Ei-iE

AP / vide
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 23 October 2017

    Burkina Faso: united education union front for a better teacher status

    For the first time in three years, Burkina Faso's education trade unions have called a strike in order to obtain better living and working conditions for teachers and help achieve quality education.

    Burkina Faso: united education union front for a better teacher status
  2. News 20 October 2017

    Nobel Laureate leads historic march across India to keep children safe

    When Kailash Satyarthi commits there is no way of stopping him, which was evident as millions followed his call to end the sexual abuse and trafficking of children in what was the country’s biggest march.

    Nobel Laureate leads historic march across India to keep children safe
  3. News 19 October 2017

    Australian disability claims boost private school funding at expense of public schools

    The Australian Education Union has questioned the government’s decision to considerably increase spending for private schools based on their enrolment numbers of disabled students, deploring that public schools are set to receive much less.

    Australian disability claims boost private school funding at expense of public schools
  4. News 12 October 2017

    Education International’s Asia-Pacific leaders gather to tackle regional challenges

    Asia-Pacific education union leaders reiterated their commitment to quality education for all, working towards countering for-profit education privatisation, increasing  teacher professionalism and demanding respect for educators’ human and trade union rights.

    Education International’s Asia-Pacific leaders gather to tackle regional challenges
  5. News 10 October 2017

    Canada: Recognition for vital role of school support staff

    Strong recognition was given to the crucial role played by educational support staff in the lives of educational establishments and their students during Quebec's National School Support Staff Day.

    Canada: Recognition for vital role of school support staff
  6. News 9 October 2017

    France: Educators unite in defence of public service

    The French affiliates of Education International are mobilising on 10 October to defend civil servants’ purchasing power and working conditions as they press for improvements in the quality of public services.

    France: Educators unite in defence of public service
  7. Worlds of Education 5 October 2017

    The educational bottom lines

    Steffen Handal

    "The Oslo School system is run like a big company where the students' achievements represent the bottom line. The goal is improvement year by year."

    The educational bottom lines
  8. News 4 October 2017

    World Teachers’ Day brings professional freedom and empowerment into focus

    As the contributions and significance of teachers are recognised, this year’s focus has turned toward the diminishing freedoms facing the profession and the empowerment needed to allow teachers to work effectively in a challenging world.

    World Teachers’ Day brings professional freedom and empowerment into focus
  9. Research

    The privatisation of education in Uruguay

    Eloísa Bordoli, Pablo Martinis, Mauro Moschetti, Stefanía Conde and Marcelo Alfonzo
    29 September 2017

    Over the last few decades, pro-privatisation policies have taken a central place in many processes of educational reform on a global scale. In Latin America, these policies have assumed a key role in educational reform processes, especially since the 1990s.

    The privatisation of education in Uruguay
    1. Report (in Spanish)
  10. News 29 September 2017

    Teachers’ voice is heard at Global Education Industry Summit

    Supported by a strong delegation, Education International joined more than a hundred representatives from government, industry and the OECD for the third Global Education Industry Summit in Luxembourg.

    Teachers’ voice is heard at Global Education Industry Summit
  11. News 29 September 2017

    UNESCO aims at ‘Cracking the code’ to end gender disparities in STEM

    A new UNESCO report addresses girls and women’s significant underrepresentation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics professions worldwide, a divide rooted in girls’ earliest days of socialisation and schooling.

    UNESCO aims at ‘Cracking the code’ to end gender disparities in STEM
  12. News 28 September 2017

    Quality refugee education lagging a year after global commitments

    With only modest advances made in the year since countries pledged education-related support to refugees at the 2016 UN General Assembly’s Leaders’ Summit, renewed calls for immediate action are being made.

    Quality refugee education lagging a year after global commitments
  13. News 26 September 2017

    Swaziland: Unconstitutional move to end free primary school education

    The Swaziland National Association of Teachers has condemned the government’s decision to introduce school fees, a move that flies in the face of the country’s constitution which states that primary education is a right.

    Swaziland: Unconstitutional move to end free primary school education