Combining freedom and social rights in the Dutch education system : To reconstruct the theory of the people's right to education

埼玉県越谷市Since the reformation of the Fundamental Law of Education by the Abe cabinet in 2006, governmental control over the Japanese school system has been increasing. On the other hand, support for the theory that educational rights should be protected from governmental control has been diminishing since the 1980s. Education requires freedom since children learn best when they learn on their own initiative. However, the traditional view that educational rights are part of social rights has lead the government to justify its control and restraints over educational rights in the realm of economic, social, and cultural rights. The purpose of this paper is to show that educational freedom and social rights can be achieved simultaneously. This is done by analyzing the Dutch school system in which educational freedom and equality in subsidies to public and private schools are guaranteed by the Constitution. In the Netherlands, the rights to establish a school and to teach students according to independently determined principles and methods are respected, and individual schools, whether public or private, are subsidized by the state depending on the number of enrolled students. This means that the subsidy is determined not by the government but by the people, and that freedom of education is realized in accordance with economic, social, and cultural rights. The Dutch education system gives us hints for improving educational rights in Japan