Are the Education Goals Out of Reach?

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By Silvia Montoya, Director, UNESCO Institute for Statistics, and Robert Jenkins, Chief, Education and Associate Director, Programme Division, UNICEF

New data from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics confirm the need for accelerated efforts to get every child in school and learning

Education matters. It stands for the hopes and dreams of many children around the world. Education paves the way towards more productive, healthier, sustainable and resilient societies in which children can reach their full potential. However, new data from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) confirm that the situation of out-of-school children has stalled without significant improvement over the last ten years. In 2018, one in six or more than 258 million children, adolescents and youth were denied the right to education. Continue reading →

Learning in Your Own Language: Vital for the World’s Literacy Goals

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By Friedrich Huebler, Head of Education Standards and Methodology, UNESCO Institute for Statistics

This year’s International Literacy Day celebrates multilingual education

It is your very first day at school. You’re excited. Perhaps even a little nervous? What is this special day going to bring? Above all, what will you learn?

Your teacher arrives and says hello. But after that, you struggle to understand what she is saying. It is not because you’re stupid – you’re smart. It is because she is not talking in the language you use at home, with your family or when you are playing with your friends. So you mimic the other children around you, opening the books when they do, turning the pages when they do. But it seems that that this day is not going to be so special after all. Continue reading →

#LearningCounts: We Must Keep Children’s Learning on the 2030 Agenda

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Make your voice heard in the IAEG-SDG Open Consultation for the 2020 Comprehensive Review of the Global Indicator Framework

By Silvia Montoya, Director of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics and Jordan Naidoo, Director of UNESCO’s Division for Education 2030 Support and Coordination. Both authors co-chair the Technical Cooperation Group on the Indicators for SDG 4.

Data users the world over have a unique opportunity to show their support for SDG 4 Indicator 4.1.1: the proportion of children and young people achieving at least a minimum proficiency level in reading and mathematics.

A new public consultation by the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on SDG indicators (IAEG-SDGs) seeks the views of stakeholders on proposals to replace, revise or delete existing indicators as part of an intensive review process of the global SDG indicator framework. Adopted by the UN General Assembly in July 2017, the framework was developed by the IAEG-SDGs, with substantial input on the education-related indicators from the Education 2030 process coordinated by UNESCO. Continue reading →

Data to Fuel an Education Revolution: Countries Answer the Funding Call

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By Julia Dicum, Deputy Director of Education at Global Affairs Canada, and Silvia Montoya, Director of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics.

It is time for all donor countries to invest more heavily in education data. This matters because we can’t solve a problem we don’t understand. And it is only too clear that we have some big problems that must be solved right away, with 617 million children and adolescents who are not reaching even minimum proficiency levels in reading and mathematics, and 262 million children – one in every five –  who are out of school and half of whom are girls. Continue reading →

SDG 4: Making Human Rights Count

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By Erica Murphy (Right to Education Initiative), Mihir Mankad (Center for Economic and Social Rights), and Francesca Feruglio (ESCR-Net Secretariat) on behalf of the Monitoring Working Group of ESCR-Net.*

There is increasing recognition that data—relevant and reliable data—are central to achieving Agenda 2030 and advancing the realisation of human rights. We need data to inform laws and policies, improve decision-making, ensure sufficient resource allocation, monitor progress and identify gaps, and ensure accountability. However, more data alone will not do the job. We need more of the right kinds of data collected in the right kinds of ways. Leaving no one behind—and meeting the targets for SDG 4 and the wider Education 2030 Agenda—requires taking a human rights based approach to data[1]. This means taking everyone into account in a way that puts people at the centre of how they are counted. Continue reading →

The World is Off Track to Deliver on its Education Commitments by 2030

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By Manos Antoninis, Director of the Global Education Monitoring Report, and Silvia Montoya, Director of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics

Without a shift from ‘business as usual’, the world will miss its goal of a quality education for all by 2030, according to our first-ever projections on progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4).

We are almost one-third of the way to 2030 and the generation that should finish secondary education by the deadline is making its way into the world’s primary classrooms. Yet if current trends continue, in 2030, when all children should be in school, one in six aged 6-17 will still be excluded. Many children are still dropping out too: by 2030, only six in ten young people will be completing secondary education. There is a real risk that the world will fail to deliver on its education promises without a rapid acceleration of progress. Continue reading →

We Need More and Better Data on Education

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38 organizations issue a collective call to fund education data that will allow the world to reach Sustainable Development Goal 4

Back in February, the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) and its partners sent out an urgent call to make the case for education data. Now we have an opportunity to make that case – loudly and clearly – directly to policy-makers.

Hundreds of international, regional and national policymakers will be in New York from 9 to 18 July to discuss global progress in education during the UN High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF). It’s an opportunity we cannot afford to miss. That’s why we are issuing a collective call for greater funding for data on Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4): a quality, inclusive education for all. Our message is clear: we need more and better data not only to monitor progress towards that goal but also to achieve it. Continue reading →