Abstract
M.Ed.
The purpose of this study is to determine whether the question of
human rights education has been attended to by schools, and
particularly then the following aspects: citizens' rights and
political rights. In this study the researcher endeavoured to
shed some light on the uncertainty surrounding the education of
human rights, in particular citizens' and political rights. The
answers to the following questions had to be determined:
* why is it important for children to know about these aspects
of human rights I why would it seem to be a priority?
* are pupils presently being informed about the above mentioned
aspects of human rights?
* if the answer to the above mentioned question is yes, it leads
to the following: to what extend are they being informed?
* if it should appear that there are indeed shortcomings in the
education programmes in this regard, how severe are they?
* what levels of research remains after the completion of this
particular study?
The literature study involves theoretical descriptions of certain
concepts, such as: human rights, the development of a declaration
of human rights, the importance of this issue, the legal position
of a bill of rights as stipulated in the constitution of a
country; the implications of the absence of a bill of rights in
the constitutional law of a country. Furthermore certain facets
of citizens' and political rights were prominent in this research
study: the right to vote; the right to obtain a passport; the
right to be allowed back in the country after overseas visits;
the right not te be banned; the right not to be intimidated and
the right to free participation in the activities of any
political party.
Validity of the empirical component of the investigation were
ascertained by presenting the content thereof to experts in the
field, for their approval.
Multi-variate Analyses (MANOVA and HOTELLING T-SQUARE) as well as
Single variate Analyses (ANOVA, Student T-test, Scheffe test)
were used in the statistical analyses of the data. Hypotheses on
gender, professional capacity, age, home and tutor language
mediums~ religious stance, frequency of obtaining media news
through television, newspaper and radio, teachers' experience,
subject involvement, and pupil's dependancy position were set.
THE MOST IMPORTANT FINDINGS:
* at present there exists a definite gap in education
programmes as far as human rights' issues are concerned;
* specific respondents, grouped according to biographical data,
(especially such as difference in home language, age,
religion and years of experience) indicate only a slight
difference in perceptions regarding pupils' knowledge
of the facets of citizens' and political rights,
* pupils are well informed about certain facets of the above
mentioned rights, but quite poorly informed about some
very important facets.