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Importance of Quality Education

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Published: Jun 13, 2024

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Enhancing personal development, socio-economic development, global competitiveness, challenges and solutions.

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Essay on Quality Education – 10 Lines, 100 to 1500 Words

Essay on Quality Education: In today’s rapidly changing world, the importance of quality education cannot be overstated. A quality education not only provides individuals with the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in their chosen field, but also helps them develop critical thinking, problem-solving, and communication skills that are essential for navigating the complexities of the modern world. In this essay, we will explore the key components of quality education and discuss why it is crucial for individuals and society as a whole.

Table of Contents

Quality Education Essay Writing Tips

1. Start by defining what quality education means to you. This could include factors such as access to resources, qualified teachers, a supportive learning environment, and opportunities for personal growth.

2. Research the importance of quality education in society. Look for statistics and studies that show the impact of education on individual success, economic growth, and social development.

3. Discuss the challenges and barriers to providing quality education. This could include issues such as lack of funding, unequal access to resources, and inadequate teacher training.

4. Highlight successful examples of quality education initiatives. This could include innovative teaching methods, community partnerships, and government policies that have improved educational outcomes.

5. Explore the role of teachers in delivering quality education. Discuss the importance of teacher training, professional development, and support systems for educators.

6. Consider the role of technology in enhancing quality education. Discuss how digital tools and online resources can improve access to education and personalize learning experiences.

7. Address the importance of equity and inclusivity in education. Discuss the need to ensure that all students, regardless of background or ability, have access to quality education.

8. Reflect on your own experiences with education. Discuss how quality education has impacted your life and shaped your future goals and aspirations.

9. Conclude your essay by emphasizing the importance of investing in quality education for all individuals. Discuss the long-term benefits of providing a strong educational foundation for future generations.

10. Proofread and revise your essay to ensure clarity and coherence. Make sure your arguments are well-supported with evidence and examples, and that your writing is engaging and persuasive.

Essay on Quality Education in 10 Lines – Examples

1. Quality education is essential for the overall development and success of individuals. 2. It provides students with the necessary knowledge and skills to excel in their chosen fields. 3. Quality education promotes critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity. 4. It helps students become well-rounded individuals with a strong sense of ethics and values. 5. Quality education prepares students for the challenges of the modern world and the workforce. 6. It fosters a love for learning and a desire for continuous self-improvement. 7. Quality education promotes equality and social justice by providing equal opportunities for all students. 8. It empowers individuals to make informed decisions and contribute positively to society. 9. Quality education enhances economic growth and prosperity by producing a skilled and knowledgeable workforce. 10. It is a fundamental human right that should be accessible to all individuals, regardless of their background or circumstances.

Sample Essay on Quality Education in 100-180 Words

Quality education is essential for the overall development of an individual. It not only equips students with knowledge and skills but also helps in shaping their character and values. A quality education system focuses on providing students with a well-rounded curriculum, experienced teachers, and a conducive learning environment.

In a quality education system, students are encouraged to think critically, solve problems creatively, and communicate effectively. They are also taught important life skills such as teamwork, leadership, and resilience. Furthermore, a quality education system promotes inclusivity and diversity, ensuring that all students have equal access to education regardless of their background or abilities.

Overall, quality education plays a crucial role in preparing students for success in the future. It empowers them to become responsible citizens, lifelong learners, and contributing members of society. Therefore, it is imperative for governments and educational institutions to prioritize and invest in quality education for the betterment of individuals and society as a whole.

Short Essay on Quality Education in 200-500 Words

Quality education is essential for the overall development of individuals and societies. It plays a crucial role in shaping the future of individuals by providing them with the necessary knowledge, skills, and values to succeed in life. A quality education not only equips individuals with academic knowledge but also helps them develop critical thinking, problem-solving, and communication skills.

One of the key components of quality education is a well-qualified and competent teaching staff. Teachers play a vital role in imparting knowledge and shaping the minds of students. They should be well-trained, experienced, and passionate about teaching. A good teacher can inspire students to learn, think critically, and achieve their full potential. Therefore, investing in teacher training and professional development is essential to ensure the quality of education.

Another important factor in quality education is the curriculum and learning materials. A well-designed curriculum should be relevant, up-to-date, and aligned with the needs of the students and society. It should provide a balanced mix of academic subjects, practical skills, and values education. Additionally, access to quality learning materials such as textbooks, technology, and resources is essential for effective teaching and learning.

Furthermore, a conducive learning environment is crucial for quality education. Schools should provide safe, clean, and well-equipped facilities that support learning and creativity. A positive school climate that promotes respect, inclusivity, and collaboration among students and teachers is also essential for quality education. Moreover, schools should have adequate resources, such as libraries, laboratories, and extracurricular activities, to enhance the learning experience of students.

In addition, parental involvement and community support are important for quality education. Parents play a crucial role in supporting their children’s education by providing a conducive home environment, monitoring their progress, and collaborating with teachers and schools. Community partnerships with schools can also provide additional resources, expertise, and support for students’ learning and development.

Quality education is not just about academic achievement but also about holistic development. It should focus on developing students’ cognitive, social, emotional, and physical skills to prepare them for success in life. A quality education empowers individuals to think critically, solve problems, communicate effectively, and make informed decisions. It also instills values such as respect, responsibility, and empathy, which are essential for building a harmonious and sustainable society.

In conclusion, quality education is a fundamental right and a key driver of individual and societal development. It is essential for equipping individuals with the knowledge, skills, and values to succeed in life. Investing in well-qualified teachers, relevant curriculum, conducive learning environments, parental involvement, and community support is crucial for ensuring quality education for all. By prioritizing quality education, we can empower individuals to reach their full potential and contribute positively to society.

Essay on Quality Education in 1000-1500 Words

Quality education is a fundamental right that every individual should have access to. It is the key to unlocking opportunities, improving livelihoods, and creating a better future for all. In this essay, we will explore the importance of quality education, the challenges that hinder its accessibility, and the strategies to ensure that every individual receives a quality education.

Quality education is essential for the holistic development of individuals. It equips them with the knowledge, skills, and values needed to succeed in life. A quality education goes beyond academic learning; it also includes social, emotional, and physical development. It helps individuals to think critically, solve problems, communicate effectively, and collaborate with others. Quality education empowers individuals to make informed decisions, participate in civic life, and contribute to the well-being of society.

One of the key benefits of quality education is its impact on economic growth and development. Education is a powerful tool for reducing poverty, inequality, and unemployment. It enables individuals to secure better jobs, earn higher incomes, and improve their standard of living. Quality education also fosters innovation, entrepreneurship, and productivity, which are essential for economic prosperity. Countries with a well-educated workforce are more likely to attract investments, create jobs, and achieve sustainable development.

Despite the importance of quality education, many individuals around the world still lack access to it. There are various challenges that hinder the accessibility of quality education, including poverty, discrimination, conflict, and inadequate resources. Poverty is one of the biggest barriers to education, as many families cannot afford to send their children to school or provide them with the necessary learning materials. Discrimination based on gender, ethnicity, religion, or disability also prevents many individuals from accessing quality education. Conflict and violence in some regions disrupt the delivery of education and force children to drop out of school. Inadequate resources, such as schools, teachers, and learning materials, further limit the quality of education that individuals receive.

