso likely to increase the competitive natureof education.
The Programme for International Student
Assessment (PISA),14 has become one of thebases of several Asian countries15 in determining
the state of their education system. PISA
assesses how far students near the end of compulsory education have acquired some of theknowledge and skills that are essential for fullparticipation in society. In all cycles, the domainsof reading, mathematical and scientific literacy
are covered not merely in terms of mastery of
the school curriculum, but in terms of important
knowledge and skills needed in adult life. In
the PISA 2003 cycle, an additional domain of
problem solving was introduced to continue theexamination of cross-curriculum competencies.

In view of the lower results in the PISA
examinations in recent years, the Japanese
government was alarmed at the lowering of theacademic achievement of the Japanese students.
It decided to revise the school curriculum, shifting from the “cram-free curriculum,” to one
that has more content and requires longer hours
and more days for classes. This also led to therevision of textbooks, to include more content.
It revived the national examinations for sixth
grade primary students and third year secondary
students that were last held forty-three years
ago. This nationwide examination was criticizedat that time for promoting excessive competition in the education system and obsession withrankings among schools and local governments.
Some local boards of education still shared thisview, and refused to reveal the results of therecent examination. One prefectural board ofeducation did not even participate in the firstyear of the examination, also for this reason.
The nationwide academic achievement examinations focus on knowledge of arithmetic,
mathematics, and Japanese. Another examination is also being held to determine the students’ lifestyle habits, and thus “help pinpoint
how students develop their scholastic abilities
by examining what classes they have taken andhow they study.” The first examinations were
held in 2008, while the second examinations
were held in April 2009.16
Comparing the 2008 and 2009 examinations results, the government did not find muchdifference. The prefectures with the best andworst results respectively remain the same. But
the 2009 examinations revealed that “students
who watched less TV or played fewer games
garnered higher scores. Schools with higher

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percentage of state subsidy did more poorly
than those with a lower percentage of such
students.”17
Under this competition-oriented environment, many students would not want to become a loser. But there are students who havereasons for refusing to compete, or are not ina position to compete. These students would
constitute the education “ghetto.” They wantto learn but the mainstream education systemfails to support them. They are therefore excluded in the formal educational process.
Some students, who do not like to compete, withdraw from schools. This led to thephenomenon of alternative or “free” schools
in some countries such as Korea and Japan toserve the educational needs of young people
who refuse to go to school or have to drop outof school (due to “bullying and the students’inability to cope with demanding curricula andthe conventional classroom structure” as wellas “boredom, which experts say could be theresult of children having to deal with too muchinformation.”18). One report says that “free”
schools are “commonly referred to as ‘’shelters’’ by academics, children and their parents
because these institutions provide a more caring
alternative to public schools.”19
The situation of these young people represents the “dark side of Japanese education
which ignores the weak.’’20 A similar situation
has been reported regarding the Korean situation:21
Education in Korea is rigid, placing an excessive emphasis on college entrance examinations.
Students, teachers and parents have only one
concern: that students get good grades so thatthey can enter good colleges. Thus, the majorityof students are sacrificed for the minority that isbent on attending college. Anyone left behindin the competition is stigmatized as a “problem
child,” despised and discriminated against.
Chances are that these children will become
rebellious or social delinquents. In fact, “school

violence,” which is a serious problem in Korea,
stems from a grade-oriented education. The discrimination against those who are not successful
in school is attributable to the competitive education that puts excessive emphasis on grades.

A Korean UNESCO Chairholder for Philosophy wrote that this situation resulted in
Korean students having legendary “superiority
in amassing and recalling information” and yet“ill-prepared in social problem solving and theimagination required for constructing their own
knowledge.”22 This result could not have been
what school education is meant to be.
Some students who suffer from various
forms of disabilities require support for theireducation. As shown in the Azerbaijan study
in this publication (Mikailova, et al., page113-114), these students improve their intellectual and emotional conditions and skills
given proper support in school. But their mere
presence in school, without conscious effort
to support them, leads to exclusion. Similarly,
exclusive focus on academic achievement would
not lead these students with disabilities to learn
how to make independent judgment, andlearn to adapt to different situations. They are
relegated to the “back seats” of the education
system. (Mikailova, et al., page 137)
One can easily imagine how students ofpoor families or communities have basicallythe same problem of being excluded from theeducation system.

