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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. Publications

    The pandemic - moving forward: Governments and teacher unions working together to leave no-one behind

    A briefing by Education International for the International Summit on the Teaching Profession 2022
    9 May 2022

    Convened by Education International and the OECD, the International Summit on the Teaching Profession brings together governments and education unions in OECD countries in order to strengthen and support an informed and honest policy dialogue between and among elected representatives of the teaching profession and national government authorities.

    The pandemic - moving forward: Governments and teacher unions working together to leave no-one behind
    1. Download
  2. Worlds of Education 26 April 2022

    Enabling the future of youth research through copyright

    Sean M. Fiil-Flynn

    This year’s World Intellectual Property Day is being dedicated to the theme of youth empowerment . The focus is on recognition of the role of youth “stepping up to innovation challenges, using their energy and ingenuity, their curiosity and creativity to steer a course towards a better future.” Intellectual property...

    Enabling the future of youth research through copyright
  3. Worlds of Education 23 April 2022

    Economically disadvantaged Malawi teachers bear the brunt of IMF wage bill policies

    Dr. Limbani Eliya Nsapato

    Malawi has a long-term relationship with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which drives the country’s macroeconomic policies, often to the detriment of progress in targeted sectors such as education and health. Malawi became a member of the IMF on 19 July 1965 and has had at least 16 arrangements (loans)...

    Economically disadvantaged Malawi teachers bear the brunt of IMF wage bill policies
  4. Worlds of Education 22 April 2022

    The impact of IMF policies on the public service wage bill in Zambia

    Gideon Bulwani

    There is sufficient evidence to suggest that the International Monetary Fund austerity measures have the potential to negatively affect Zambian ability to attain SDG 4. It is a paradox that the global system encourages investment in access to quality education for all, while putting obstacles along the path to the...

    The impact of IMF policies on the public service wage bill in Zambia
  5. Worlds of Education 20 April 2022

    Wage Bill Constraints: Hardship of Teachers in Nepal

    Prabin Kumar Acharya

    In 2020, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) directed the governments of 15 countries, including Nepal, to reduce their public expenditure. This has greatly impacted teachers after the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Wage Bill Constraints: Hardship of Teachers in Nepal
  6. Worlds of Education 19 April 2022

    IMF policies undermine quality education

    Dennis Sinyolo

    Teacher quality, status, and conditions matter. Quality learning depends on quality teaching, delivered by qualified, well-supported, and motivated teachers.

    IMF policies undermine quality education
  7. Worlds of Education 28 March 2022

    Teachers and students in Lebanon need global solidarity to save their education system and their hope for the future. The world must answer.

    David Edwards

    The failure of governance and the inability to deal with over-lapping crises has paralysed Lebanon. A whole generation of young people risks losing life opportunities due to the meltdown of the education system.

    Teachers and students in Lebanon need global solidarity to save their education system and their hope for the future. The world must answer.
  8. Statements 23 March 2022

    Afghanistan: The Taliban regime denies girls’ right to education

    March 23rd was supposed to be a day of hope and a bright new beginning for girls across Afghanistan. The Taliban regime had promised to reopen secondary schools to girls eager to restart their education after months of disruption. These hopes were dashed by a last-minute change in policy that...

    Afghanistan: The Taliban regime denies girls’ right to education
  9. Statements 17 February 2022

    Promoting the rights, dignity, and agency of migrants for an inclusive recovery

    In the lead-up to the first-ever International Migration Review Forum taking place later in the spring, to assess progress on the implementation of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM), the second report of the Secretary-General is a reminder of the impact the pandemic and natural disasters...

    Promoting the rights, dignity, and agency of migrants for an inclusive recovery
  10. News 15 February 2022

    Madagascar: International solidarity to ensure education continues in the wake of a natural disaster

    Following the passage of the category 3 tropical cyclone Batsirai which hit Madagascar on 5 February, Education International has decided to provide financial support to its affiliate, the Fédération chrétienne des enseignants et employés de l’éducation de Madagascar (FEKRIMPAMA). This support will enable the Federation to provide relief and meet...

    Madagascar: International solidarity to ensure education continues in the wake of a natural disaster
  11. News 4 February 2022

    Albania: Education unions' success in combating child labour

    The Albanian trade unions FSASH and SPASH (1) have been involved in projects to combat child labour since 2002, with the support of international partners (2). More than 500 trade union leaders and 6,000 teachers have been trained in preventing dropping-out and in reintegrating former child labourers into school. The...

    Albania: Education unions' success in combating child labour
  12. News 15 December 2021

    Iraq: Reforms needed for quality education

    Reforms in education must be carried out efficiently and the government must prioritise improvements in education at all levels. That’s according to the Kurdistan Teachers’ Union (KTU) which believes that positive changes in society originate in the education system.

    Iraq: Reforms needed for quality education
  13. Statements 13 December 2021

    Better education financing and regulation of private interests is urgent to ensure equitable, inclusive, and resilient education systems

    Education International responds to the 2021 UNESCO Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report "Non-state actors in education: Who chooses, who loses?"

    The 2021/2022 UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report (GEM Report) analyses the role and involvement of state and non-state actors in education and in the education sector. The stated aim of the report is to consider non-state actors in education ‘through the lens of equity and inclusion’, which were among the...

    Better education financing and regulation of private interests is urgent to ensure equitable, inclusive, and resilient education systems
  14. News 15 November 2021

    Nepal: Educators reaffirm the need for just and progressive taxation to increase public financing of education

    The need to fund education through public funding and the importance of progressive taxation to increase public resources were at the heart of a recent capacity building workshop on tax justice and education funding in Nepal. The workshop was organised by the Education International Asia-Pacific (EIAP) office for member organisations...

    Nepal: Educators reaffirm the need for just and progressive taxation to increase public financing of education
  15. Worlds of Education 29 October 2021

    UNICEF’s Innocenti Report on teacher absenteeism in Africa: The wrong approach at the worst time

    Dennis Sinyolo

    This year, as the education community around the world gathered to mark World Teachers’ Day (5th October) and celebrate teachers for their dedication to duty and contribution to quality education for all, Twitter users were greeted by a message from UNICEF’s Office of Research-Innocenti, sharing their recent report on teacher...

    UNICEF’s Innocenti Report on teacher absenteeism in Africa: The wrong approach at the worst time