Education is essentially right leaning (8)
I believe the answer is:
learning
'education' is the definition.
(I know that learning is a type of education)
'essentially right leaning' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'right' could be 'ar' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'ar' is present in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'is' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for learning that I've seen before include "The gaining of knowledge" , "A little of it is said to be a dangerous thing" , "Aquiring skill or knowledge" , "Erudition - education" , "Researching - scholarship" .)