Opvoeding tot menseregte : verantwoordelike burgerskap en politieke regte

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