Let me first express my gratitude to the German Adult Education Association for inviting me to participate in this important Conference. I am glad to witness the outstanding efforts and outcomes of our German colleagues so let me also congratulate you for such a beautiful work you are doing.

As you may know, I come from Central America, were adult illiteracy is still a huge problem. There we have many leaders working together with communities and organizations to support and fight for the realization of the human right to education.

One of these amazing leaders was Raul Leis, Secretary General of the Latin-American Council of Adult Education and a champion of democracy and popular education. Rau Leis passed away a few days ago, so I’d like to take advantage of this opportunity to pay tribute to his work and his legacy.

If we accept that Education is a human right for everyone, we would be able to understand the meaning of learning as a lifelong process.

Learning is an element of life, an organizational system integrating all ecological phenomena that make evolution possible.

Given this hypothesis, it is valid to affirm that the learning process bursts into the human being by means of a cognitive process that reflects culture and society.

That process departs from the reality of a learning society; it can only take place in a higher context, what Assmann defines as a “cognitive ecology,” and in which all beings participate.

Education boosts the learning process and gives it a holistic meaning, thus becoming a reference point for life and furthermore, a stimulus to it.

The purpose of education is to construct useful knowledge that will dignify peoples’ lives. Therefore, education has an unquestionable ethic, philosophic and scientific legitimacy, so the right to education is also a foundation of ecology and development.

We are at a point where education can make the difference between life and death. For this reason, to regard education solely in terms of a social or cultural right, is to deny its entire dimension. Perhaps we are also at a point where we should start to discuss learning as a human right because teaching how to learn is probably the most important pedagogical strategy we must promote.

However, Education must face hard challenges from opposing forces that continue to envision it as the market’s disciplinary instrument and consequently, as a form of service (not a right) that is subordinate to the economy’s interests rather than those of human beings. According to this vision, Education is usually considered within the Development agenda, rather than Human Rights agenda. That is usually the case of the developing world.

Education involves specific obligations from Governments, ranging from the need to provide the maximum possible financial resources for educational systems, to the adoption of a curriculum that respects the diversity of society and human equality.

Education involves specific obligations from Governments, ranging from the need to provide the maximum possible financial resources for educational systems, to the adoption of a curriculum that respects the diversity of society and human equality.

Illiteracy is an aberration and shows a double immorality: on one hand it demonstrates the failure of States’ central commitments in education and on the other hand such failure increases the abandonment of people who have been historically discriminated against, fueling poverty, fear and violence.

States must ensure the right to education to all persons, not only children.

The lack of opportunities for young people is not only expressed through the lack of availability and access, but also through the dismantling of existing educational provision for people who have been excluded from "regular” education systems.

In many cases, literacy campaigns are conducted solely with the purpose of stimulating per capita growth or labor market entry, regardless of the cultural situation of indigenous people or refugees and rarely invoke the rights and needs of people with disabilities, migrant populations or persons in prisons.

The picture drawn by the economic and social indicators shows a perverse contradiction. On the one hand, the growth option fail to include socially poorer sections of the population and on the other, the few jobs in the formal market increasingly require schooling and technical expertise.

Due to the Constitutional provisions, Germany does not have a unified education system, since there is no consistent framework across the different Länder. It would be difficult to overcome educational deprivation and to promote education on a holistic basis if the country still maintains a multitrack educational framework, that has shown to be selective.

The Länder have extensive legislative authorities and powers in the field of education, especially in relation to schools, higher education and adult education. As a consequence of excessive decentralization, however, some public servants have been reluctant to accept international obligations related to education, arguing that such obligations are linked to the Federation, not to the Länder.

The discrepancies between the educational systems operating in the different Länder (some of which follow a two-track, and others even a three-track, system) could be considered a matter of a range of choices. In practice, however, there would seem to be problems in ensuring that educational opportunities are provided in a uniform manner.

If the educative opportunities are not fully granted to adolescents and youngsters, this situation could even worsen their opportunities once they are adults. Consequently, one of the requirements to fully realize the right to education for all would be to address the complex issue of structure of the educative system in Germany.

Young people from families with a migrant background - especially families which speak a language other than German at home remain on average clearly below the competence level achieved by 15-year-old students whose parents were born in Germany. Support for pupils from a migrant background seems more successful in other countries than in Germany so this has an important impact on adult’s life and educative opportunities.

The main finding of PISA study shows that Germany has the highest co-relation between social background and educational achievement compared to other industrialized countries.

Furthermore, several studies undertaken under the PISA programme have revealed that in Germany there is high co-relation between social/migrant background of students and educational achievement. This, among other reasons, has been a trigger for education reform.

As I told some years ago, it seems that the multitrack school system could lead to a form of de facto discrimination.

For instance: at the Hauptschule, poor children of immigrant origin are over-represented, while at the Gymnasium they are underrepresented. As a result, the system would appear to have a negative effect, since the disadvantaged end up being doubly disadvantaged. Considering this I wonder if poor communities also receive a poor education, which seems to be the case in Latin-America, for instance.

Some 20 per cent of male pupils of immigrant origin attending the Hauptschule left before finishing school or were unable to find jobs even when they did have school-leaving certificates. These pupils have to compete with others, like them, who are unemployed, and also with job-seekers who have better educational qualifications, a situation which serves to exclude them even further.

The relative inequalities persisting in Germany, for example, have been sufficiently documented both in social and economic studies and in educational literature. It is known, for example, that close on 1.5 million persons live in relative poverty and depend on State assistance to meet their domestic needs.

Social imbalances also affect the demographic make-up of the Länder, since some of these are experiencing heavy immigration flows and have higher poverty levels than others.

These social and economic restrictions come hand in hand with educational limitations which also impede the school performance and intellectual development of students. The effects of this social inequality are reflected in the opportunities for educational advancement, including adult and youngsters education.

I hope these quick thoughts can be helpful for your work in this Conference. Thank you so much.

Vernor Muñoz es escritor y activista de los Derechos Humanos y ex relator especial de Naciones Unidas por el Derecho a la Educación.