This work explores the meaning of equality and freedom of education in a global context and their relationship to the universal right to education. It also proposes evaluating school systems according to their achievement of equality and freedom. The author's inter-civilizational analysis of educational rights focuses on four of the world's major civilizations: Confucian, Islamic, Western and Hindu. He begins by considering educational rights as part of the global flow of ideas and the global culture of schooling. He also considers the tension this generates within different civilizational traditions. Next he proceeds to: examine the meaning of educational rights in the Confucian tradition, in the recent history of China and in the Chinese Constitution; look at educational rights in the context of Islamic civilization and as presented in the constitutions of Islamic countries; explore the problems created by the Western natural rights tradition and the eventual acceptance of educational rights as represented in European constitutions; and investigate the effect of global culture on India and the blend of Western and Hindu ideas in the Indian consitution.
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