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Education transforms lives

Education transforms lives and is at the heart of UNESCO’s mission to build peace, eradicate poverty and drive sustainable development. It is a human right for all throughout life. The Organization is the only United Nations agency with a mandate to cover all aspects of education. It has been entrusted to lead the Global Education 2030 Agenda through Sustainable Development Goal 4.  

UNESCO provides global and regional leadership in education, strengthens education systems worldwide and responds to contemporary global challenges through education with gender equality as an underlying principle. Its work encompasses quality educational development from pre-school to higher education and beyond.

Reimagining our futures together

Let’s reflect on education as we look to 2050: What should we continue doing? What should we abandon? What needs to be creatively invented afresh? UNESCO is proposing answers to these three essential questions in its new global report on the Futures of Education. More

Key facts

70%
of countries

allocate less than 4% of their GDP to education

773 million
young people and adults

lack basic literacy skills

69 million
teachers

must be recruited to achieve universal primary and secondary education by 2030

258 million
children and youth

are out of school globally

Take action

Say no to discrimination in education

Join UNESCO's right to education campaign

Support the Global Convention on higher education qualifications

Video playlist

Education transforms lives. Every day around the globe. This playlist shows UNESCO’s action in education and our vision for the future of learning. 

Learning never stops
Evidence on the gendered impacts of extended school closures: a systematic review
UNESCO
2022
UNESCO
0000380935
Reimagining our futures together: a new social contract for education
UNESCO
2021
UNESCO
0000379707
Teachers have their say: motivation, skills and opportunities to teach education for sustainable development and global citizenship
UNESCO
Education International
2021
UNESCO
0000379914
Acting for recovery, resilience and reimagining education: the Global Education Coalition in action
UNESCO
2021
UNESCO
0000379797
Global education monitoring report, 2021/2: non-state actors in education: who chooses? who loses?
UNESCO
2021
UNESCO
0000379875