A NETWORK of education advocates from E-Net Philippines called on the government to provide inclusive, equitable, and quality education as it rallied the public to help advance education as a human right.

To mark Human Rights Day, the group stressed the need for universal access to quality education.

“We call on fellow Filipinos to join us in advancing education as a human right,” Flora Arellano, E-Net President, said.

“While the Covid19 pandemic really changed the course of our lives, it also has profound effects on education, safety, and well-being of our students and teachers,” Arellano said in a statement.

December 10 is Human Rights Day — the day the United Nations General Assembly adopted, in 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

E-Net Philippines stressed that education is not a privilege, but a human right. The group said education is an “indispensable” means of realizing other human rights as it promotes individual freedom and empowerment.

E-Net had been calling for “Education for All” since its inception in 2000. It believes that everyone should have access “to a multi-cultural, gender-fair, and liberating lifelong education.”

E-Net Philippines is a network of civil society organizations engaged in policy advocacy and partnerships for education reforms. As a national coalition of 130 member-civil society organizations and partners, it represents non-government organizations on literacy in the Department of Education’s Literacy Coordinating Council.