Ei-iE

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Achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4

In 2015, all countries committed to achieving 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Education International played a critical role in securing a stand-alone goal for education - Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4): Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. Significantly, SDG4 recognised that quality education can only be delivered by qualified teachers.

However, at the current pace, governments will fail to achieve SDG 4. The COVID-19 pandemic poses additional challenges, and risks reversing years of progress on education. Urgent and decisive action is imperative.

Together with our member organisations around the world we are working to ensure that governments live up to their promise to achieve SDG 4 and all its targets by 2030.

  • We monitor progress and hold governments accountable.
  • We advocate for enhanced domestic financing for public education through fair and progressive taxation and international aid.
  • We oppose corporate interests that treat education as a market instead of a public good accessible to all.
  • We promote quality education that is free from violence, develops the “whole child”, builds tolerance, understanding, democracy, respect for human rights and active citizenship for sustainable development.
  • We promote the achievement of the “teacher target” (target 4.c), underlining every students’ right to be taught by a trained and qualified teacher.

Our work in this area

  1. News 9 August 2018

    Paraguay: Union leads effort to defend the rights of indigenous teachers

    The International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples reminds us that in many parts of the world, indigenous people routinely face exclusion, discrimination and economic hardship and violence. In Paraguay, after centuries of invasion of their lands, European colonization and the violation of their human rights by subsequent governments, the...

    Paraguay: Union leads effort to defend the rights of indigenous teachers
  2. Worlds of Education 9 August 2018

    #EI25: "Remaining a trade unionist and staying strong", by Marième Sakho Dansokho (SYPROS, Senegal)

    Marième Sakho Dansokho

    Education International (EI) is celebrating 25 years of existence; 25 years of advocacy for education and the teaching profession. A long journey peppered with successes, wins and persistent challenges. EI and its affiliated organisations have to contend with capital and capitalists more concerned with their own profits than with the...

    #EI25: "Remaining a trade unionist and staying strong", by Marième Sakho Dansokho (SYPROS, Senegal)
  3. News 6 August 2018

    Lesotho: public authorities must act on education unions’ concerns

    Education International has supported its Lesotho’s affiliates striking to protest the government’s refusal to consider their legitimate demands concerning teacher professional issues and the achievement of quality education for all.

    Lesotho: public authorities must act on education unions’ concerns
  4. News 27 July 2018

    Cambodia: education becomes an overarching theme of the electoral campaign

    While it is a matter for rejoicing that education has become a major subject of the debates during the current electoral campaign in Cambodia, education trade unionists have particularly underlined the financial shortcomings of the national school systems, which the public authorities have to remedy.

    Cambodia: education becomes an overarching theme of the electoral campaign
  5. News 27 July 2018

    Latin America: Public education is a social right and is essential to building equality

    Public education is a social right that must be guaranteed, maintained and financed by the government, and it is essential to building equality. This is the overarching message of the educators who gathered at the Regional Meeting of Education International Latin America (EILA) in Cochabamba, Bolivia.

    Latin America: Public education is a social right and is essential to building equality
  6. Worlds of Education 25 July 2018

    In Latin America, teachers and students champion the right to attend university, by Yamile Socolovsky

    Yamile Socolovsky

    15 June marked the centenary of the university reform led by the student movement in Córdoba, Argentina. This pioneering reform paved the way for a democratic reconstruction of academic institutions that shook the entire region. The transformation of Latin American public universities became a permanent battleground between those who yearned...

    In Latin America, teachers and students champion the right to attend university, by Yamile Socolovsky
  7. News 16 July 2018

    Iraq: teacher union expands to better advocate for quality public education

    The opening of a new headquarters for its branch in the centre of the Iraqi Chamchamal region represents a golden opportunity for the Kurdistan Teachers’ Union to highlight the importance of providing quality education for all in the country and renew its commitment to ensure it.

    Iraq: teacher union expands to better advocate for quality public education
  8. News 11 July 2018

    Indonesia: governmental promise to hire 100,000 teachers and bridge the teacher gap

    Indonesian education unionists have welcomed the announcement made by the national government during a Public Discussion on National Education to hire 100,000 teachers in 2018 in an effort to combat the teacher shortage in the country.

    Indonesia: governmental promise to hire 100,000 teachers and bridge the teacher gap
  9. News 11 July 2018

    New Zealand teachers and nurses to hold first mass strike in a generation

    Thousands of nurses, primary school teachers and principals are calling on New Zealand’s public authorities to ensure decent pay for educators, as well as guaranteeing the future of quality public education, and are prepared to walk off the job.

    New Zealand teachers and nurses to hold first mass strike in a generation
  10. Worlds of Education 10 July 2018

    The quest for public funding for education and SDG 4, by Antonia Wulff

    Antonia Wulff

    For about 12 hours there was a target on education financing in what was about to become Agenda 2030. It was proposed in the very last round of negotiations of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals and it did not take long before it was shot down; member...

    The quest for public funding for education and SDG 4, by Antonia Wulff
  11. News 3 July 2018

    Mexico: Teachers fight to overhaul education reform measures

    The Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (SNTE) is pushing for a structural review of the 2013 education reforms introduced by outgoing president Enrique Peña Nieto.

    Mexico: Teachers fight to overhaul education reform measures
  12. News 3 July 2018

    Germany: united for a greater investment in quality education

    Reacting to the recommendations of the European Union’s Commission in the framework of the “European Semester”, German teachers’ unions have insisted on the need to provide public education with adequate funding.

    Germany: united for a greater investment in quality education
  13. News 29 June 2018

    Canada: EI honours two prominent union leaders from Quebec

    The Congress of the Centrale de syndicats du Québec highlighted the importance of education’ trade unions for workers, students and society as a whole, and acknowledged the work of two eminent union leaders, Louise Chabot and Daniel Lafrenière.

    Canada: EI honours two prominent union leaders from Quebec