Engaging in Human Rights Education: Up-close With Selected Public Elementary Schools in Imus, Cavite

Abstract

The school indeed has a large influence in the level of knowledge and understanding by the students of the human rights concepts and ideas, with 84% of them ranking the school as their first major source of human rights information. This is supported by the fact that these selected public elementary schools do engage in human rights education through its teachers with teaching systems reflective of the consciousness of the importance of human rights. There is. in general, a high level of knowledge and understanding of human rights concepts and ideas among the students. This may probably be attributed to the quality of the teaching system employed by the teachers. The content or the educational knowledge, which is characterized as concentrated upon the four major learning areas, is now modified or even transformed to educational knowledge with human rights content- with the value fbr human rights concepts and ideals. The method or means of transmission is largely through the "practical" or "experiential" aspect of teaching- of creating a classroom environment where the students get to practice and experience what has been taught objectively about human rights. This study then claims, that as given by this case, the teaching system employed by the schools at the classroom level, is indeed effective in bringing about awareness and basic understanding of human rights, and thus effective in contributing to the attainment of the goal of HRE.