To ensure that every individual receives a quality education, it is essential to address these challenges and implement strategies that promote inclusive and equitable education. One of the key strategies is to invest in education and allocate sufficient resources to improve the quality of teaching and learning. This includes recruiting and training qualified teachers, building and maintaining schools, and providing students with the necessary learning materials. Governments, international organizations, and civil society should work together to increase funding for education and prioritize it in national development agendas.

Another important strategy is to promote inclusive education that caters to the diverse needs of all individuals, including those with disabilities, refugees, and marginalized communities. Inclusive education ensures that every individual has the opportunity to learn and develop to their full potential. It requires creating a supportive and inclusive learning environment that accommodates the needs of all students, regardless of their background or abilities. Inclusive education also promotes diversity, tolerance, and respect for all individuals, which are essential values for a peaceful and harmonious society.

Furthermore, it is crucial to strengthen partnerships between governments, civil society, and the private sector to improve the quality of education. Collaboration between different stakeholders can help mobilize resources, share best practices, and implement innovative solutions to address the challenges facing education. Public-private partnerships can also leverage the expertise and resources of the private sector to support education initiatives and improve the quality of teaching and learning. By working together, stakeholders can create a more conducive environment for quality education and ensure that every individual has the opportunity to learn and succeed.

In conclusion, quality education is a fundamental right that every individual should have access to. It is essential for personal development, economic growth, and social progress. Despite the challenges that hinder its accessibility, there are strategies that can be implemented to ensure that every individual receives a quality education. By investing in education, promoting inclusive education, and strengthening partnerships, we can create a more equitable and inclusive society where everyone has the opportunity to learn and thrive. Quality education is the key to unlocking opportunities, improving livelihoods, and creating a better future for all.

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The impacts of a quality education

Without education, no social, health, economic and political progress is possible. Investing in education is therefore essential for the future of the world. For over 40 years, Action Education acts on the ground to promote access to a quality education for all, mainly for vulnerable and marginalised populations.

Quality education reduces poverty

Quality education prevents disease and malnutrition.

• Quality education can prevent preventable diseases and improve treatment uptake. A child under the age of five is twice as likely to survive if his or her mother can read and write (UN, 2011).
• Quality education reduces malnutrition. At school, children are introduced to good hygiene and nutrition practices. The canteen offers a complete and balanced meal.

Quality education promotes the well-being of children

• Access to quality education enables children to develop and flourish.
• Educated children have more confidence in themselves and their abilities.
• They acquire the keys to solve everyday problems and to prepare their future.

Quality education, a key to women's empowerment

• Girls who complete primary education are more likely to find employment and be financially independent.
• Educating girls has prevented more than 30 million deaths of children and under-fives and more than 100 million deaths of adults aged 15 to 60 (The Learning Generation).
• Universal secondary education could virtually end child marriage (Missed opportunities: the high cost of not educating girls, Worldbank, 2018).

If all girls benefit at least 12 years of schooling, the value of human capital wealth could increase from $15 trillion to $30 trillion (Missed opportunities: the high cost of not educating girls, Worldbank, 2018).

Quality education to promote peace

• If the secondary school enrolment rate is above the average of 10%, the risk of war is reduced by almost 3% (World Bank, 2005).
• Education provides a sense of stability and hope for the future and helps to heal the trauma of pandemic, natural disaster and conflict.

Quality education to adapt to climate change

• Achieving universal access to upper secondary education by 2030 would avert 200,000 disaster-related deaths over the next 20 years (Global Education Monitoring Report, UNESCO, 2016).
• Education is an essential means of raising awareness and adapt to climate change. It has the power to encourage changes in attitude and behaviour.
• To effectively accelerate adaptation to climate change, Action Education advocates integrate education for sustainable development and global citizenship into school curricula.

Education is the real starting point for a virtuous circle whose impact can be seen in every aspect of daily life. Action Education is carrying out 85 actions in 16 countries to develop access to quality education for all. Our goal? "To leave no one behind".

Discover our actions, defending the right to education, education of girls and women, early childhood education, health education, youth and adult education, inclusive education.

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Improving the Quality of Education

By  Derek Bok

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Increasing graduation rates and levels of educational attainment will accomplish little if students do not learn something of lasting value. Yet federal efforts over the last several years have focused much more on increasing the number of Americans who go to college than on improving the education they receive once they get there.

By concentrating so heavily on graduation rates and attainment levels, policy makers are ignoring danger signs that the amount that students learn in college may have declined over the past few decades and could well continue to do so in the years to come. The reasons for concern include:

• College students today seem to be spending much less time on their course work than their predecessors did 50 years ago, and evidence of their abilities suggests that they are probably learning less than students once did and quite possibly less than their counterparts in many other advanced industrial countries.
• Employers complain that many graduates they hire are deficient in basic skills such as writing, problem solving and critical thinking that college leaders and their faculties consistently rank among the most important goals of an undergraduate education.
• Most of the millions of additional students needed to increase educational attainment levels will come to campus poorly prepared for college work, creating a danger that higher graduation rates will be achievable only by lowering academic standards.
• More than two-thirds of college instructors today are not on the tenure track but are lecturers serving on year-to-year contracts. Many of them are hired without undergoing the vetting commonly used in appointing tenure-track professors. Studies indicate that extensive use of such instructors may contribute to higher dropout rates and to grade inflation.
• States have made substantial cuts in support per student over the past 30 years for public colleges and community colleges. Research suggests that failing to increase appropriations to keep pace with enrollment growth tends to reduce learning and even lower graduation rates.

While some college leaders are making serious efforts to improve the quality of teaching, many others seem content with their existing programs. Although they recognize the existence of problems affecting higher education as a whole, such as grade inflation or a decline in the rigor of academic standards, few seem to believe that these difficulties exist on their own campus, or they tend to attribute most of the difficulty to the poor preparation of students before they enroll.

Some Immediate Improvements

Many colleges provide a formidable array of courses, majors and extracurricular opportunities, but firsthand accounts indicate that many undergraduates do not feel that the material conveyed in their readings and lectures has much relevance to their lives. Such sentiments suggest either that the courses do not in fact contribute much to the ultimate goals that colleges claim to value or that instructors are not taking sufficient care to explain the larger aims of their courses and why they should matter.

Other studies suggest that many instructors do not teach their courses in ways best calculated to achieve the ends that faculties themselves consider important. For example, one investigator studied samples of the examinations given at elite liberal arts colleges and research universities. Although 99 percent of professors consider critical thinking an “essential” or “very important” goal of a college education, fewer than 20 percent of the exam questions actually tested for this skill.

Now that most faculties have defined the learning objectives of their college and its various departments and programs, it should be possible to review recent examinations to determine whether individual professors, programs and departments are actually designing their courses to achieve those goals. College administrators could also modify their student evaluation forms to ask students whether they believe the stated goals were emphasized in the courses they took.

In addition, the average time students devote to studying varies widely among different colleges, and many campuses could require more of their students. Those lacking evidence about the study habits of their undergraduates could inform themselves through confidential surveys that faculties could review and consider steps to encourage greater student effort and improve learning.

