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 29 September 2025

    Ukraine: Education International supports draft State Budget for 2026 that delivers significant boost for education funding

    The draft budget proposed by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine provides for a substantial and sorely needed increase in funding for education in 2026. As Ukraine’s Parliament must adopt the budget, Education International (EI) and the European Trade Union Committee for Education (ETUCE) expressed strong support for the proposal...

    Ukraine: Education International supports draft State Budget for 2026 that delivers significant boost for education funding
  2. News 26 September 2025

    South-Asian education unions push for improved health, well-being, and gender equality curricula

    Over 160 participants including representatives of teacher unions, governments, civil society, youth, UN agencies, and academics from South Asia and Southeast Asia gathered to share lessons, explore innovative programs, and interventions to discuss how education systems can support teachers to deliver gender-responsive, socially responsible, and stigma-free curricula, including Comprehensive Sexuality...

    South-Asian education unions push for improved health, well-being, and gender equality curricula
  3. News 22 September 2025

    A visit with a message: Solidarity and support to IMAK and the people of Greenland

    Magnus Jonsson, President of the Icelandic Teachers Federation and Education International General Secretary David Edwards, undertook a solidarity mission to Greenland from September 17 – 19, to bring support from EI members and learn about the important work of IMAK, the Greenlandic Teachers Union.

    A visit with a message: Solidarity and support to IMAK and the people of Greenland
  4. Take action! 21 September 2025

    World Teachers’ Day: Together for teachers, together for tomorrow

    Communications toolkit

    This World Teachers’ Day, join the global mobilisation calling on governments everywhere to invest in teachers and to support us in creating a peaceful, more fair and sustainable future for all.

    World Teachers’ Day: Together for teachers, together for tomorrow
  5. Statements 19 September 2025

    Message of solidarity and support to IMAK and the people of Greenland

    Education International is an organization founded on universal principles of human rights, democracy, peace and human dignity. Our members are the educators of the world, a global profession anchored in our global union federation that was forged in a response to the horrors of world wars as well as brutal...

    Message of solidarity and support to IMAK and the people of Greenland
  6. News 15 September 2025

    From dialogue to action: lusophone unions ask their governments to Go Public! and fund education

    In response to shrinking foreign aid, rapid digitalisation, and growing threats to democracy, Education International-affiliated Lusophone teachers’ unions convened on July 16 in Guinea-Bissau to reinforce social and policy dialogue. The meeting aimed to advance EI’s Go Public! Fund Education campaign , strengthening collective efforts to defend and promote quality...

    From dialogue to action: lusophone unions ask their governments to Go Public! and fund education
  7. News 2 September 2025

    Teacher training in Burkina Faso: building resilience against insecurity

    Amid the growing insecurity caused by the attacks of Islamist armed groups on schools , the SNESS (National Union of Secondary and Higher Education Teachers) has launched a capacity building initiative for women teachers in Burkina Faso. The union recently held a training session on education in emergency situations in...

    Teacher training in Burkina Faso: building resilience against insecurity
  8. News 29 August 2025

    Historic Santiago Consensus puts teachers at heart of education transformation

    World Summit on Teachers delivers comprehensive framework demanding sustainable investment in teaching profession

    Ministers, teacher unions and education leaders meeting at the World Summit on Teachers in Chile have adopted the Santiago Consensus , a comprehensive framework that commits governments to address the global shortage of 50 million teachers through concrete policy action.

    Historic Santiago Consensus puts teachers at heart of education transformation
  9. News 21 August 2025

    Communications toolkit for the World Summit on Teachers

    The World Summit on Teachers is an unprecedented opportunity for the world to move from words to action on education. You can follow it live here. As ministers and education leaders prepare to convene for the World Summit on Teachers (WST) on 28-29 August, the global teaching profession faces an...

    Communications toolkit for the World Summit on Teachers
  10. News 19 August 2025

    Go Public: trade unions build mutual strength by sharing their campaign experiences

    Mobilising the teaching profession, and communities as a whole. For two and a half years, education unions around the world have been engaged in the global Go Public! Fund Education campaign launched by Education International (EI). A number of them have shared best practices and examples of successful trade union...

    Go Public: trade unions build mutual strength by sharing their campaign experiences
  11. News 19 August 2025

    Building momentum for public education in the Pacific

    Education unions from across the Pacific region – Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Samoa and Vanuatu – met to address the ongoing worldwide teacher shortages, calling governments and international institutions to prioritize public education and invest in teachers, echoing the United Nations (UN) recommendations on the teaching profession .

    Building momentum for public education in the Pacific
  12. News 19 August 2025

    Education in Kurdistan: Between challenges and hopes

    Between curriculum gaps and aging infrastructure, Kurdistan's educational system is at a turning point. Teachers and union leaders are calling for urgent reforms to ensure a better future for students.

    Education in Kurdistan: Between challenges and hopes
  13. News 25 July 2025

    Malaysia: NUTP joins Go Public! Fund Education campaign and calls on government to urgently address the shortage of 10,000 teachers

    The National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) issued a statement calling on the Malaysian government to tackle the nation’s growing teacher shortage without delay. NUTP President Mr Aminuddin Awang warned that Malaysia currently faces a shortfall of approximately 10,000 teachers. “This shortage directly undermines every child’s right to access...

    Malaysia: NUTP joins Go Public! Fund Education campaign and calls on government to urgently address the shortage of 10,000 teachers
  14. News 15 July 2025

    Ethiopia and Nepal: Go Public! campaign showing strong results with solidarity and strategic advocacy

    In a world where education systems are increasingly under threat from austerity measures and privatization, EI’s Go Public! campaign has emerged as a powerful force for change, as demonstrated during a recent EI Development Cooperation (DC) Café gathering union leaders and partners.

    Ethiopia and Nepal: Go Public! campaign showing strong results with solidarity and strategic advocacy
  15. Worlds of Education 2 July 2025

    From private failures to public futures: Why FFD4 must Go Public

    David Edwards

    For over a decade, Education International has warned that the World Bank's “Billions to Trillions ” agenda—a strategy to leverage small amounts of public money to attract private investment for development— would prioritize private profit over public need. We were dismissed as ideological, anti-market, unrealistic. Then came the evidence.

    From private failures to public futures: Why FFD4 must Go Public
  16. Research

    School Leadership in Africa: Policy and Practice

    23 June 2025

    This study, commissioned by Education International Africa and carried out by Dr Casmir Chanda, sheds light on key issues surrounding school leadership through a comprehensive analysis of education policies and the lived experiences of school principals' union leaders across the continent.

    School Leadership in Africa: Policy and Practice See resources 1
  17. Statements 20 June 2025

    The CGU LGBTI Committee calls for support to renew the mandate of the UN Independent Expert on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

    Legal frameworks which prohibit discrimination in employment based on sexual orientation and gender identity are imperative to ensuring the safety of workers everywhere. In July 2025, the UN Human Rights Council will vote to renew the mandate of the Independent Expert on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (IE SOGI).

    The CGU LGBTI Committee calls for support to renew the mandate of the UN Independent Expert on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
  18. News 20 June 2025

    Go Public: Zimbabwe's education union’s successful push towards education quality and funding

    Awareness raising activities in all regions of the country, continued dialogue between educators and policymakers, enhanced teacher professional training and certification. These are some of the achievements of the Zimbabwe Teacher’s Association (ZIMTA) since the national launch of the Education International (EI) Go Public! Fund Education campaign.

    Go Public: Zimbabwe's education union’s successful push towards education quality and funding