Free education is an education provision model in which learners are not charged direct tuition fees for participation at specified levels of schooling, typically under legal or policy guarantees established by the state [1][2][3][4]. It refers to publicly funded access to education where the core cost of instruction is borne by governments rather than households, especially in compulsory/basic education [1][2]. Free education is characterized by fee abolition at the point of entry, formal entitlement frameworks, and public financing arrangements intended to reduce economic barriers to enrollment and continuation [2][3][4]. In policy and rights-based analysis, the term denotes tuition-free access as a minimum condition; it does not automatically imply that all indirect costs (e.g., transport, uniforms, materials, meals) are removed unless explicitly covered by accompanying measures [1][2][3][4].
- free education
- tuition-free schooling
- right to education
- public education finance
Human Rights and Development • Sociology and Political Science • Social Sciences • Social Sciences
References
- United Nations. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; UN General Assembly: New York, 1966; Art. 13. Available online: https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/international-covenant-economic-social-and-cultural-rights.
- Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR). General Comment No. 13: The Right to Education (Article 13 of the Covenant), UN Doc. E/C.12/1999/10, 1999. Available online: https://www.right-to-education.org/resource/cescr-general-comment-13-right-education-article-13.
- UNESCO. Global Education Monitoring Report 2020: Inclusion and Education—All Means All; UNESCO: Paris, 2020. Available online: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000373718.
- World Bank. World Development Report 2018: Learning to Realize Education's Promise; World Bank: Washington, DC, United States, 2017. [CrossRef]