Violence in School
Bullying and the meting out of corporalpunishment are two major examples of violence
inside the school premises. Bullying sends a serious alarm because it is mainly done by students,
who at a very young age have already acceptedviolence as a means to relate to fellow students(particularly those perceived as weak).23 Someview bullying as the result of problems somestudents face inside their family. Violence has

Challenges to Learning and Teaching Human Rights  155

become an outlet for their frustrations or eventhe suffering, which can be caused by pressure
from the parents to study harder. They canalso be due to the breakdown of the family, or
the absence of guidance from parents who arealways busy with their work.
But violence should not be tolerated, andshould not be justified by the problems being
faced by the students engaged in it. The victims
do not deserve any form of violence – physical, mental or any other form. Victims who
are driven to despair due to bullying may end
up losing self-esteem, or worse consider theirlife worthless and thus best ended. How many
students committed suicide due to bullying?
Bullying is also a reproduction of oppressive
societal hierarchy, where the strong oppresses
the weak. Students who bully others experiencea sense of power that they may retain long after
leaving school, when they are in position of
authority or influence in society.
Students who bully others due to the problems they face in their young life deserve thehelp of the school authorities, just as those whohave been bullied deserve urgent help to stop
their suffering before it gets worse.
But will help be forthcoming from teachersand school authorities who think that corporalpunishment is necessary to discipline students?
Or will they resort to violence to address theviolent behavior?
An innovative project on “child reporters”
in India presents the extent of the problem ofcorporal punishment in schools – mainly inrural and marginalized communities. As thereport states24
Diaries kept by some child reporters at the
instance of NGOs reveal a sordid saga of how
young students are thrashed, punished, humiliated daily by teachers in schools across India. They
also reveal how 11-year-old Shano Khan’s deathin Delhi is far from being an isolated case. Shano
went into coma after allegedly being beaten andmade to squat outside in the sun by her teacher

at a Delhi municipal school for not knowing letters of the English alphabet. She died a day later,
sending shock waves across the nation. But many
more heart-rending stories abound.

Some teachers, like the students who bully
others, may resort to corporal punishment asa result of their personal problems. On childreporter explains this situation25
Some students informed us (the child reporters)that teachers use physical violence to vent theiranger at children. Some teachers have family
problems which leave them frustrated and during
school hours, when students make even small
mistakes, they get thrashed as the teachers venttheir frustration on them. While doing so theyalso abuse the children. Manish, a student, said
some teachers beat students even if the latter havenot made a mistake. This is mental torture forthe students and they usually fail in exams dueto these reasons.

How many teachers in other countries arein the same situation?
Child sexual abuse (CSA) is another formof violence in school. One report in India on anational survey on CSA shows that “21.9% ofchild respondents faced severe sexual abuse.”26
It is highly probable that this percentage ofoccurrence of CSA in schools is true in othercountries as well. Such a national survey is an
important tool for education and other relevant government officials in finding ways ofprotecting the child-victims, and establishingmechanism within the school to prevent theiroccurrence.
Mechanisms addressing CSA are important.
The suggestion in India of offering children aforum to discuss and report CSA as the “firstline of defense in responding to such allegations”27 is worth trying. A somewhat similar
forum involving students, teachers and parents
has been tried in the Philippines that reveal
not only the awareness of the students of the
problems but their view on how they should

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be addressed. Ofreneo in this publication (page36) mentions the Children, Parents, and Educators Empowerment Program (CPEEP) as wellas the National Youth Forum on the Preventionof Child Abuse and Exploitation as means oforganizing students, teachers and the parents
to do something about the problem.
A recent form of school-related violence is of
the digital kind. Bullying through the internet
and cellphones has resulted in depression, andsome suicides, of the victims. The 2007 survey
made by the Japanese government about human rights reports that28
53.7% of respondents pointed out that “some Internet sites, such as dating sites, trigger crimes,”and 52.8% of them replied that “putting languagethat slander or insult others on the Internet” isproblematic.

