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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. Research

    The public versus austerity: Why public sector wage bill constraints must end

    ActionAid, Education International, Public Services International
    12 October 2021

    The world faces a series of interconnecting crises and responding to them will demand a complete disruption of business as usual. In the light of Covid-19, the growing debt crisis, rising inequality, gender injustice, and the climate crisis there is an urgent need to revisit the fundamental redistributive role of...

    The public versus austerity: Why public sector wage bill constraints must end
    1. The public versus austerity | Full report
    2. The public versus austerity | Key findings
    3. The public versus austerity | Methodology
  2. News 12 October 2021

    New research: IMF imposed austerity slashes three million frontline workers from world’s most fragile education and health systems

    New research by ActionAid, Public Services International, and Education International warns that the International Monetary Fund’s demands to cut public sector employee costs undermine progress on health and education.

    New research: IMF imposed austerity slashes three million frontline workers from world’s most fragile education and health systems
  3. News 8 October 2021

    Yemen: Education union takes the lead in ensuring freedom and quality education despite war

    Education International stands in solidarity with the Yemen Teachers Syndicate (YTS), which continues its struggle to ensure that teachers’ human and trade human rights are respected. The YTS is also campaigning for teachers’ salaries to be paid by public authorities, so teachers can focus on delivering quality public education to...

    Yemen: Education union takes the lead in ensuring freedom and quality education despite war
  4. Statements 8 October 2021

    Statement on the International Day of the Girl 2021 | Digital Generation. Our Generation

    This year’s commemorations of the International Day of the Girl (October 11th) will highlight the ‘digital realities and the solutions [girls] need to excel on their diverse pathways as technologists for freedom of expression, joy, and boundless potential ’.

    Statement on the International Day of the Girl 2021 | Digital Generation. Our Generation
  5. News 4 October 2021

    World Teachers’ Day: We are present, we remember, we take action

    On 5 October, World Teachers’ Day, Education International and its member organisations pay tribute to teachers, education support personnel and union members lost to COVID-19, reminding the world’s governments of their responsibilities to ensure safe working conditions and vaccine equity.

    World Teachers’ Day: We are present, we remember, we take action
  6. News 20 September 2021

    Data-driven OECD report highlights lifelong impact of educational inequities

    Gender, race, and an immigrant background are key determinants in educational achievement and lifelong opportunities. That’s according to the latest report of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Education at a Glance (EAG) 2021 .

    Data-driven OECD report highlights lifelong impact of educational inequities
  7. Worlds of Education 16 September 2021

    Financing quality education for all requires investment and taxes.

    Dennis Sinyolo

    It is time to talk taxes. If more domestic revenue is not found, the Sustainable Development Goals, especially SDG 4 on quality education, will simply become one more set of international unmet promises.

    Financing quality education for all requires investment and taxes.
  8. Worlds of Education 6 September 2021

    Storm in a Teacup, or a Typhoon Brewing? Rising Barometer on the Market Review of Initial Teacher Education Reform in England.

    Susan Robertson

    On July 5th 2021, just as English schools, teacher training providers and universities were packing up after a long hard year navigating Covid-19 and series of ill-managed lockdowns by government, the Department for Education’s (DfE) commissioned review on Initial Teacher Training (ITT) was released. Called a Market Review of Initial...

    Storm in a Teacup, or a Typhoon Brewing? Rising Barometer on the Market Review of Initial Teacher Education Reform in England.
  9. Worlds of Education 27 August 2021

    The Right to an Outstanding Teacher

    Susan Robertson

    You couldn’t make it up. Claim you are concerned about a high-quality teacher training offer for the sector and impose on the sector a one-size-fits-all, highly prescribed, and tightly regulated model. Say you are in consultation mode but do it over the summer when no-one is around, and for good...

    The Right to an Outstanding Teacher
  10. News 11 August 2021

    Nicaragua: Creating happier school environments to mitigate child labour

    The education union CGTEN-ANDEN is helping teachers in Nicaragua’s regions of León and La Dalia to diversify their teaching methods and use traditional music, dance and games to make school fun for students. The initiative is part of the union’s project to eradicate child labour.

    Nicaragua: Creating happier school environments to mitigate child labour
  11. Worlds of Education 28 July 2021

    No emergence of Africa without substantial public funding for education at the national level.

    Marième Sakho Dansokho

    As with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and regardless of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular, SDG4 aiming to provide everyone with quality education, are not likely to be achieved by 2030.

    No emergence of Africa without substantial public funding for education at the national level.
  12. News 20 July 2021

    Register today! Real talk: Teachers and young people as drivers of change on comprehensive sexual education and school-related gender-based violence

    How can school stakeholders work with governments to advance comprehensive sexuality education and help eradicate school-related gender-based violence? Join the conversation on 27 July, from 14:00 BST!

    Register today! Real talk: Teachers and young people as drivers of change on comprehensive sexual education and school-related gender-based violence
  13. News 15 July 2021

    Chad: the SET supporting teachers during the COVID-19 crisis

    Throughout the crisis, the Chad Teachers Union (SET, Syndicat des Enseignants du Tchad) has focused on listening to and supporting teachers. To this aim, the union carried out a large-scale survey to better understand the impact of the pandemic on teachers and to assess the effectiveness of distance learning.

    Chad: the SET supporting teachers during the COVID-19 crisis
  14. News 14 July 2021

    Facing the pandemic: Educators lead in solidarity for an equitable recovery

    Latest message from Education International General Secretary stresses the role of the education union movement in the fight against COVID-19 and climate change to further social justice, democracy and a sustainable future for all.

    Facing the pandemic: Educators lead in solidarity for an equitable recovery
  15. Video

    Education unions take action to end school-related gender-based violence

    12 July 2021

    Education union activists from nine countries across Africa share what they have learned about challenging gender-based violence in their schools, their communities, their unions and their national education systems.

  16. News 12 July 2021

    Educators in the Arab countries ready to rebuild education systems despite challenges

    The COVID-19 pandemic has caused massive loss of human life and an unprecedented challenge to public health, education systems and the economy in the Arab region. Education unions remain committed to quality education, advocating for their students and members and rebuilding with equity.

    Educators in the Arab countries ready to rebuild education systems despite challenges