The vast difference between how well seniors think they can perform and their actual proficiencies (according to tests of basic skills and employer evaluations) suggests that many colleges are failing to give students an adequate account of their progress. Grade inflation may also contribute to excessive confidence, suggesting a need to work to restore appropriate standards, although that alone is unlikely to solve the problem. Better feedback on student papers and exams will be even more important in order to give undergraduates a more accurate sense of how much progress they’ve made and what more they need to accomplish before they graduate.

More Substantial Reforms

More fundamental changes will take longer to achieve but could eventually yield even greater gains in the quality of undergraduate education. They include:

Improving graduate education. Colleges and universities need to reconfigure graduate programs to better prepare aspiring professors for teaching. As late as two or three generations ago, majorities of new Ph.D.s, at least in the better graduate programs, found positions where research was primary, either in major universities, industry or government. Today, however, many Ph.D.s find employment in colleges that are chiefly devoted to teaching or work as adjunct instructors and are not expected to do research.

Aspiring college instructors also need to know much more now in order to teach effectively. A large and increasing body of useful knowledge has accumulated about learning and pedagogy, as well as the design and effectiveness of alternative methods of instruction. Meanwhile, the advent of new technologies has given rise to methods of teaching that require special training. As evidence accumulates about promising ways of engaging students actively, identifying difficulties they are having in learning the material and adjusting teaching methods accordingly, the current gaps in the preparation most graduate students receive become more and more of a handicap.

Universities have already begun to prepare graduate students to teach by giving them opportunities to assist professors in large lecture courses and by creating centers where they can get help to become better instructors. More departments are starting to provide or even require a limited amount of instruction in how to teach. Nevertheless, simply allowing grad students to serve as largely unsupervised teaching assistants, or creating centers where they can receive a brief orientation or a few voluntary sessions on teaching, will not adequately equip them for a career in the classroom.

A more substantial preparation is required and will become ever more necessary as the body of relevant knowledge continues to grow. With all the talk in graduate school circles about preparing doctoral students for jobs outside academe, one has to wonder why departments spend time readying Ph.D. candidates for entirely different careers before they have developed adequate programs for the academic posts that graduate schools are supposed to serve, and that most of their students continue to occupy.

Many departments may fail to provide such instruction because they lack faculty with necessary knowledge, but provosts and deans could enlist competent teachers for such instruction from elsewhere in the university, although they may hesitate to do so, given than graduate education has always been the exclusive domain of the departments. Enterprising donors might consider giving grants to graduate schools or departments willing to make the necessary reforms. If even a few leading universities responded to such an invitation, others would probably follow suit.

Creating a teaching faculty. The seeds of such a change already exist through the proliferation of instructors who are not on the tenure track but are hired on a year-to- year basis or a somewhat longer term to teach basic undergraduate courses. Those adjunct instructors now constitute as much as 70 percent of all college instructors.

The multiplication of such instructors has largely been an ad hoc response to the need to cut costs in order to cope with severe financial pressures resulting from reductions in state support and larger student enrollments. But researchers are discovering that relying on casually hired, part-time teachers can have adverse effects on graduation rates and the quality of instruction. Sooner or later, the present practices seem bound to give way to more satisfactory arrangements.

One plausible outcome would be to create a carefully selected, full-time teaching faculty, the members of which would lack tenure but receive appointments for a significant term of years with enforceable guarantees of academic freedom and adequate notice if their contracts are not renewed. Such instructors would receive opportunities for professional development to become more knowledgeable and proficient as teachers, and they would teach more hours per week than the tenured faculty. In return, they would receive adequate salaries, benefits and facilities and would share in deliberations over educational policy, though not in matters involving research and the appointment and promotion of tenure-track professors.

These faculty members would be better trained in teaching and learning than the current research-oriented faculty, although tenured professors who wish to teach introductory or general education courses would, of course, be welcome to do so. Being chiefly engaged in teaching, they might also be more inclined to experiment with new and better methods of instruction if they were encouraged to do so.

A reform of this sort would undoubtedly cost more than most universities currently pay their non-tenure-track instructors (though less than having tenured faculty teach the lower-level courses). Even so, the shabby treatment of many part-time instructors is hard to justify, and higher costs seem inevitable once adjunct faculties become more organized and use their collective strength to bargain for better terms.

Progress may have to come gradually as finances permit. But instead of today’s legions of casually hired, underpaid and insecure adjunct instructors, a substantial segment of the college faculty would possess the time, training and job security to participate in a continuing effort to develop more effective methods of instruction to engage their students and help them derive more lasting value from their classes.

Rethinking the undergraduate curriculum. The familiar division into fields of concentration, electives and general education leaves too little room for students to pursue all of the objectives that professors themselves deem important for a well-rounded college education. This tripartite structure, with its emphasis on the major and its embrace of distribution requirements and extensive electives, was introduced by research universities and designed more to satisfy the interests of a tenured, research-oriented faculty than to achieve the various aims of a good undergraduate education. The existing structure is unlikely to change so long as decisions about the curriculum remain under the exclusive control of the tenure-track professors who benefit from the status quo.

By now, the standard curriculum has become so firmly rooted that during the periodic reviews conducted in most universities, the faculty rarely pause to examine the tripartite division and its effect upon the established goals of undergraduate education. Instead, the practice of reserving up to half of the required number of credits for the major is simply taken for granted along with maintaining a distribution requirement and preserving an ample segment of the curriculum for electives.

The obvious remedy is to include the non-tenure-track instructors who currently make up a majority of the teaching faculty in curricular reviews so that all those who play a substantial part in trying to achieve the goals of undergraduate education can participate in the process. It is anomalous to allow the tenure-track faculty to enjoy exclusive power over the curriculum when they provide such a limited share of the teaching. Such a reform might be difficult under current conditions in many colleges where most undergraduate instructors serve part-time, are often chosen haphazardly and frequently lack either the time or the interest to participate fully in a review of its undergraduate program. If adjunct instructors achieve the status previously described, however, their prominent role in teaching undergraduates should entitle them to a seat at the table to discuss the educational program, including its current structure. Such a move could at least increase the likelihood of a serious discussion of the existing curricular structure to determine whether it truly serves the multiple aims of undergraduate education.

Colleges should also consider allowing some meaningful participation by members of the administrative staff who are prominently involved in college life, such as deans of student affairs and directors of admission. The current division between formal instruction and the extracurriculum is arbitrary, since many goals of undergraduate education, such as moral development and preparation for citizenship, are influenced significantly by the policies for admitting students, the administration of rules for student behavior, the advising of undergraduates, the nature of residential life and the extracurricular activities in which many students participate. Representatives from all groups responsible for the policies and practices that affect these goals should have something to contribute to reviews of undergraduate education.

The Need for Research

Finally, there is an urgent need for more and better research both to improve the quality of undergraduate education and to increase the number of students who complete their studies. Among the many questions deserving further exploration, four lines of inquiry seem especially important.

