This unique contribution to global education debate and policy-making by the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to education highlights adverse impacts of denials and abuses of education. Millions are victimized by the denial of education, but the proble is attributed to poverty rather than misrule. Abuse of education exposes children and young people to indoctrination in the name of education. Reviewing the history of global commitment to educations as ahuman right, the author traces the global split between rights-based and lottery-based approaches. Current problems are examined through the human rights perspective. This shifts the debate from sheer numbers of pupils and the recen preoccupation with market forces to a deeper discussion about what education should really comprise. Governments are obliged, collectively and individually, to make education available, accessible, acceptable and adaptable.