UNESCO to issue report on progress towards SDGs4 on Int’l Education Day

27 / 12 / 2019

By Marwa Nassar - -

UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report team will launch a new online tool to visualize Education Progress towards SDG4 on the International Day of Education on 24 January 2020.

This year, the world will mark the International Day of Education under the theme of “Learning for people, planet, prosperity, and peace.”

The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 24 January as International Day of Education (link is external), in celebration of the role of education for peace and development.

Without inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong opportunities for all, countries will not succeed in achieving gender equality and breaking the cycle of poverty that is leaving millions of children, youth and adults behind.

Today, 258 million children and youth still do not attend school; 617 million children and adolescents cannot read and do basic math; less than 40% of girls in sub-Saharan Africa complete lower secondary school and some four million children and youth refugees are out of school. Their right to education is being violated and it is unacceptable.

The 2020 celebration will position education and the learning it enables as humanity’s greatest renewable resource and reaffirm the role of education as a fundamental right, a public good and an enabler of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

As the UN organization mandated to lead on education in the 2030 Agenda, UNESCO will draw on its convening power and engage with education and development partners to celebrate the Day around the world by focusing on the many ways learning can empower people, preserve the planet, build shared prosperity and foster peace.

The 2020 theme ‘Learning for people, planet, prosperity and peace’, highlights the integrated nature of education, its humanistic aims, as well as its centrality to our collective development ambitions. It also gives stakeholders and partners flexibility to tailor the celebration for diverse audiences, a variety of contexts and for priority themes.