Free education speaks of education that is funded through taxation or charitable organizations rather than tuition funding.
Primary education shall be obligatory and free of charge. This is according to international human rights law. While secondary and higher education shall be made progressively free of charge.
Free primary education is fundamental in making sure that everyone has access to education. However, in many developing countries, families often cannot afford to send their children to school, leaving millions of children of school-age deprived of education. Despite international obligations, some States keep on imposing fees to access primary education. Add to this the indirect costs associated with education, such as for schoolbooks, uniform or travel, that prevent children from low-income families accessing school.
Financial difficulties States may face cannot relieve them of their obligation to guarantee free primary education. If a State is unable to secure compulsory primary education, free of charge, when it ratifies the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), it still has the immediate obligation, within two years, to work out and adopt a detailed plan of action for its progressive implementation, within a reasonable numbers of years, to be fixed in the plan (ICESCR, Article 14).
“Progressive introduction of free education” means that while States must prioritize the provision of free primary education, they also have an obligation to take concrete steps towards achieving free secondary and higher education (General Comment 13 of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, paragraph 14).