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 3 February 2009

    EI welcomes greater unity in global students’ movement

    Facing the current global economic crisis and growing threats to public education at all levels, Education International salutes the student activists from 17 organisations around the world who have forged a new alliance to assert a principled and equitable approach to the challenges of higher education.

    EI welcomes greater unity in global students’ movement
  2. 19 January 2009

    Roma education: slow steps to inclusion

    We [teachers] can begin. I hope we are clever enough to understand that somebody has to take the first step for nothing. And the second step for nothing. And maybe after 10 steps I can expect something from gypsy kids, and gypsy families. Because I like to hope that we...

    Roma education: slow steps to inclusion
  3. News 18 January 2009

    Defend MDGS against the economic crisis, EI tells World Bank

    EI’s General Secretary Fred van Leeuwen got immediate agreement when he called on World Bank President Robert Zoellick to defend the Millennium Development Goals, and especially Education for All, against the ravages of the current financial and economic crises.

    Defend MDGS against the economic crisis, EI tells World Bank
  4. 16 January 2009

    The end of education in Somalia

    Five teachers and eight students have been killed, and nearly 30, 000 more students have been deprived of the right to education after the last schools still operating in Somalia’s capital city of Mogadishu were closed in mid-October due to the unacceptable risk of violence.

    The end of education in Somalia
  5. 16 January 2009

    Former teacher wins Nobel Peace Prize

    Martti Ahtisaari has travelled a long way from the classroom in Oulu, Finland, where he began his career half a century ago. From primary school teacher to distinguished diplomat, President of Finland, and now Nobel Peace Prize winner, Ahtisaari has always raised his voice for education, human rights and peace.

    Former teacher wins Nobel Peace Prize
  6. News 19 December 2008

    Millions more teachers needed to achieve Education for All

    Education International is committed to achieving quality Education For All, both in word and deed, and helping to train more highly-qualified teachers is at the heart of that commitment.

    Millions more teachers needed to achieve Education for All
  7. News 25 November 2008

    Sacrificing education quality is not an option

    The Education For All Global Monitoring Report 2009 provides a useful blueprint for achieving greater equality of opportunity and improved quality of education for learners of all ages around the world.

    Sacrificing education quality is not an option
  8. News 14 November 2008

    In Search of Teachers in Tanzania

    ‘In Search of Teachers’ is the most recent research to emerge from the partnership between the EI EFAIDS Programme and the University of Amsterdam.

    In Search of Teachers in Tanzania
  9. News 6 November 2008

    European teachers emphasize the importance of quality Early Childhood Education

    Early Childhood Education (ECE) gives an “opportunity to help children discover the world, to develop and to be valued as capable human beings, to be confident and motivated learners and participants in society.”

    European teachers emphasize the importance of quality Early Childhood Education
  10. News 22 October 2008

    EI launches the Barometer of Academic Mobility

    At the validation conference of the campaign for full higher education staff and student mobility held in Villeneuve d'Ascq, France from 6-7 October, Education International and the European Students' Union launched the campaign publication "Barometer of Academic Mobility".

    EI launches the Barometer of Academic Mobility
  11. 10 September 2008

    Chad: Education on life support in Eastern Chad

    Goz Beïda, Eastern Chad—The town is surrounded by camps for Sudanese refugees and displaced Chadians, bare hills on which a few bushes struggle to survive, shrivelled by the sun. Beyond lies the desert, which now is only crossed by armed men: bandits, soldiers or rebels.

    Chad: Education on life support in Eastern Chad
  12. 10 September 2008

    Ending the cycle of poverty: Empowered children are key to economic injustice

    Educators everywhere strive to give children the knowledge and skills to become self-reliant, fully-engaged citizens. But, despite their best efforts, the cycle of poverty often continues through the generations.

    Ending the cycle of poverty: Empowered children are key to economic injustice