• How can remedial education be improved? At present, low rates of completion in remedial courses are a major impediment to raising levels of educational attainment. The use of computer-aided instruction in remedial math provides one promising example of the type of improvement that could yield substantial benefits, and there are doubtless other possibilities.
• Far too little is known about the kinds of courses or other undergraduate experiences that contribute to such noneconomic benefits in later life as better health, greater civic participation and lower incidence of substance abuse and other forms of self-destructive behavior. Better understanding of those connections could help educators increase the lasting value of a college education while providing a stronger empirical basis for the sweeping claims frequently made about the lifelong benefits of a liberal education. Such understanding would also reduce the risk of inadvertently eliminating valuable aspects of a college education in the rush to find quicker, cheaper ways of preparing students to obtain good jobs of immediate value to economic growth.
• Existing research suggests that better advising and other forms of student support may substantially enhance the effect of increased financial aid in boosting the numbers of students who complete their studies. With billions of dollars already being spent on student grants and loans, it would clearly be helpful to know more about how to maximize the effects of such subsidies on graduation rates.
• More work is needed to develop better ways for colleges to measure student learning, not only for critical thinking and writing but also for other purposes of undergraduate education.

The importance of this last point can scarcely be overestimated. Without reliable measures of learning, competition for students can do little to improve the quality of instruction, since applicants have no way of knowing which college offers them the best teaching. Provosts, deans and departments will have difficulty identifying weaknesses in their academic programs in need of corrective action. Academic leaders will be handicapped in trying to persuade their professors to change the way they teach if they cannot offer convincing evidence that alternative methods will bring improved results. Faculty members will do less to improve their teaching if they continue to lack adequate ways to discover how much their students are learning.

All these reforms could do a lot to improve the quality of undergraduate education -- as well as increase levels of attainment. With more research and experimentation, other useful ideas will doubtless continue to appear.

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Quality education

Rebuilding education systems after covid-19.

[goal: 4] aims to provide high-quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all. Globally, 1.6 billion children were affected by school closures during COVID. The average student saw schools fully or partially closed for 199 days between March 2020 and September 2021. As a result, the average student globally is roughly 1 year behind their expected learning levels, with larger losses in the poorest countries.

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An Education Crisis

Disparities in access to learning.

Source: World Bank World Development Indicators ([link: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GNP.PCAP.CD NY.GNP.PCAP.CD], [link: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IT.NET.USER.ZS IT.NET.USER.ZS]), [link: https://datacatalog.worldbank.org/int/search/dataset/0038947/Learning-Poverty-Global-Database--Historical-data-and-sub-components Learning Poverty Database], [link: https://covid19.uis.unesco.org/global-monitoring-school-closures-covid19/ UNESCO Global monitoring of school closures caused by COVID-19]

Rising Learning Poverty

Distance learning platforms, % of countries reporting the use of distance learning platform.

Source: World Bank, UNESCO UIS, OECD; [link: https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tcg.uis.unesco.org/survey-education-covid-school-closures/&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1686066926313685&usg=AOvVaw3OV9PjhAUSnC0iqYpYhI5v Survey on National Education Responses to COVID-19 School Closures]

Learning Poverty projected to rise due to COVID-19

Covid-19 learning poverty projections.

Source: World Bank, UNESCO, UNICEF, USAID, FCDO, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. [link: https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/education/publication/state-of-global-learning-poverty "The State of Global Learning Poverty 2022 update."]

Learning losses

of lost learning due to COVID-19

The pandemic caused a dramatic drop in learning activities

Share of children engaged in learning activities.

Source: Dang et al. 2021. [link: http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/656051621919132722/Impact-of-COVID-19-on-Learning-Evidence-from-Six-Sub-Saharan-African-Countries Impact of COVID-19 on Learning : Evidence from Six Sub-Saharan African Countries (English).] LSMS COVID-19 Cross Country Brief Washington, D.C. : World Bank Group.

Mathematical and reading ability by socio-economic status in Mexico

Share of 10-15 year olds able to solve 4th grade division or comprehend short text.

Source: Hevia, Vergara-Lope, Velásquez-Durán, and Calderón. 2022. [link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2021.102515 "Estimation of the fundamental learning loss and learning poverty related to COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico."] International Journal of Educational Development 88 (2022): 102515.

Dropout rates increased during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Dropout rates pre-covid-19 and during covid-19.

Source: Moscoviz, Laura, and David Evans.2022. [link: https://www.cgdev.org/publication/learning-loss-and-student-dropouts-during-covid-19-pandemic-review-evidence-two-years “Learning Loss and Student Dropouts during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Review of the Evidence Two Years after Schools Shut Down.”] CGD Working Paper 609. Washington, DC: Center for Global Development.

Test scores in São Paulo dropped below pre-pandemic projections

5th grade national basic education assessment system (saeb) scores.

Source: Azevedo,Joao Pedro Wagner De; Rogers,F. Halsey; Ahlgren,Sanna Ellinore; Cloutier,Marie-Helene; Chakroun,Borhene; Chang,Gwang-Chol; Mizunoya,Suguru; Reuge,Nicolas Jean; Brossard,Matt; Bergmann,Jessica Lynn (2022). [link: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000380128 The State of the Global Education Crisis: A Path to Recovery]. Authors’ calculations using data from SEDUC-SP, 2021. SAEB scores range from 0 to 500.

The Recovery

Learn more about sdg 4.

In the charts below you can find more facts about SDG {activeGoal} targets, which are not covered in this story. The data for these graphics is derived from official UN data sources.

SDG target 4.4

Many youth and adults in low and middle income countries lack basic ICT skills such as copying or moving a file or folder.

Proportion of youth (aged 15-24 years) and adults (aged 15 years and above) with basic information and communications technology (ict) skills, most recent value in 2017-20 (%).

* Each dot represents a country.

Source: United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD). Retrieved from [link: https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/dataportal/database UN SDG Portal (4.4)] DOWNLOAD

SDG target 4.6

Adult literacy rates between men and women have converged over time, but gaps still remain

Literacy rate (% of people ages 15 and above) by region, 1980-2020.

Source: UNESCO UIS. Retrieved from World Development Indicators([link: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.ADT.LITR.ZS SE.ADT.LITR.ZS], [link: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.ADT.LITR.MA.ZS SE.ADT.LITR.MA.ZS], [link: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.ADT.LITR.FE.ZS SE.ADT.LITR.FE.ZS]). DOWNLOAD

SDG target 4.5

Despite global progress, gender gaps in primary completion remain in Sub-Saharan Africa and Middle East & North Africa.

Source: UNESCO UIS, Retrieved from World Development Indicators, ([link: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.PRM.CMPT.ZS SE.PRM.CMPT.ZS], [link: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.PRM.CMPT.MA.ZS SE.PRM.CMPT.MA.ZS], [link: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.PRM.CMPT.FE.ZS SE.PRM.CMPT.FE.ZS]). DOWNLOAD

Center for American Progress

A Quality Education for Every Child

• Report    PDF (486 KB)

A New Agenda for Education Policy

The time is now for policymakers to take a bold and comprehensive approach to K-12 education.

Advancing Racial Equity and Justice, Building an Economy for All, Strengthening Health, College, Career, and Civic Readiness, Education, Education, K-12, Income Inequality, Investment and Funding Equity for Public Education, Modernizing and Elevating the Teaching Profession, Public School Choice, Racial Equity and Community-Informed Policies, Racial Equity and Justice, Racial Wealth Gap +10 More

Media Contact

Mishka espey.

Senior Manager, Media Relations

[email protected]

Julia Cusick

Vice President, Communications

Government Affairs

Madeline shepherd.

Director, Federal Affairs

Peter Gordon

Jerry parshall.