These survey results mirror the increasing use in society of modern information andcommunication technologies to harass, vilify,
and destroy the reputation of people. As one
newspaper editorial puts it:29
Spreading unfounded rumors that cause great
distress is despicable behavior. Such malicious
actions aimed at others through the Internet
are a disgraceful crime and show complete
disregard for the spirit of the term “freedom of
expression.”

The Internet has also become a major medium to victimize young people through childpornography and prostitution. One report saysthat 280,000 cases of child prostitution images
have been reported and confirmed across theglobe in 2007, and an estimate of more than
one million child pornographic images areavailable online.30 The report further says that
“half of this data depicted harrowing images ofsexually abused children, and that as many as
20 percent of the victims were children aged
3 or under.”The images need not only be videos andphotos of abused children but also those “depicting the sexual abuse of children in manga
and anime” that constitute a form of sexual
exploitation as they infringe upon the “humanrights and dignity of children.”31

The Wider Context
The competition-oriented education system
is desired by governments in countries thatwould like to compete for economic gains inthis age of globalization. In Asia, the opening of
national economies to the global economic system is the recipe toward national development
and the way to win the fight against poverty.
As the case of Vietnam shows32
PM Dung highlighted Vietnam’s changes overthe past years, saying the country has been
actively carrying out its renewal process andhas gained important results in various fields,
achieving an annual economic growth rate of
7.5-8 percent. It has built up its relations withmore than 180 countries and partners across theworld and actively participated in activities ofinternational organisations, including the United
Nations, the World Trade Oganisation, the AsiaPacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum,and the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM). “All ofthese mirror Vietnam as a country of dynamic
development, a trusted friend and partner of all
countries for peace, stability and development,”
the PM said.

The success of the drive towards membership in the global and regional economic blocs
is dependent on the resources available in the
country. Competent work force is one major
resource to attain economic strength (beyond
offering cheap labor and tax-free industrial
zones), and thus education is a major supporting mechanism.
Middle-class people in the so-called “devel-

Challenges to Learning and Teaching Human Rights  157

oping countries” are facing similar challenges
in educating their children as those parents
who already enjoy the benefits of developed
economies (mainly those in Japan, South Korea,
Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan). These
parents require more, not less, knowledge andskills for their children. They want their children
to successfully navigate the highly competitive,
globalized world.
The current economic crisis however israising questions on the rules of competition.
Unbridled drive for greater profit led to theglobal financial crisis, setting back the gains of
economic growth during the last decade. The
more the economies become integrated, thehigher the risk of global economic downturn.
The problems of globalization shown by thecurrent global economic crisis offer an opportunity for different ideas to circulate more freely
and quickly. Ideas that run counter to the thinking that caused the current global economiccrisis should find more attraction. This can betrue in the field of education, by pointing out
the need for people to know the limits of too
much competition, and the need to see the needfor balance between material gain and personaland social security, particularly in protecting thechildren from abuses arising from the education
system as well as the society itself.
Globalization has started hundreds of years
ago when knowledge, technology and goods
moved across continents. Traders and religious
missionaries were the main conveyors of suchknowledge and technology that led to themixing of indigenous cultures with the foreign
ones. The Silk Road is a good example of how
knowledge, technology and goods from East,
Central and West “Asia” were exchanged for
hundreds of years. European colonial expeditions led to the movement of religion (Christianity) to many parts of Asia alongside ideas ofgovernance and trade. This later on led to the
movement of Asians to Europe to learn moreof European civilization.
Well-developed civilizations in Asia haveinfluenced societies outside their respective
territorial boundaries. The Sanskrit-based civilization spread to many parts of Southeast Asia
much in the same way that the Chinese civilization influenced the neighboring countries ofChina. Islamic-based civilization likewise spreadand took root in countries much farther awayfrom West Asia. Governance, education, moral
thinking, societal hierarchy and language aresome of the key areas that have been affectedby this civilizational spread in Afghanistan,
Maldives, Pakistan, Korea, Japan, Vietnam,
Burma/Myanmar, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.
It is no wonder then that current equivalent
words of human rights in these countries are
based on the ideas of justice and fairness of these
civilizational influences from the use of “Haqq”
in Muslim countries to the use of “Sitti” inmainly Buddhist countries.
But these past experiences of globalization
did not have the speed and efficiency of today’s
systems, technologies and facilities. Thus goodand bad aspects of globalization have affected
more people in various parts of the world withless time and effort. And despite the current
negative impact of the global economic crisis,
there is no indication that the drive for greater
competition for markets, goods, technologies
and ideas will slow down.

