The Sustainable Development Goals, Education for All and Inequality in Education

"Education for All" has been an international development for many decades. The UNESCO-led "Education for All" initiative and the Millennium Development Goal 2 endeavoured to achieve universal primary education by 2015. Despite progress, this goal was missed. Education for All is therefore once again part of the international development agenda of the Sustainable Development Goals adopted in September 2015.

The wording of SDG 4 "Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all" reflects the key lessons of past educational endeavours. Without taking social and educational inequality into account, without expanding educational support beyond primary school level and without a stronger focus on educational quality, the historic goal of guaranteeing access to education for all will not be achieved by 2030. The Covid-19 pandemic has made this clear. As a result of school closures, educational inequality has risen again worldwide, while participation rates in education have fallen, particularly among disadvantaged population groups.

In this context, ÖFSE is addressing the questions of what strategies need to be put in place to overcome educational inequality and actually achieve the goal of "Education for All".

For more information contact:

Margarita Langthaler

Ms. Margarita Langthaler
Senior Researcher
Tel.: +43 1 317 40 10 – 112  
E-Mail: m.langthaler@oefse.at
 
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