Senior Director, Safety and Justice Campaign; Director, State and Local Government Affairs

In this article

Authors’ note: CAP uses “Black” and “African American” interchangeably throughout many of our products. We chose to capitalize “Black” in order to reflect that we are discussing a group of people and to be consistent with the capitalization of “African American.”

Introduction and summary

There is no question that education is a powerful driver of prosperity. Americans with college degrees earn 117 percent more a year than those who do not complete high school. 1 Based on data for the high school class of 2015, raising the nation’s high school graduation rate from 83 percent to 90 percent would result in an additional $3.1 billion in earnings for each high school cohort, which would translate into a $5.7 billion increase in gross domestic product. 2 Moreover, Americans with higher levels of education are more likely to vote, 3 to volunteer, 4 and to donate to charity. 5

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But on the whole, the results of the U.S. education system are not where they need to be. Between 2000 and 2017, the United States slipped from fifth to 10th among Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries in its rate of postsecondary degree attainment. 6 America’s 13-year-olds continue to languish in the middle of the pack internationally in math and science achievement. After some hopeful progress in the early 2000s, results on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) have stagnated in both reading and math. 7 Even more alarming, the nation continues to see the effect of systemic and structural barriers to opportunity for Black, 8 Latinx, Native American, and some Asian American and Pacific Islander children, not to mention the ongoing segregation and isolation of students from families with low incomes who are locked into under-resourced schools. 9 Additionally, it is clear that students with disabilities, students who identify as LGBTQ, and students who are English language learners continue to grapple with added barriers to accessing a quality education.

As the 2020 elections near, the conversation about how to change the direction of the country will gain even more prominence—on education, as well as the many other critical issues Americans are facing. More and more candidates for national office are presenting ideas for how to increase access to high-quality early childhood education and how to make higher education more accessible and affordable. And yet, with a few prominent exceptions, presidential candidates have not yet taken clear positions or staked out big ideas on how to ensure that every child has an excellent school. 10 Elementary and secondary schools are where students learn to read, write, do math, and develop the skills, knowledge, and abilities that will make them successful lifelong learners and full participants in U.S. democracy.

What’s more, the public wants a focus on education. In the 2018 midterm elections, it was the second-most frequent topic of campaign ads for governors, with candidates vying to be their state’s “pro-education governor.” 11 This year, education ranks third among voters’ top priorities for the president and Congress. 12

Although K-12 education historically has not been a driving force in national elections, the nation is in a unique moment in time. Teacher protests and strikes over the past year have catalyzed increased public support for both teachers and for funding public education more broadly. 13 Across the country, people are recognizing that after a decade of disinvestment following the Great Recession, the support that students, teachers, and schools need is simply not being provided—and the consequences are evident.

To be sure, part of national policymakers’ hesitation to address K-12 education stems from America’s long tradition of state and local control of schooling, which can be a barrier to the federal government—and the president—becoming highly involved in education. But the federal government has a critical role to play in creating the conditions for equitable access to educational opportunity for every child, regardless of their background.

States and school districts alone simply cannot achieve the goal of providing every student with a high-quality school. The nation’s current system has led to enormous gaps in the resources provided to students based on geography, income, and race. The difference in spending across states is massive, even accounting for varying levels of poverty, regional wages, and other factors. For example, New York spends more than $12,400 more per student than Idaho. 14 Only 11 states fund education progressively, by providing more resources to the school districts with the highest levels of poverty. In the rest of the country, the students who need the most actually get the least. 15 Even today, local communities are seceding from their larger school districts and exacerbating segregation. 16 Unfortunately, U.S. history shows that without a strong federal role, it is all too easy for states and local school districts to perpetuate structural inequality that has existed for generations.

It is also important for future administrations to understand and learn from the lessons of past efforts to reform K-12 education. Through the past several administrations—both Democratic and Republican—there was a general consensus on the key elements of education reform. These elements included standards-based accountability for schools, teacher evaluations based partly on student learning, and the expansion of public school choice options. At the federal and state levels, policymakers and advocates—including the Center for American Progress—pushed for major changes to the education system based on these ideas.

However, over the past few years, these efforts—though in many cases clearly necessary—were proven insufficient. First, despite evidence that standards-based accountability led to modest improvements, these reforms have not led to progress at the pace needed to give every student a fair shot at success in college and career. 17 Second, parents and teachers have not seen clear positive impacts from these systemwide reform efforts and, in many cases, have only seen the negative impacts of overtesting, 18 narrowing of curriculum, 19 frustrated teachers, 20 and state disinvestment in education that stretched far beyond the recession. 21 What’s more, in too many places, there has been limited input from and engagement with affected communities during the development and implementation of reforms. 22

With these lessons in mind, a new education agenda must be rooted in the idea of opportunity for all, with equity in access at the center. This means developing policies in partnership with everyday people, with a lens on how these policies will affect students from historically underserved and under-resourced communities. The focus should be on ensuring that these students receive the greatest benefit, while keeping an eye on every child having a quality seat in public schools.

There is no silver bullet or single idea that will dramatically improve opportunities and outcomes for students, but there are ways that federal policymakers—including the next presidential administration—can take action and set a new agenda for K-12 education. This agenda should focus on five key components:

Applying an explicit race equity lens to policy development

Preparing all students for college and the future workforce, modernizing and elevating the teaching profession.

• Dramatically increasing investments in public schools and improving the equity of existing investments

Bringing a balanced approach to charter school policy

This report, in turn, takes a detailed look at each of these components.

K-12 education reform has long focused on policies that will improve outcomes for students who are underserved and historically disadvantaged. Now more than ever, it is critical for progressive policy to support the students and families that have been denied opportunity in this country. In particular, policymakers, researchers, and advocates should intentionally apply an explicit race and resource equity lens to all policies and analysis. This means specifically looking at potential impacts on communities that do not identify as white or that have large concentrations of families with low incomes, without conflating the two.

The goal is to forge a path where equity is not merely a trendy concept, but rather one centered in all education policymaking and practice, and where institutional racism is called out as a barrier to forward progress and appropriately addressed. Fortunately, during the current presidential election cycle, there has been an uptick of serious discussion about the debt that the U.S. government owes citizens who continue to face obstacles to achieving the American dream as a result of the lasting effects of enslavement. 23 From enacting slave codes to relegating Black residents to particular ZIP codes, American institutions and social networks have denied Black people the basic human right to education and a host of other opportunities—including home ownership, jobs, and voting access—through policy and practice. 24 The results show up as a persistent gap in achievement, 25 troubling gaps in school discipline, 26 and ongoing gaps in college access and completion, 27 all of which ultimately result in a wealth gap that will take more than 100 years to close if nothing changes. 28

Similar discouraging gaps are clearly evident for some ethnicities of American Asian and Pacific Islander and nonwhite Latinx students. 29 And for Native American students, some of these gaps are even more troubling, as this group experiences stark gaps in achievement—the lowest graduation rates, the highest dropout rates, and troubling disparities in school discipline. Even worse, Native American young people experience a higher rate of suicide than any racial group in America. 30 Schools operated by the federal Bureau of Indian Education are in unconscionable levels of disrepair. A 2016 report from the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Office of Inspector General documented “major facility deficiencies and health and safety concerns,” with structural concerns in 12 of the 13 visited schools, as well as five condemned buildings. 31 These challenges exist against the backdrop of Native American students being descendants of genocide and having their native language and culture stripped away by government policy over centuries.

