Ei-iE

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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 6 February 2013

    EI calls on UN to put education on the agenda

    EI has called on the UN High Level Panel (HLP) on the Post-2015 Development Agenda to include education in the new development framework. The call was made at the 3rd meeting of the HLP, held in Monrovia, Liberia, from 30 January to 1 February 2013.

    EI calls on UN to put education on the agenda
  2. News 5 February 2013

    Seattle teachers reject standardised testing

    The entire faculty of Garfield High School in Seattle, US, has voted not to give students a standardised test used in teacher evaluations, the so-called Measures of Academic Progress (MAP).

    Seattle teachers reject standardised testing
  3. News 1 February 2013

    Quality and dialogue key to public education

    Participants debated the idea of education as a public good and the nature of the relationships between EI and the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on 30 January.

    Quality and dialogue key to public education
  4. News 1 February 2013

    OECD Conference: Teachers key to public good

    “An excellent curriculum, appropriate assessments and well-educated and supported teachers” in schools – these themes are central to the work of EI. That was highlighted by EI President Susan Hopgood at EI’s 2013 Conference for affiliates from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in London, UK, from 29-30...

    OECD Conference: Teachers key to public good
  5. News 29 January 2013

    Spain: FECCOO elects new General Secretary

    Francisco García Suárez was elected as the new General Secretary of the CCOO’s Education Federation (FECCOO) at the closing session of its 11th Congress held in January in Madrid. José Campos, the former FECCOO General Secretary and member of EI’s Executive Board, will now become a member of the executive...

    Spain: FECCOO elects new General Secretary
  6. News 29 January 2013

    Chile: Intensive efforts to defend public education

    Significant progress has been made in building on EI’s high-level mission to Chile last year, which was organised by the EI Regional Office in Latin America. This is all part of EI’s continuing work to defend public education from the onslaught of the Global Educational Reform Movement and its privatisation...

    Chile: Intensive efforts to defend public education
  7. News 28 January 2013

    Framing Education for the Public Good

    EI is organising a Conference of affiliates in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member countries, in London UK, from 29-30 January. The purpose of the conference is to give affiliates the opportunity to meet on an informal basis to consider key issues affecting education and teacher union...

    Framing Education for the Public Good
  8. News 24 January 2013

    US: Boosting standards for teacher preparation

    Raising the bar for students raises it for their teachers as well. To help teachers meet this challenge, one of EI’s affiliates in the United States, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), has developed a proposal for improving the quality of the teaching profession.

    US: Boosting standards for teacher preparation
  9. News 23 January 2013

    Portugal: teachers march for better working conditions

    The Federação Nacional Dos Professores (FENPROF) has organised a demonstration on 26 January in Lisbon, Portugal. The union wishes to challenge new measures imposed by the government.

    Portugal: teachers march for better working conditions
  10. 23 January 2013

    Pauline Rose: Business leaders at the World Economic Forum must boost finance for education

    As political and business leaders gather in Davos for another year’s World Economic Forum, the Education for All Global Monitoring Report has released a new policy paper showing that contributions from corporations and private foundations combined total only $683 million a year, equivalent to just 5% that aid donors spend...

    Pauline Rose: Business leaders at the World Economic Forum must boost finance for education
  11. News 22 January 2013

    Dyslexia: teacher training vital to foster inclusivity

    Nearly one billion people around the world can neither read nor write. Of this number, an estimated 700 million people have dyslexia, a neurobiological, multifaceted, life-long condition which is often hereditary.

    Dyslexia: teacher training vital to foster inclusivity
  12. Research

    Closing the trained teacher gap

    18 January 2013

    Every Child Needs a Teacher: Closing the Trained Teacher Gap is a report jointly produced by the Global Campaign for Education and Education International identifying severe primary teacher gaps, its impact on education systems and to make recommendations for closing this gap.

    Closing the trained teacher gap
    1. Download
  13. News 18 January 2013

    Haiti: International support for quality public education

    Quality public education in Haiti was highlighted when 20 representatives of 10 trade union organisations from Latin America, Europe, the United States, Canada and the Caribbean took part in a political mission organised by EI from 15-17 January. The aim of the mission was to support the Campaign for Quality...

    Haiti: International support for quality public education
  14. News 16 January 2013

    Tanzania: Significant move to curb teacher shortage

    The national government in Tanzania plans to hire and deploy over 28,000 teachers in primary and secondary schools starting in January 2013. This move should reduce, by more than half, the shortage of teaching staff in government schools.

    Tanzania: Significant move to curb teacher shortage
  15. News 16 January 2013

    Ghana: NAGRAT supporter appointed as Education Minister

    The National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) in Ghana, one of EI’s national affiliates, has welcomed President John Dramani Mahama’s choice to nominate Professor Naana Opoku Agyeman as Education Minister. Professor Opoku Agyeman is a former Vice Chancellor of the Cape Coast University.

    Ghana: NAGRAT supporter appointed as Education Minister
  16. News 14 January 2013

    UK: Trade unions react to Academies Commission Report

    The National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) and the National Union of Teachers (NUT), two EI affiliates in the UK, have reacted to ‘Unleashing Greatness: Getting the best from an academised system’, a report released on 10 December by the Academies Commission.

    UK: Trade unions react to Academies Commission Report
  17. News 10 January 2013

    Mauritania: Successful Round Table on Quality Education

    Quality education was the theme of a round table organised by EI in Nouakchott, Mauritania, from 3-5 January. Under the theme, ‘For More Quality Education in Mauritania’, EI’s four affiliates - SNEM, SNEP, SNES and SNEF – considered and discussed a joint strategy for improving Mauritanian education.

    Mauritania: Successful Round Table on Quality Education
  18. News 8 January 2013

    US and Finnish teachers share best practices

    On 12 December, the Finnish Embassy in the US welcomed representatives of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), one of EI’s national affiliates, and international guests. Finnish Ambassador Ritva Koukku-Ronde praised the AFT’s Share My Lesson teacher resource initiative as a reflection of Finland's own renowned commitment to teacher training...

    US and Finnish teachers share best practices