SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS 4: Quality Education

Education which is a fundamental human right and an enabling right is central to the realization of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

To fulfil this right, individuals, organizations and countries must ensure universal access to inclusive and equitable quality education and learning, and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all leaving no one behind.

Education aims at the full development of the human personality and promote mutual understanding, tolerance, friendship and peace. It aims to ensure universal pre-primary and secondary education leading to effective and relevant learning outcomes for all children, youth and adults as a foundation for lifelong and life-wide learning.

Education is a basic right and elementary to human dignity. Education will help youth prepare for employment in the high-skill jobs of the fourth industrial revolution. It is essential for building the knowledge base we need to tackle critical challenges like climate change. Access to quality education is an avenue for social mobility and reducing inequalities. Education provides the means to transmit knowledge, values and skills across generation, enabling societies to set the foundation for thriving in the future.

Many developing countries still lack basic infrastructure and facilities to provide effective learning environments. At the primary and lower secondary levels, less than half of schools have access to electricity, the internet, computers, and basic drinking water.

Educational needs are now being called into question in terms of how learning systems match with constantly changing demands. The ways in which learning

prepares individuals for decent work as well as for life.

Decisive action is needed as today’s skills will not match the jobs of tomorrow

and newly acquired skills may quickly become obsolete. Especially in a rapidly changing world with technological shifts, global integration and climate pressures. Efforts needs to be taken to revolutionize educational and learning systems to respond to the technology revolution.

Efforts that need to improve access to schooling and the quality of education.

Being at school is not enough if children are not learning. The quality of education remains a significant challenge with too many children not reaching minimum levels of proficiency in reading and mathematics, let alone gaining the knowledge to participate in a more interconnected world.

Equitable access to education and lifelong learning means that no groups or individuals should be without access to education. The commitment to inclusive education extends to migrants, displaced persons and refugees.

In order to make education and training systems more equitable and inclusive this children and youth need to have access to quality early childhood development, care and education. It also requires enhanced access to post-secondary education, including technical and vocational education, further and tertiary education, including university which should be accessible to all.

Particular attention should be given to those in vulnerable situations, persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples, those in remote rural areas, ethnic minorities, the poor, women and girls, migrants, refugees, and displaced persons, whether as a result of conflict or natural disasters.

Teaching is a profession and teachers, school leaders, educators and trainers all play a vital role in the collective responsibility to prepare future generations.

Teaching requires urgent attention, with a more immediate deadline, because the equity gap in education is exacerbated by the shortage and uneven distribution of professionally trained teachers, especially in disadvantaged areas.

Accordingly, greater support and resources are needed for relevant initial and continuous professional development, efficient and effective policies, appropriate recruitment and deployment processes, decent working conditions, and opportunities for sharing promising practices, professional autonomy and career pathways for teachers.

As teachers are a fundamental condition for guaranteeing quality education, teachers and educators should be empowered, adequately recruited and remunerated, motivated, professionally qualified, and supported within well-resourced, efficient and effectively governed systems.

Measures are needed to ensure a motivated, supported, highly skilled, qualified, adequately resourced and empowered teaching force.

Teachers and their organizations and institutions should be involved in the development, monitoring and evaluation of education policy.

Highlighting that literacy, including functional literacy, is still a major challenge, greater efforts are needed to eradicate illiteracy through formal and non-formal education and training and ensure equitable access to digital literacy, as well as media and information literacy as a continuum of proficiency levels within a lifelong learning perspective.

Education affects the aspirations, beliefs and attitudes of migrants, refugees and

displaced persons and their sense of belonging in host communities.

Scholarship programs can play a vital role in providing opportunities for young people and adults who would otherwise not be able to afford to continue their education.

While the importance of scholarships is recognized, sponsors are encouraged to increase other forms of support to education. In line with the SDG4-Education 2030 focus on equity, inclusion and quality, scholarships should be transparently targeted at young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

There is a need to include migrants, displaced persons, returnees, asylum seekers,

refugees and stateless persons in education and training systems and to facilitate

recognition of their qualifications, skills and competencies.

Social, political, environmental and economic changes, as well as accelerated

technological innovations, have profound implications for education and training systems.

Commitments are needed to support lifelong learning opportunities for all to ensure necessary competencies for personal development, decent work and sustainable development, with attention to climate change, adaptation and mitigation.

Higher education, technical and vocational education is important for the future for the recognition of higher education and vocational qualifications.

Skills acquired through non-formal and informal education and learning

also require support. There is a need for more efficient and equitable resource allocation and improved accountability in expenditure including through legislation. Funding should be prioritized to improve the quality of education and social outcomes in an equitable and inclusive way according to needs.

Children and young people have a right to learn free from violence. A safe learning

environment, free of bullying and violence, including gender-based violence, is critical to improve educational and social outcomes. Harassment and violence of all forms in education institutions must be addressed.

In this regard, education and all its facilities and institutions should be protected from attacks and military use, and parties to armed conflict should be urged not to use schools and universities for military efforts.

Education is a public good and public responsibility, a fundamental human right and an important basis for ensuring personal fulfilment and for the realization of other rights essential for peace and sustainable development.

 

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