The current presidential administration’s attempts to eliminate tools put in place to disrupt deeply entrenched and persistent disparities in educational attainment offer additional evidence of the ongoing barriers placed in front of nonwhite American students. 32 The data make clear how historic and systemic inequities in educational opportunity have created a debt that must be paid. 33 And institutions of higher education are already taking the lead to make amends for past atrocities. 34 For these reasons, a new administration must begin with a comprehensive strategy for addressing disparities in educational opportunity.

While some of these efforts will inherently benefit public school students of all races and incomes, creating policies targeted exclusively at repairing the ongoing harm to nonwhite students in America can also result in unrealized economic prosperity and mobility. Broad access to quality schools and greater educational opportunities, coupled with a comprehensive economic development strategy beyond the educational system, would unlock talent currently not realized within underserved communities.

Presidential leadership is needed to address persistent historic gaps in opportunity for nonwhite students

A new administration can take a number of specific actions to increase opportunity and to focus explicitly on racial equity. These include establishing a mechanism for filling the annual $23 billion gap in funding between predominantly white and predominantly nonwhite school districts; 35 identifying and distributing $200 billion for school infrastructure to update crumbling and outdated school buildings; 36 establishing a grant program to improve teacher preparation, recruitment, and ongoing professional development that fully incorporates culturally responsive pedagogy and acknowledges the new majority in public schools across America; 37 and issuing guidance through the U.S. Department of Education to implement the Powell exception in San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez , which calls for the elimination of property tax-based school financing models that privilege wealthy and mostly white districts over predominantly nonwhite districts. 38 In addition, a new administration can incentivize state education agencies to conduct deep racial equity audits, implement strategies to promptly address disparate racial impacts resulting from gaps in educational opportunity, and make transparent a framework for applying a race equity lens to future policy and programming decisions.

There is no doubt that the world of work is changing. Not only are many jobs of tomorrow radically different from the jobs of yesterday, but Americans can also expect to hold more jobs over the course of their careers, moving from job to job and even sector to sector with much more frequency. 39 As a result, it is more important than ever for the education system to provide every child with the skills and knowledge needed to be successful in a wide range of occupations.

Unfortunately, despite increases over the past decade, 15 percent of high school students who began high school in 2013 did not graduate within four years. Those numbers rise to 22 percent for Black students, 20 percent for Latinx students, and 22 percent for students from families with low incomes. 40 With few good jobs available for individuals without a high school diploma, these young adults can expect to earn only $27,040 a year, compared with $60,996 for college graduates. 41 Even for those students who do graduate from high school, earning a high school diploma does not necessarily mean that they are truly prepared for either postsecondary education or the workforce.

Improvements in the rigor and quality of states’ academic standards over the past decade have been an important step. But these improvements have not yet fully translated to high school graduation requirements. Prior CAP research found that only four states have high school diploma requirements that are fully aligned with the entrance requirements for their four-year state institutions of higher education. And only two of those states require a rigorous, 15-credit college ready curriculum, which includes four years of English, three years of math up to algebra II, three years of laboratory science, three years of social studies, and two years of the same foreign language. 42

Career-readiness is even less of a focus: Only one state—Delaware—requires all students to complete a three-credit career and technical education pathway to earn a regular high school diploma. And only 8 percent of high school graduates take a college- and career-ready curriculum that includes both components. 43 Research is clear that this preparation is critically important: Students that have both academic and workforce credentials are more likely to be employed and to have higher wages than other students, even when they do not go to college. 44 New research from the Stanford Center for Education Policy Analysis found that after California school districts implemented career pathway programs, dropout rates in those districts declined by 23 percent. 45

Too many students—particularly Black, Latinx, and Native American students, as well as students from families with low incomes—have limited access to advanced courses and dual enrollment opportunities. 46 Even before students arrive in high school, opportunity gaps at the elementary and middle-school level mean that white fourth grade students are more than twice as likely as Black fourth grade students to be performing at grade level in math and reading. 47 And for all students, the average student-to-counselor ratio is 482-to-1—nearly double the recommended ratio of 250-to-1—making it nearly impossible for students to get the additional guidance they need. 48 With these barriers across the K-12 continuum, it is no wonder that only 56 percent of students from the lowest quintile of socio-economic status enroll in college. 49 Among Pell Grant recipients, who are college students from families with low and moderate incomes, 55 percent require remedial coursework when they do enroll, 50 and only 49 percent actually graduate from college. 51

Give every student the opportunity to graduate high school with college credit and a meaningful workforce credential

A new federal-state-industry partnership would identify school models that provide both of these opportunities to all students and would bring these models to scale regionally and within states. To ensure that all students have access to new opportunities in high school, these models should focus heavily on the middle grades. This partnership would require states and industry partners to ensure that career and technical education programs reflect upcoming, well-paid, in-demand jobs in their region and that they address structural inequities to increase access to programs for students in the state who have historically been underserved and subsequently locked out of high-paying jobs. Building on their state’s college- and career-ready academic content standards, participating school districts could establish a K-12 ladder of course content supporting preparation for careers in the new economy. Districts would also strengthen family engagement and educator professional development, building awareness about the requirements for the future of work as early as kindergarten.

No education reform effort can be successful without teachers. Great teaching is at the core of all efforts to improve students’ learning and has the greatest impact for students who, due to poverty and structural racism, are the most likely to come to school already behind their peers academically—namely, nonwhite students and students from families with low incomes. 52

Yet despite what is known about the importance of excellent teaching, the teaching profession has for too long been an afterthought. Teachers are underpaid and undervalued. Currently, too many teachers must learn on the job, sometimes without much support. Not by chance, the students who get the least experienced and least qualified teachers are most often nonwhite or from families with low incomes, worsening already existing inequities in these students’ access to a quality education. 53

It does not have to be this way. In other careers, such as medicine and law, high expectations and selective and intensive training work together to create a profession that is highly respected and highly compensated. As has been true in other fields, unions should and must be a component of efforts to modernize the profession, particularly since research suggests that their negotiating power may be associated with not only higher salaries but also reduced teacher turnover and boosted student achievement. 54

Unfortunately, teachers are notoriously underpaid. 55 As the recent teacher strikes and walkouts brought to light, public school teachers make less than other comparable professionals in every state; in 2018, they earned 13.1 percent less on average, when accounting for nonwage benefits. 56 Given their low wages, teachers are about 30 percent more likely than nonteachers to work a second job, and in many states, teachers earn so little that they qualify for public benefits. 57 Compounding the problem, many teachers have to spend their own money on classroom supplies because public dollars fall short. For example, in the 2014-15 school year, 94 percent of teachers paid out of pocket for classroom supplies, with the average public school teacher spending $479. 58

Moreover, the teaching profession is not highly selective, nor is it doing enough to recruit more diversity to the field. 59 Compared with the United States, other countries with higher-performing educational systems tend to have more rigorous selection processes for admission into teacher preparation programs. 60 In many states, the percentage of nonwhite students still substantially outnumbers the percentage of nonwhite teachers—and nonwhite teachers have low retention rates across the country. 61