Challenges to Governments
Asian governments are facing different
forms of challenges in fulfilling their humanrights obligations. They are, however, optimistic that they can overcome the challenges.
They outline what they consider to be themajor issues of the time and set measures toaddress them. A sample of these expressionsof hope for human rights are in the following
statements made before the United Nations
Human Rights Council during its 10th sessionin March 2009:

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HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION IN ASIAN SCHOOLSWe regard development, human rights and democracy as inseparable. The strong correlation
between development and democracy reflects the[fact] that economic development is conducive
to democracy. Indeed, I share the view that beyond a certain point, economic progress makes
it difficult to avoid democratization as people
begin to place a growing emphasis on free choicein politics and also begin to demand civil andpolitical rights. In the absence of democracy, economic progress is often pursued at the expenseof [respect] for human rights.
		 xxx		
xxxx		
xxxx
In Indonesia, efforts to rectify the mistakes[of the 1970s to mid-1990s] is called Reformasi,
which centers on democratization, upholding
the rule of law and good governance, greater[respect] for human rights, and wide-ranging
autonomy for local governments.
Indonesia is now a full-fledged democracy.
Today the wielders of power are subject to legal
constraints, including by the Constitutional
Court. There is a system of check and balanceamong our branches of government, vibrant andactive media as well as a vigilant civil society. As inother open and democratic societies, it is highly
unlikely in Indonesia that violations of humanrights are part of the government policy. There
are functioning corrective mechanisms when
violations of human rights occur.33

Another government statement expresses
the following:
The Government of Korea has spared no efforts
to promote its human rights standards, with thefirm conviction that the faithful implementation of universal values such as human rights,
democracy and the rule of law is key to sustaining a peaceful, prosperous, just and harmonious
society.
As Korean society is now becoming increasingly diverse, my Government enacted the Law
on Support for Multicultural Families, with aview to protecting the human rights of foreigners including migrant workers and their children

living in Korea. This law will also serve to address
the difficulties of the foreign spouses of Koreannationals in their adjustment to the new life in
Korea.34

The observations of the United Nations
High Commissioner (Navanethem Pillay)
reflect not only the human rights situation ofIndia but those of other Asian countries as well.
She put in context the human rights issues athand and the problems being encountered in
implementing legal, institutional and othermeasures on human rights. She expressed thefollowing statements before the members of the
National Human Rights Commission of India
in March 2009:35
Economic liberalization and rapid economic
growth have transformed many sectors of Indian society, but benefits and dividends havenot always been shared equally. Poverty is still agrinding reality for millions of people in India.
Deep, widespread and longstanding asymmetries in power, participation and wealth are
now exacerbated by the global economic crisis. 
These inequalities are also compounded by thepersistence of gaps in the implementation of thehigher courts’ decisions, of the recommendations of the NHRC, and of national laws andpolicies that promote and protect human rights
and seek to support the most vulnerable. Suchgaps are reflected in the work of the NHRC andhuman rights defenders in various states where
the administration of justice and economic development has produced uneven results.

Human rights education in the Asian school
systems operates under the same context andtherefore faces similar challenges. The positiveor optimistic projection of the human rights
situation by Asian governments has to be tempered by an honest admission that there aremany more tasks to do after the general problems have been identified and some measures
have been laid out. Much of the work relates
to the determination of governments to fullyChallenges to Learning and Teaching Human Rights  159

implement these measures, including those in
the field of human rights education, persistently
over time and despite limitation of resources.
Human rights education in the school system
requires much more than policy statements.
Government commitment much translate into
appropriate curriculum, teaching-learningmaterial, teacher-training, and extra-curricularsupport. Governments have to spearhead efforts
to ensure that the education officials, school administrators, teachers and even parents properly
understand human rights.

