With many SIDS having achieved Education for All as we approach 2015, UNESCO Member States are increasingly concerned with the quality of education. More and more countries, as well as development partners, have started to focus on the idea of Learning for All, as opposed to Education for All.

In addition to promoting quality teaching at all levels of education, UNESCO is assisting countries in building their capacity for policy-making, planning, monitoring and evaluation.

A few examples are included below.

• Full summary in Islands of the Future – Building resilience in a changing world (pdf)

Although most SIDS have now achieved Education for All, access to education still poses a challenge in the South Pacific, where islands within the same country can be separated by hundreds of kilometres. In remote areas and among people with a low income, access poses a particular problem for preschoolers, children with disabilities, secondary school pupils and those studying vocational education. All but Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands have achieved gender parity in basic education.

Since 2002, UNESCO has been monitoring progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goal of Education for All by 2015, via regular editions of its Education for All Global Monitoring Report, which contains data from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics.

• More information

Since its foundation in 2001, Sandwatch has grown into a volunteer network of children, youth and adults who work together to monitor and analyse changes in their beach environment using a standardized approach, scientific method and low-cost equipment. For example, Sandwatch groups may monitor erosion and accretion, water quality or beach rubbish. They share their findings with the wider community and act to protect their beach environment and build resilience to climate change. Sandwatch data have the potential to inform global scientific and decision making processes. To this end, Sandwatchers have now started entering data from these field-based observations into the global Sandwatch database launched in March 2013. The Sandwatch manual is now complemented by tutorial videos that show step-by-step how to monitor, analyse, share data and take action.

• Summary of UNESCO's activities on Education for Sustainable Development and Climate Change Education (pdf)

UNESCO addresses the challenges of giving graduates the requisite skills for the SIDS labour market, by strengthening technical and vocational education and training within its UNEVOC programme. Projects target mainly the significant percentage of out-of-school youth, with the aim of giving them the skills to contribute to the development of their society.

Representatives from all members of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States participated in a training workshop on promoting effective skills, policies and systems in relation to technical and vocational education and training, , organized by UNESCO and the International Labour Organization (ILO) in 2011. Since the workshop, Belize, Guyana and Jamaica have completed their national policies and, in many other Caribbean countries, this work is under way.