And yet, in recent years, expectations for teachers have risen. The job now requires getting all students—not just a small percentage, as was the status quo a generation ago—ready for college and career, which means that students need to meet challenging standards each year. 62 In addition, expectations for how teachers serve their students have rightly been raised; they are expected to differentiate and adjust instruction for English language learners, special education students, and students who are behind or above grade level. 63 The nation has underinvested in anti-poverty programs and put its faith in education as the “great equalizer,” 64 which means that teachers are being asked to bear a significant portion of the responsibility to meet students’ basic needs, respond to trauma, and provide social and emotional learning. 65

All of this is not lost on young people or their parents. For the first time, a majority of parents say that they do not want their kids to become teachers. 66 Likewise, fewer high school students report that they are interested in teaching careers, 67 and enrollment in teacher preparation programs is down by more than 30 percent since 2012. 68

Comprehensive agenda to raise the prestige of teaching and improve teachers’ working conditions

If states and school districts raised teacher pay to match that of other professions, provided training to help teachers meet the needs of the changing student population, and increased the selectivity of the teaching profession, the national narrative about and respect for the teaching profession would shift. A comprehensive policy agenda to achieve this goal should be multifaceted and must ensure that teachers are given the necessary training and resources to meet a higher bar. Components of such an agenda should include efforts to be more purposeful about candidates accepted into teacher preparation programs, with an explicit emphasis on diversifying the teaching profession; improving teacher preparation programs to provide them with high-quality clinical training experience and more rigorous coursework designed to prepare them for modern classrooms; aligning requirements for licensure with candidates’ observable readiness to teach beyond multiple-choice exams; investing in supports for new teachers, such as high-quality induction and mentorship programs; providing dedicated time and support for meaningful professional development that improves student outcomes; and defining career pathways that give excellent teachers the opportunity to expand their effectiveness.

Dramatically increasing investment in the nation’s public schools

Following the Great Recession in 2008, most states responded to revenue drops by making large cuts to their education budgets. 69 Schools depend on state funding for almost half of their revenue, but by 2015, only a handful of states had returned to pre-recession levels of spending. 70 Today, that number is increasing, but nearly half of states are still below pre-recession levels. 71 Some states even chose to cut taxes after the recession, which exacerbated budget constraints by reducing revenues even as the economy rebounded. 72

Research shows that money matters in education. Student scores on the NAEP are correlated with cumulative per-pupil spending. 73 Problems such as poor air quality and uncomfortable temperatures in schools can have negative effects on student learning 74 ; a study from the Journal of Environmental Psychology even found that building conditions predicted academic outcomes. 75 Still, more than half of U.S. public schools currently need repairs. 76

Funding affects every aspect of an excellent, well-rounded education. More money means available funds for smaller class sizes, 77 more rigorous course offerings, 78 and additional support staff, such as mental health professionals, 79 all of which have important consequences for student success and well-being. And these school features are especially important for students living in areas of concentrated poverty who may need additional support. For example, class size reduction typically has the largest positive effects for students who are Black or from families with low incomes. 80

Unfortunately, there are both racial and socio-economic disparities in investment and opportunities. Despite serving the same number of students, school districts where more than 75 percent of students are nonwhite receive $23 billion less than districts where more than 75 percent of students are white. 81 Reinvesting in schools continually results in more positive outcomes for disadvantaged students. Between 1990 and 2011, states that passed more equitable school finance reforms saw decreased gaps in NAEP scores between low-income and wealthier districts. 82

Federal investment in education currently covers approximately 8 percent of public school revenues, and the amount of funding provided has not kept up with inflation over the past decade. 83 Title I funds are not enough to create equity across districts or states, 84 and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) remains underfunded. 85 But with states and districts facing extreme inequities in funding—inequities that hurt the students who need education investment the most—it is time for progressives to fight for the funding that schools and students deserve.

Public education opportunity grants

Title I is the primary federal funding source for schools and school districts with high percentages of students from families with low-incomes. 86 Years of political compromises and tweaking of the formula, however, have left funding for the program inequitable, underfunded, and too widely dispersed to make a meaningful difference in the schools it is designed to serve. 87 Increasing Title I funding should be a priority, but a new administration should go further by creating new public education opportunity grants. To inform this approach, the federal government should appoint a commission to determine a specific set of critical education resources that are typically present in privileged communities but missing from historically disadvantaged schools and districts. These resources could include guidance counselors, school nurses, mental health professionals, art and music classes, or extracurricular enrichment opportunities—which would become available to all U.S. schools through the grants.

In exchange for new federal funding, states would need to ensure that districts serving high percentages of students from families with low incomes are providing the resources determined necessary by the aforementioned commission. States would also need to make changes to support these district efforts, such as adjusting state funding formulas to be more equitable.

Charter schools have long been a contentious issue among progressives, and Secretary of Education Betsy Devos’ intense focus on expanding both private school vouchers and charters has likely increased that tension. Yet high-quality charter schools have been a critical strategy to increase opportunity and create more good seats for students. At the same time, some of the critiques of the charter sector do have merit. CAP has long argued that there is a progressive case for charters focused on growing and learning from successful models while addressing gaps in charter policy, such as the many problems with for-profit, virtual charter schools. 88

There are currently slightly more than 7,000 charter schools across 44 states and Washington, D.C., that educate more than 3 million students, or 6 percent of public school enrollment. 89 While the charter sector serves a small percentage of students nationwide, in some of the nation’s largest cities, it serves far more: from between 10 and 20 percent in New York, Chicago, Miami, and Houston to between 30 and 60 percent in Philadelphia, Detroit, and Washington, D.C. This growth has not been without controversy and opposition. Critiques include concerns about charters’ impact on traditional districts (for example, contributions to school closings, segregation, and budget cuts); resistance to supporting organized labor; gaps in charter policy that limit transparency and allow profit-seeking; lack of support for community-led models in favor of schools managed by larger entities responsible for multiple replicated schools; and claims of privatizing public education.

A review of charter school research reveals that many studies have found both negative and positive effects on student outcomes. 90 Most, like a recent federal study on the long-term impacts of attending charter middle schools, find no effect. 91 These mixed results are also driven by marked variability in the success of charter schools. 92 Charter schools in rural or suburban areas typically have slightly negative effects, while charter schools in urban areas—especially those serving students of color and students from families with low incomes—tend to be more successful. 93

In successful charter schools, there are significant effects on both short-term student outcomes—such as test scores 94 —and long-term outcomes, including graduation, college enrollment, and college persistence. 95 And the effects can be especially pronounced for historically underserved students. In Boston, for example, a study found that one year in a charter school erases a third of the racial achievement gap. 96

Research into charter schools’ effects on the finances and operations of traditional school districts highlights that charters have a short-term negative impact on economies of scale in districts, while over the medium term, they can lead to improvements in efficiency in district schools. 97 One study of the effects of charter schools in New York City even showed that students at traditional district schools experienced the strongest positive achievement effects when a charter school was co-located in a building with the district school. 98

High-quality charter schools as a strategy, not a goal

In too many places across the country, there are not enough good seats in schools, especially for Black, Latinx, and Native American students, as well as students from families with low incomes. A strong charter sector is a critical component to expanding the number of good public school seats, and high-quality charter schools are a valuable strategy to address that problem. But the growth of charter schools should not be an end in itself. A new administration should take a nuanced approach to charters that includes both the expansion of good school options and the coordination across the traditional district and charter sectors to avoid potentially negative impacts. This approach should include three key components. First, it should include strong authorizing and accountability policies for charter schools as well as efforts to proactively address the shortfalls of the sector. These efforts should include solutions for pain points, such as issues related to backfilling enrollment during the school year, providing service to students with disabilities, and maintaining transparency in financial operations—to name a few.

