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

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

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 datarelevant and reliable dataare 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 behindand meeting the targets for SDG 4 and the wider Education 2030 Agendarequires 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

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

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