Next Moveman rights in ASEAN will continue to develop.
The ASEAN human rights body will accordingly
continue to evolve. The TOR for the ASEAN
human rights body cannot, and is not intended
to, exhaustively determine every single detail of
ASEAN’s approach to human rights in advance.
Over time, the body will have to build up its
own practices and positions in a way analogous
to case law. Ultimately, the effectiveness of theASEAN human rights body will depend, notjust on the TOR but on our evolution as an
ASEAN Community and our growing sense of
a common destiny. We hope that year by year, as
we become an ever closer community, the layers
and best practices that we accumulate and holdin common as ASEAN will grow. The role andstature of the ASEAN human rights body willgrow in tandem with this process.

A considerable amount of interest has been
generated by the decision of the Associationof Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to establish a human rights body. Governments
in Southeast Asia, however, are not yet in fullagreement about the powers and functions ofsuch a mechanism. A number of these governments use the “national sovereignty” argument
to prevent the assumption of such mechanismof the power to investigate human rights violations cases in the member-countries and holdaccountable the governments found to havecommitted such violations. Nevertheless, thegovernments have not closed the possibilityof reaching the stage of having a subregional
human rights mechanism that functions inways closer to similar mechanisms in Europe,
Americas and Africa. As one government official
commented:36

The challenges facing human rights education in the school system are akin to the
obstacles that hinder the agreement on an
effective ASEAN human rights body. There isno other option but to take the “evolutionary
approach,” based on the belief that “attitudes
and policies towards human rights” education
by some governments will become more supportive over time. In the meantime, educators
have to continue their human rights education
work, no matter how limited, if only to contribute to the accumulation of experiences thatprove its value.

Therefore in dealing with this issue, ASEAN has
adopted what we have called “an evolutionary
approach”. At each point we will have to agree
on what will be the next step, without specifying
what will be our final destination for this body.
The pace will not always please all observers; it
may not even please all ASEAN Member States.
But we all recognise that this is not a static situation and that attitudes and policies towards hu-

1
Quoted by Vicente Rafael, “Foreignness andVengeance: On Rizal’s El Filibusterismo,” in 2002
UCLA Center for Southeast Asian Studies Colloquium
Series (Los Angeles: University of California), pages 1213. The novel was written in Spanish. The quotation is
Rafael’s translation of the Spanish text.
2
Jose Rizal was accused by the Spanish colonial
authorities of involvement in the Filipino revolution
against colonial rule and was executed in 1896. His
novels and other writings are widely seen as significantly
contributing to the movement for an independent

Endnotes

160



HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION IN ASIAN SCHOOLS

Philippines in late 19th century.
3
	The same idea was expressed by Kartini inher 1903 letter about education (Give The Javanese
Education!) in the then Dutch-ruled Indonesia, inLetters from Kartini: An Indonesian Feminist 19001904, translated by Joost Coté (Clayton, Victoria:
Monash Asia Institute, 1992).
4
	Teodoro M. Kalaw, editor, A Letter to the Young
Women of Malolos by Jose Rizal (Manila: National
Library, 1932).
5
	See F. Landa Jocano, Growing Up in a Philippine
Barrio, Case Studies in Education and Culture Series(New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1969).
6
Weihe Hu, “I Have a Green Dream” in Pacific
Journal 32/2007 (2) (Honolulu, AnthroposophicalSociety), page 13.
7
Philip Lim, “Madrassas find following in
Singapore,” The Daily Yomiuri, 24 February 2009.
8
	Note prepared by Professor Chiam Heng Kengfor the Osaka Conference on Human Rights Education- Dialogue Among Asian Educators, 17-19 November
2006, Osaka, Japan organized by HURIGHTSOSAKA.
9
Keiko Shoji, “Current Problems in Japanese
Middle School Education,” in Kotaku Ishido and David
Myers, editors, Japanese Society Today (Rockhamton:
Central Queensland University Press: 1995), page 77.
10
Minako Sato, “‘JUKU BOOM’ Cram schools
cash in on failure of public schools,” The Japan Times,
28 July 2005.
11“Cram school lessons taught at middle school,”
The Daily Yomiuri, 30 December 2008.
12
Ibid.
13
Ibid.
14
	The website of the Programme for International
Student Assessment (PISA) has the following
explanation: PISA is an “internationally standardised
assessment that was jointly developed by participating
countries and administered to 15-year-olds in schools.
xxx xxx Tests are typically administered to between
4,500 and 10,000 students in each country.” (www.
oecd.org/pages/0,3417,en_32252351_32235907_
1_1_1_1_1,00.html)
15
Azerbaijan, Chinese Taipei, Dubai (UAE), Hong
Kong SAR, Indonesia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Korea,
Kyrgyz Republic, Japan, Jordan, Macao, SAR, Qatar,
Shanghai (China), and Thailand.
16“Academic achievement tests truly nationwide,”
editorial, The Daily Yomiuri, 31 March 2009.
17“Children’s academic abilities unchanged,” The
Daily Yomiuri, 31 April 2009.
18
	Suvendrini Kakuchi, “Alternative schools offer
hope for ‘drop-outs’ in Japan,” Inter Press Service,

