Achieving Quality Education For All

Due to the development of the international Education for All and Education for Sustainable Development movements, for which UNESCO is the lead agency, there has been an increasing emphasis on the power of education and schooling to help build more just and equitable societies. Thus giving everyone the opportunity to develop their talents to the full, regardless of characteristics such as gender, socio-economic status, ethnicity, religious persuasion, or regional location. As enshrined in the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights over five decades ago, everyone has the right to receive a high quality and relevant education. In order to try to achieve this ideal, many countries are substantially re-engineering their education systems with an increasing emphasis on promoting equity and fairness, and on ensuring that everyone has access to a high quality and relevant education. They are also moving away from the traditional outlook of almost exclusively stressing formal education in schools as the most valuable way in which people learn, to accepting that important and valuable learning does not just occur in formal, dedicated education institutions, but also through informal and non-formal means. Thus learning is both lifelong and life-wide. This book brings together the experience and research of 40 recognised and experienced opinion leaders in education around the world. The book investigates the most effective ways of ensuring the UNESCO aim of effective education for all people in the belief that not only should education be a right for all, but also that education and schooling has the potential to transform individual lives and to contribute to the development of more just, humane and equitable societies.

What does teaching look like? What practices are most impactful? By directly observing teaching in the classroom, this study trialled new research methods to shed light on these key questions for raising student outcomes around the world.

The 2013/4 Education for All Global Monitoring Report shows that a lack of attention to education quality and a failure to reach the marginalised have contributed to a learning crisis that needs urgent attention. Worldwide, 250 million children - many of them from disadvantaged backgrounds - are not learning the basics, let alone the further skills they need to get decent work and lead fulfilling lives. 'Teaching and learning: achieving quality for all' describes how policy-makers can support and sustain a quality education system for all children, regardless of background, by providing the best teachers. The Report also documents the reductions in aid that are holding back progress towards education goals, and shows how countries can boost education funding by tapping into domestic resources more effectively. As the international community prepares to formulate post-2015 development goals, the Report makes a compelling case for giving education a central place in the global framework. It presents the latest evidence from around the world of the power of education - especially of girls - to help improve health and nutrition, reduce poverty, boost economic growth and protect the environment.

The problems related to the process of industrialisation such as biodiversity depletion, climate change and a worsening of health and living conditions, especially but not only in developing countries, intensify. Therefore, there is an increasing need to search for integrated solutions to make development more sustainable. The United Nations has acknowledged the problem and approved the “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. On 1st January 2016, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the Agenda officially came into force. These goals cover the three dimensions of sustainable development: economic growth, social inclusion and environmental protection. The Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals comprehensively addresses the SDGs in an integrated way. It encompasses 17 volumes, each devoted to one of the 17 SDGs. This volume addresses SDG 4, namely "Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all" and contains the description of a range of terms, to allow a better understanding and foster knowledge. Concretely, the defined targets are: Ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes 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 Ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university Substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship 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 Ensure that all youth and a substantial proportion of adults, both men and women, achieve literacy and numeracy 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 Build and upgrade education facilities that are child, disability and gender sensitive and provide safe, non-violent, inclusive and effective learning environments for all Substantially expand globally the number of scholarships available to developing countries, in particular least developed countries, small island developing states and African countries, for enrollment in higher education, including vocational training and information and communications technology, technical, engineering and scientific programmes, in developed countries and other developing countries 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 Editorial Board Olivia A.M. Freeman, Johannes M. Luetz, Petra Molthan-Hill, Theam Foo Ng, Umesh Chandra Pandey, Rudi Pretorius, Valeria Ruiz Vargas, Pinar Gökçin Özuyar

The 2013/2014 Education for All Global Monitoring Report shows that a lack of attention to education quality and a failure to reach the marginalized have contributed to a learning crisis that needs urgent attention. Worldwide, 250 million children many of them from disadvantaged backgrounds are not learning the basics. Teaching and Learning: Achieving Quality for All describes how policy-makers can support and sustain a quality education system for all children, regardless of background, by providing the best teachers. The Report also documents global progress in achieving Education for All goals and provides lessons for setting a new education agenda post-2015. In addition, the Report identifies that insufficient financing is hindering advances in education.

This study argues that there is little hope of maintaining quality in higher and further education unless those in academia share common goals. It demonstrates how results can be achieved if the principles of high quality learning are applied along with total quality management-type strategies.