Key Points
Scaling up Digital Learning to Accelerate Progress towards SDG4 (Concept):
The United Nations (UN) is spearheading a global initiative on digital learning and skills for all, targeting marginalized children and youth and aiming to close the digital divide and drive rapid change in education systems.
This initiative focuses on three of the five priorities of the 2020 Global Education Meeting (GEM) Declaration: supporting teachers; investing in skills; and narrowing the digital divide.
E9 countries offer a starting gate to accelerate progress on digital learning and skills in the immediate term and ultimately on the SDG4 agenda in the longer term.
E9 partnership
A group of E9 countries (Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, and Pakistan) aims at strengthening political will and collective effort to ensure quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all.
E9 Partnership is working for the achievement of SDG4 – Education 2030.
E9 was established in 1993, formed to achieve the goals of UNESCO's Education For All.
UNESCO's Education For All (EFA)
An international initiative first launched at the ‘World Conference on Education for All’ (Jomtien, Thailand, 1990) by UNESCO, UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF and the World Bank.
Participants endorsed an 'expanded vision of learning' and pledged to universalize primary education and massively reduce illiteracy by the end of the decade.
Ten years later, with many countries far from having reached this goal, a broad coalition of national governments, civil society groups, and development agencies met again in Dakar, Senegal, and affirmed the commitment to achieving EFA by the year 2015.
The six goals established in The Dakar Framework for Action, Education for All: Meeting Our Collective Commitments are:
· Goal 1: Expand early childhood care and education
· Goal 2: Provide free and compulsory primary education for all
· Goal 3: Promote learning and life skills for young people and adults
· Goal 4: Increase adult literacy by 50 percent
· Goal 5: Achieve gender parity by 2005, gender equality by 2015
· Goal 6: Improve the quality of education
2020 Global Education Meeting Declaration
As part of the Decade of Action to accelerate progress on SDG4 and in response to Covid-19, the 2020 GEM Declaration identified five priorities for urgent action:
o Education financing;
o Safe school reopening;
o Supporting teachers as frontline workers;
o Investment in skills; and
o Narrowing the digital divide.
The Covid-19 crisis revealed the weakness and unpreparedness of the current education systems worldwide, prompting the deployment of digital learning during mass school closures across almost all countries.
SDG4
To bring sustainable development in the mainstream, the United Natio
ns (UN) member states, in 2015, adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Develop
4.1
pment and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). There are 17 goals and 169 specific targets to be achieved by 2030.
By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes
4.2
By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary education
4.3
By 2030, ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university
4.4
By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship
4.5
By 2030, eliminate gender disparities in education and ensure equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for the vulnerable, including persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples and children in vulnerable situations
4.6
By 2030, ensure that all youth and a substantial proportion of adults, both men and women, achieve literacy and numeracy
4.7
By 2030, ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development
4.a
Build and upgrade education facilities that are child, disability and gender sensitive and provide safe, non-violent, inclusive and effective learning environments for all
4.b
By 2020, substantially expand globally the number of scholarships available to developing countries, in particular least developed countries, small island developing States and African countries, for enrolment in higher education, including vocational training and information and communications technology, technical, engineering and scientific programmes, in developed countries and other developing countries
4.c
By 2030, substantially increase the supply of qualified teachers, including through international cooperation for teacher training in developing countries, especially least developed countries and small island developing States.
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