Following the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) is working closely with Member States and partners to develop new indicators, statistical approaches and monitoring tools to better assess progress towards the SDG 4 education targets while making every effort to minimise the reporting burden on countries.
For the past year, we have been pushing for more and better data to help ensure that no-one is left behind – a key objective of the new Global Action Plan for Sustainable Development Data launched in Cape Town last month. We have cultivated new partnerships while promoting innovative data tools and approaches to monitor progress towards Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 on education. But clearly monitoring is only one side of the picture. It must be reinforced by strong advocacy to make an impact and galvanize stronger global action on education.
The world's education systems vary widely in terms of structure and curricular content. Consequently, it can be difficult to compare national education systems with those of other countries or to benchmark progress towards national and international goals.
More than any other region, sub-Saharan Africa is facing an uphill challenge in efforts to get all children and youth in school and learning by 2030. High quality regional and county level data will be critical as countries lay the groundwork to meet the ambitious targets of Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) and the Education 2030 agenda.
A recent blog in this series dubbed the world’s line ministries and National Statistical Offices (NSOs) “the unsung heroes of the push for sustainable development”. In Madagascar, we are fully committed to producing and using good data to monitor progress and achieve Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4).
As part of UNESCO’s Capacity Development for Education (CapED) Programme, the UIS is launching a new effort to help bridge the gap between national education policies, data collection and use.
On International Women’s Day, social media channels light up with a flurry of messages and infographics about gender equality. While we welcome this spotlight on data, we also need to look beyond the moment and focus on how we can use the information to bring real change to the lives of women and girls around the world.
The Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC), is looking forward to the arrival of hundreds of education experts, teachers, and policymakers from around the world as they make their way to Ottawa for the UNESCO Week for Peace and Sustainable Development, March 6-10, which will focus specifically on the role of education.
With the adoption of Sustainable Development Goal 4, governments have pledged to achieve universal primary and secondary education by 2030 and to eliminate disparities so that every child and adolescent completes quality education and learning. Can these challenges be met?
As the chart illustrates, the past 15 years saw a steep decline in out-of-school rates at three levels of education, spurred by inclusive policies and legislation. Girls in particular benefited from the global push for universal primary education.
Unfinished business
To mark International Women’s Day 2017 (March 8), the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) is launching a new edition of the eAtlas of Gender Inequality in Education to show where girls and women are making progress and where they are being left behind at every level of education. A series of interactive maps and charts bring to life an extraordinary range of data for about 200 countries produced by the UIS, which is the official data source for the global goal on education.