Knowledge is power--isn't it?
First, is knowledge something granted alongside humanity or is it bestowed, a privilege to gain access into one's world? Can it be said that knowledge is neither? That only the Almighty is and can possess knowledge? Man would starve for such knowledge--the knowledge to know all--and alas, he has. From Adam's first bite of the Fruit, mankind has been hungering for knowledge, for the stability that they believe will come with this knowledge. A hunger that is so intense and primordial that man himself refuses to rebuke.
So, yes, knowledge is power. This is why the southern plantation owners of the nineteenth century refused to educate their slaves. With the tool of education, the slave owners feared, the slaves would become wiser and more knowledgeable about themselves and their owners. But the education is only the method, a process, by which the knowledge is obtained.
Then, if knowledge is a right bestowed by man's Creator, would it not be given that education is also man's right? One could argue that this is so--if one could not find another means of knowledge. But a formal education is not the only form of education. To quote Alec Bourne, "It is possible to store the mind with a million facts and still be entirely uneducated." Formal education has gifted us with this: a massive library of information--much of which is never used--all to be stored in the resistors and capacitors of our knowledge. All this when the subjects of schools should be focusing more on the fundamentals: reading, writing, and ethics to name a few. Sure mathematics or science is important to understand, but I have seen and heard too many stories about "educated" people who couldn't speak or even read properly!
Education is as much the responsibility of the student as it is the teacher's. Without the commitment of either party, the knowledge is lost.
But even education in the classroom is limited. One could argue that knowledge gained outside the classroom is just as important. That is, the knowledge learned through experience, through practice, through willpower, can open up doors into other realms of a person's life. Experience things impossible to teach in a classroom, to know that effort will pay off. To reach for their goals without a grade point average stamped on it. This is education. This is knowledge.
Yes, knowledge is the right of the individual, and knowledge is free for the taking. Even the slaves of the deep south sometimes managed to get the better of their owners, and--of course--did in later years. But though knowledge is free, the individual scholar must find the will to reach for it, which, at times, may be difficult. Yes, knowledge is the right of the individual, but the will to succeed and grasp that delicate flower is still their own. A formal education may or may not be granted to them, but that potential, that essence is right there, ready for the kill.