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AP / vide

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 17 November 2017

    COP23: promoting climate change education for a fair economic transition

    Education International reiterated the importance of emphasising climate change education in order to achieve a fair transition towards carbon-free economies during the 23rd United Nations climate change conference.

    COP23: promoting climate change education for a fair economic transition
  2. Worlds of Education 16 November 2017

    Engaging our students in conversations about the consequences of disengaging from global institutions: lessons on US withdrawal from UNESCO.

    Fernando M. Reimers

    Educating students to be engaged democratic citizens requires that they learn to engage with current affairs in schools. Engaging students with real world issues is also a way to get students to become more motivated with their studies and, over the long term, to be more effective professionally and more...

    Engaging our students in conversations about the consequences of disengaging from global institutions: lessons on US withdrawal from UNESCO.
  3. Worlds of Education 14 November 2017

    #WDR2018 Reality Check #3: Say No to for profit experiments in education: support Public education

    Juliet Wajega

    The World Development Report (WDR) 2018 - Learning to realize Education’s Promise - places learning at the center to equip children and youth for the future. The report recognizes the key role teachers play in achievement of quality education.

    #WDR2018 Reality Check #3: Say No to for profit experiments in education: support Public education
  4. Worlds of Education 7 November 2017

    #WDR2018 Reality Check #2: Teacher working conditions are student learning conditions: Lost opportunities in World Bank education report

    Leo Baunach

    The dedicated reader of the 2018 World Development Report (WDR) on learning and education will find moments of nuanced discussion. Unfortunately, these gems are brief caveats to flawed headlines and conclusions. The World Bank report valorizes professional teaching while degrading the voices and needs of teachers.

    #WDR2018 Reality Check #2: Teacher working conditions are student learning conditions: Lost opportunities in World Bank education report
  5. News 2 November 2017

    Trade unionists united to ensure LGBTI rights at the workplace

    “Education International has been one of the world's leading unions in the fight for the respect of the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and intersex workers,” Education International's Executive Board member Daniel Lafrenière reminded at a top trade union event.

    Trade unionists united to ensure LGBTI rights at the workplace
  6. Worlds of Education 1 November 2017

    #WDR2018 Reality Check #1: A Guide to Reading the Rhetoric

    Francine Menashy

    The 2018 World Development Report marks an important milestone—for the first time in 40 years the World Bank’s dominant research publication is dedicated to education.

    #WDR2018 Reality Check #1: A Guide to Reading the Rhetoric
  7. News 31 October 2017

    The ‘core value’ of academic freedom is voiced in Paris

    The status of higher education teaching personnel was the focus of an Education International event in Paris where academics were joined by teachers’ unions to shed light on a sector under threat.

    The ‘core value’ of academic freedom is voiced in Paris
  8. News 30 October 2017

    Francophone education unions assemble to improve the teaching profession

    After meeting in Dakar, the Board of the Comité Syndical Francophone pour l’Education et la Formation committed to promoting quality public education accessible to all, as well as increase vibrant and respected teacher trade unionism.

    Francophone education unions assemble to improve the teaching profession
  9. News 27 October 2017

    Higher education teaching personnel to be celebrated in Paris

    To mark the 20th anniversary of the UNESCO Recommendation on Higher Education Teaching Personnel, Education International is throwing the spotlight on tenure, academic freedom, self-governance and collegiality, which are being challenged around the world.

    Higher education teaching personnel to be celebrated in Paris
  10. News 26 October 2017

    Germany: More investment needed in primary schools

    German education unionists are calling for a comprehensive set of measures to improve the situation at primary schools in response to a new report on education in the sector.

    Germany: More investment needed in primary schools
  11. News 25 October 2017

    UK: Flexible working needed to solve recruitment and retention crisis

    Better part-time and flexible working opportunities can help solve the teacher recruitment and retention crisis in the UK, say education unions in response to the latest National Foundation for Educational Research’s report.

    UK: Flexible working needed to solve recruitment and retention crisis