MENTAL HEALTH AND WELL-BEING AS CORE COMPONENTS OF RIGHT TO EDUCATION

Abstract

Mental health and wellbeing are critical to achieving inclusive and equitable learning outcomes and fulfilling the right to education. If educational systems fail to address students' mental health needs, they face the risk of maintaining marginalization, underachievement, and social inequity. This chapter examines the relationship between mental health, wellness, and the right to education from a psychological, educational, and human rights perspective. It focuses at how mental health influences educational opportunity, academic engagement, and access to education in addition to how educational settings impact mental health. The chapter emphasizes the obligation of governments and organizations to establish inclusive, psychologically safe, and encouraging learning environments, as well as global legal frameworks that recognize education as a fundamental human right. Significant problems like trauma, stigma, socioeconomic inequality, and inadequate mental health services in educational settings are thoroughly examined. The chapter also covers evidence-based strategies that promote educational equity and wellbeing, including inclusive policies, rights-based approaches, and school-based mental health initiatives. The chapter highlights how important it is to incorporate mental health into education policy and practice in order to protect both well-being and the right to education for inclusive and sustainable growth.