National SDG 4 benchmarks to transform education (UNESCO GEM/UIS July 2022)

The world is at mid-point to achieve 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Education is still suffering from the impact of the long school closures due to COVID-19. It is in this context that the second review of SDG 4 at the High-level Political Forum is taking place. 

It is timely that countries have committed, by 2025 and 2030, to seven SDG 4 benchmarking indicators: 

1. early childhood education attendance; 
2. out-of-school rates; 
3. completion rates; 
4. gender gaps in completion rates; 
5. minimum proficiency rates in reading and mathematics; 
6. trained teachers; and 
7. public education expenditure. 

Inspired by the UN Secretary-General’s 2014 call for countries to embrace ‘a culture of shared responsibility’ based on ‘benchmarking for progress’, paragraph 28 of the Education 2030 Framework for Action in turn called on countries to establish ‘appropriate intermediate benchmarks ... for addressing the accountability deficit associated with longer-term targets’.

In response to the major challenges for education, the UN Secretary-General is also convening the Transforming Education Summit in September 2022. 

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