Contract, Consideration and the Critical Path
against the United Kingdom government, as in the case which led eventually to the banning of corporal punishment in state schools, Campbell and Cosans v UK.86 The Convention, like the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) which is awaiting ratification and the Declaration of the Rights of the Child (1959), at least puts the emphasis in arguably the right place on the rights of children. After all, it is they who are the real losers when education is disrupted or denied. Another possibility might be a claim of indirect discrimination against Bangladeshi children contrary to the Race Relations Act 1976, although it would be necessary to show, inter alia, that in an area where there is a high proportion of Bangladeshi families, the lack of school places was having a disproportionate effect on such children as compared with local children in general, and, perhaps, that the failure to provide school places arose from a 'deliberate' omission.87 In conclusion, it seems strange that, despite the comprehensive and far-reaching reforms of the past decade, English law still88 offers no effective remedy where education is denied. Moreover, the duty in section 8 of the 1944 Act to provide 'sufficient schools' falls far short of offering a legal right to education to the children of this country rendering of even more dubious value the advice that it should be 'learned by heart by every citizen. '89