Declaration of Zaragoza – 2008

1. Parents have the right to educate their children according to their principles and moral, philosophical, religious or pedagogical convictions and, therefore, to choose the children’s school and manner of education. No other body has the legitimacy to usurp this right or to impose a moral and ideological indoctrination.
2. All persons are entitled to receive quality education that enables them to attain personal autonomy through their own efforts and to have access to decent work that should benefit his or her family and society .
3. All families have a moral duty of solidarity with the children of the most disadvantaged families to enable them to have immediate access to universal primary education. To this end we feel that families should make a commitment to cooperating whether individually or through their associations, to require their respective governments to strive for the necessary international collaboration to realise as soon as possible this universal right which will help to eradicate poverty and child labour.
4. Education must pursue happiness, justice, good, truth and tolerance and has to be built on shared values such as peace, solidarity, social responsibility, effort, commitment, dialogue and transcendence. No citizen can remain detached or indifferent to poverty or ignorance suffered by others to whom we have a duty of universal solidarity.
5. Educational pluralism is a fundamental value inherent in education and represents the diversity of options that corresponds with a free and democratic society where all individuals may differ in ideology, race, sex or religion but are equal in dignity and rights. This pluralism is ensured through the right of schools to provide their own educational ideals.
6. There must be an active and continuous cooperation and participation of families in their children’s educational process, as well as respect for and support of teachers, to enhance the individual student`s effort to achieve educational excellence.
7. Schools and education authorities must act under the principles of objective assessment, transparency and accountability, which allow citizens to know the level and progression of each school, in order to make the right choice and to correct any deficiencies or lack of quality if these occur.
8. All families with school-age children must commit to a greater participation and involvement in the educational process through their parents’ associations, which must have sufficient resources provided by the government to carry out their work defending the rights of parents and supporting their training with appropriate competence and professionalism.
9. No democratic government can discriminate against families by imposing an obligation that their children study in a state school, a school sustained by public funds, or private owned school. Nor can governments compel students to attend a single sex, or a mixed school, nor impose either a secular education, or one based upon on religious values, if this is not in accordance with the wishes of parents.
10. We believe that physical education or sports, languages and new technologies are core values of a proper education. They have to be taught in all schools, in addition to the intellectual matters.
11. In a globalized world, students must learn to live together, respecting the diversity and plurality of cultures, environmental sustainability and the ideas and beliefs of others without disregarding their own ideas and beliefs, striving actively for the integration of the weaker or needier.
12. We affirm all of that is stated for in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights regarding education.