available in Association for Asian Research, http://
www.asianresearch.org/articles/1272.html
19
Ibid.
20
Ibid.
21
Won-il Heon, “Human Rights Education in
Korean Schools” and Soon-Won Kang, “Human
Rights Education in South Korea,” Human Rights
Education in Asian Schools 2/70.
22
In-Suk Cha, “Hermeneutics and Education for
Human Rights” in World Peace Centre MAEER’s
MIT, Human Rights Education - Social Change andHuman Values (Pune: World Peace Centre MAEER’s
MIT, 2000), page 65.
23	See also Kalpana Kannabiran, “Ragging as humanrights abuse?,” in Infochange News & Features, an
online magazine in India, for a discussion of bullying
in the form of ragging, a rite of passage for university
students. Available at http://infochangeindia.
org/200903237667/Education/Analysis/Raggingas-human-rights-abuse.html
24“Children’s diaries: corporal punishment muststop,” The Hindu, 19 April 2009, circulated by the
Human Rights News Bulletin of the Indian Social
Institute, number 27, 21 April 2009.
25
Ibid.
26
“Call for guidelines to deal with child sexual
abuse in schools,” Times of India, 16 April 2009,
circulated by the Human Rights News Bulletin of the
Indian Social Institute, number 27, 21 April 2009.
27
Ibid.
28
Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Education,
Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, FY 2007
Annual Report on Measures for Human Rights
Education and Human Rights Encouragement(Summary), May 2008, page 4.
29“Internet freedom needs responsible user
behavior,” editorial, The Daily Yomiuri, 10 February
2009.
30
	Noriko Sakakibara, “Internet rife with childpornography,” The Daily Yomiuri, 1 December 2008.
31
Ibid.
32
“Vietnam makes practical contributions to
ASEAN,” Voice of Vietnam News, 2 March 2009, in
http://english.vovnews.vn/Home/Vietnam-makespractical-contributions-to-ASEAN/20093/102235.
vov
33
	Statement by H.E. Dr. N. Hassan Wirajuda,
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia
at the 10th Session of the Human Rights Council,
Geneva, 3 March 2009.
34
	Statement by H.E. Dr. Shin, Kak-soo, Vice
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Republic ofKorea at the 10th Session of the Human Rights

Challenges to Learning and Teaching Human Rights  161
Council, Geneva, 3 March 2009.
35
	Statement by Navanethem Pillay, HighCommissioner for Human Rights at the National
Human Rights Commission of India (New Delhi, 23
March 2009).
36
	Response of Mr. George Yong-Boon Yeo,
Minister for Foreign Affairs of Singapore, during theSingaporean Parliamentary session on 23 March 2009

on the questions of Mr. Siew Kum Hong regarding
Singapore’s position on the draft terms of reference
for the proposed ASEAN Human Rights Body; and(b) what is the progress of the work of the High Level
Panel. Order Paper No. 73 of 2009, Question for Oral
Answer. This paper is available at http://app.mfa.gov.
sg/2006/press/view_press.asp?post_id=4934