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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 23 January 2015

    New Eurydice Report: New approaches to the education evaluation in Europe

    The new Eurydice report examines the two major types of school evaluation: external evaluation, conducted by evaluators who are not directly involved in school activities, and internal evaluation, where most evaluators are members of the examined school's staff.

    New Eurydice Report: New approaches to the education evaluation in Europe
  2. News 23 January 2015

    Trade unionists gathered in Vienna to challenge the liberalisation of public services in TTIP and beyond

    On 15 and 16 January 2015 ETUCE together with EPSU, AK and ÖGB are organizing a training seminar on how to challenge the liberalisation of public services in TTIP, CETA and TiSA.The event is taking place in the premises of ÖGB in Vienna and has gathered 100 trade union representatives...

    Trade unionists gathered in Vienna to challenge the liberalisation of public services in TTIP and beyond
  3. News 19 January 2015

    Why teens are twice as likely to be out of school as primary school-age children

    A new report by UNESCO and UNICEF reveals that ‘business as usual’ in education policies is the main obstacle in the way of realising universal primary and secondary education, especially when it comes to teenagers.

    Why teens are twice as likely to be out of school as primary school-age children
  4. News 16 January 2015

    France turns to education in an effort to strengthen common values

    In response to the attacks that plunged France into mourning and reflection, the country’s education minister met with education unions, as well as parents and students, to identify the best ways of re-establishing shared values.

    France turns to education in an effort to strengthen common values
  5. News 12 January 2015

    Belgium: Unions ready to participate in Pact for Excellence in Education

    Trade unions in Belgium have responded positively to the announcement of the Pact for Excellence in Education by the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, one of Belgium’s three federal communities. However, the unions have also set out conditions for their support.

    Belgium: Unions ready to participate in Pact for Excellence in Education
  6. News 12 January 2015

    Keeping a close eye on education development after 2015

    Even as the Global Monitoring Report prepares to launch this year’s Education For All results in April, it is already looking beyond to 2016 and how education lines up beside the next Sustainable Development Goals.

    Keeping a close eye on education development after 2015
  7. 12 January 2015

    Belgium: Unions ready to participate in Pact for Excellence in Education

    Trade unions in Belgium have responded positively to the announcement of the Pact for Excellence in Education by the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, one of Belgium’s three federal communities. However, the unions have also set out conditions for their support.

    Belgium: Unions ready to participate in Pact for Excellence in Education
  8. News 9 January 2015

    Opinion: The Right to a Good Teacher

    Education International’s Antonia Wulff explains why a teacher target is a necessary and perfectly feasible feature of the post-2015 education agenda in the latest Network for international policies and cooperation in education and training newsletter.

    Opinion: The Right to a Good Teacher
  9. News 18 December 2014

    Worlds of Education: New online edition available now!

    The 44th issue of Education International’s on-line magazine, Worlds of Education, features articles by prominent academics highlighting the crucial role of teachers in the international education policy arena.

    Worlds of Education: New online edition available now!
  10. News 10 December 2014

    OECD report: education the answer to boosting economic growth

    The statistics don’t lie in the OECD’s latest research, which points to a lacking investment in education as the major culprit behind rising inequality that is costing economies and slowing growth around the world.

    OECD report: education the answer to boosting economic growth
  11. News 4 December 2014

    Revision of UNESCO Recommendation on Technical and Vocational Education and Training

    The recommendation was originally adopted in 1962 and was revised in 1974 and 2001. The aim of the current revision is to reflect new trends and issues in the field, considering demographic changes, youth unemployment and growing inequality as well as the central role of "skills for work and life"...

    Revision of UNESCO Recommendation on Technical and Vocational Education and Training
  12. News 4 December 2014

    ETUCE Special Conference Decides on a Taskforce for ETUCE Policy on the 21st Century Teaching Profession and the Use of ICT

    Embedded in the discussions at the ETUCE's first Special Conference on 26-27 November 2014 in Vienna on The Future of the Teaching Profession, the teacher union delegates unanimously adopted the two policy papers from HERSC on Quality Assurance in Higher Education and on Early Stage Researchers as well as the...

    ETUCE Special Conference Decides on a Taskforce for ETUCE Policy on the 21st Century Teaching Profession and the Use of ICT
  13. News 4 December 2014

    ETUCE Special Conference 2014 in Retrospect

    Welcoming the participants to ETUCE's first Special Conference on 26-27 November 2014 in Vienna on The Future of the Teaching Profession, the ETUCE President Christine Blower reflected on what education and teachers' work will be like in future taking reference in today's world that is already constantly online.

    ETUCE Special Conference 2014 in Retrospect
  14. News 4 December 2014

    Stand up! 16 days of activism against gender violence

    The 16 days of activism against gender violence is an international campaign that started on 25 November 2014, International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and ends on 10 December 2014, Human Rights Day. The campaign hopes to raise awareness about gender-based violence as a human rights issue...

    Stand up! 16 days of activism against gender violence
  15. 27 November 2014

    Returning to the core values of education

    Opening remarks by Education International General Secretary, Fred van Leeuwen, at the ETUCE Conference on the future of the teaching profession, Vienna, 26-27 November 2014

    Returning to the core values of education
  16. News 27 November 2014

    Education coming up short when it comes to teaching values

    The link between radicalism in the Middle East and a value deficit in Europe was at the forefront of remarks made in Vienna by Education International’s General Secretary on the future of the teaching profession.

    Education coming up short when it comes to teaching values