Second, the approach should apply a race equity lens to public school choice policies generally and charter schools specifically, with a focus on equitably expanding access to opportunities for underserved students. This means that decisions on where to locate schools and programs and how to make enrollment decisions—for example, boundaries, admissions requirements, and lottery rules—should be analyzed with a race equity lens.

Third, this approach should include a balanced assessment of potential charter growth and the impact on traditional districts. This assessment should always focus on how to increase the number of good seats for students but may imply different specific recommendations in different places and circumstances.

The current U.S. K-12 educational system should be an engine of opportunity that creates pathways to college, family-sustaining jobs, and the middle class for every student. While this is true for some, it is far from true for all. If America is ever to have a public school system that provides equitable access to these opportunities, everyone—parents, educators, policymakers, researchers, and advocates—must wrestle with hard truths. Making progress toward the goal of shared prosperity means looking at policies very explicitly through the lens of race and income equity. This work is critical to breaking down systematic, structural, and institutional barriers to opportunity.

Future presidential administrations must have a clear vision for policies that will benefit all Americans and provide pathways to opportunities. Certainly, addressing the needs of the current workforce is important, but national leaders must also consider the more than 50 million students in public schools who want to go to college or get a good job after they leave the K-12 system. It is time for a clear, robust K-12 education platform that applies an explicit race equity lens to all policies, prepares students for college and the future workforce, modernizes and elevates the teaching profession, dramatically increases the nation’s investment in education, and takes a balanced approach to opening and supporting charter schools to provide more good choices for families. Leaders at every level should focus on these priorities in order to enhance the quality of education for every single public school student.

About the authors

Scott Sargrad is the vice president of K-12 Education Policy at the Center for American Progress. He previously served as deputy assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education in the Obama administration and worked as a math teacher and special education paraprofessional. Sargrad received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Haverford College and a master’s degree in education policy and management from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Khalilah M. Harris is the managing director for K-12 Education Policy at the Center. She was the first deputy director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans and is currently a lecturer in the College of Education at Towson University. Harris is a proud alum of Morgan State University, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in political science. She also earned a Juris Doctor from the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law and a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Pennsylvania.

Lisette Partelow is the senior director of K-12 Strategic Initiatives at the Center. Her previous experience includes teaching first grade in Washington, D.C., working as a senior legislative assistant for Rep. Dave Loebsack (D-IA), and working as a legislative associate at the Alliance for Excellent Education. She has also worked at the U.S. House Committee on Education and Labor and at the American Institutes for Research.

Neil Campbell is the director of innovation for K-12 Education Policy at the Center. He was a special assistant and, later, a chief of staff in the Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development at the U.S. Department of Education. Campbell previously worked at Education Elements and the Boston Consulting Group. He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and political science from Case Western Reserve University and a master’s in business administration from Vanderbilt University.

Laura Jimenez is the director of standards and accountability for K-12 Education Policy at the Center. She served as the director of the College and Career Readiness and Success Center at the American Institutes for Research and as a special assistant in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education at the U.S. Department of Education. Jimenez has also overseen large-scale college access programs funded by the National Institutes for Health and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and has served as a teacher in the U.S. Peace Corps. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Los Angeles and holds a master’s degree in social welfare from the University of California, Berkeley.

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• Philip Gleason and others, “The Evaluation of Charter School Impacts: Final Report” (Washington: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, 2010), available at https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/20104029/pdf/20104029.pdf .
• LiBetti and others, “The State of the Charter Sector.”
• Edward Cremata and others, “National Charter School Study 2013” (Stanford, CA: Center for Research on Education Outcomes, 2013), available at http://credo.stanford.edu/documents/NCSS 2013 Final Draft.pdf .
• Tim R. Sass and others, “Charter High Schools’ Effects on Long-Term Attainment and Earnings,” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 35 (3) (2016): 683–706, available at https://news.vanderbilt.edu/files/pam_21913_Rev-FINAL-4416.pdf .
• Sarah Cohodes and Susan M. Dynarski, “Massachusetts charter cap holds back disadvantaged students” (Washington: Brookings Institution, 2016), available at https://www.brookings.edu/research/massachusetts-charter-cap-holds-back-disadvantaged-students/ .
• Christian Buerger and Robert Bifulco, “The effect of charter schools on districts’ student composition, costs, and efficiency: The case of New York state,” Economics of Education Review 69 (2019): 61–72, available at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0272775716303417 .
• Sarah A. Cordes, “Charters and the Common Good,” Education Next 18 (2) (2018): 60–67, available at https://www.educationnext.org/charters-and-common-good-spillover-effects-charter-schools-new-york-city/ .

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THE SDGS IN ACTION.

What are the sustainable development goals.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the Global Goals, were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity.

The 17 SDGs are integrated—they recognize that action in one area will affect outcomes in others, and that development must balance social, economic and environmental sustainability.

Countries have committed to prioritize progress for those who're furthest behind. The SDGs are designed to end poverty, hunger, AIDS, and discrimination against women and girls.

The creativity, knowhow, technology and financial resources from all of society is necessary to achieve the SDGs in every context.

Eradicating poverty in all its forms remains one of the greatest challenges facing humanity. While the number of people living in extreme poverty dropped by more than half between 1990 and 2015, too many are still struggling for the most basic human needs.

As of 2015, about 736 million people still lived on less than US$1.90 a day; many lack food, clean drinking water and sanitation. Rapid growth in countries such as China and India has lifted millions out of poverty, but progress has been uneven. Women are more likely to be poor than men because they have less paid work, education, and own less property.

Progress has also been limited in other regions, such as South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, which account for 80 percent of those living in extreme poverty. New threats brought on by climate change, conflict and food insecurity, mean even more work is needed to bring people out of poverty.

The SDGs are a bold commitment to finish what we started, and end poverty in all forms and dimensions by 2030. This involves targeting the most vulnerable, increasing basic resources and services, and supporting communities affected by conflict and climate-related disasters.

736 million people still live in extreme poverty.

10 percent of the world’s population live in extreme poverty, down from 36 percent in 1990.

Some 1.3 billion people live in multidimensional poverty.

Half of all people living in poverty are under 18.

One person in every 10 is extremely poor.

Goal targets

• By 2030, reduce at least by half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions
• Implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable
• By 2030, ensure that all men and women, in particular the poor and the vulnerable, have equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to basic services, ownership and control over land and other forms of property, inheritance, natural resources, appropriate new technology and financial services, including microfinance
• By 2030, build the resilience of the poor and those in vulnerable situations and reduce their exposure and vulnerability to climate-related extreme events and other economic, social and environmental shocks and disasters
• Ensure significant mobilization of resources from a variety of sources, including through enhanced development cooperation, in order to provide adequate and predictable means for developing countries, in particular least developed countries, to implement programmes and policies to end poverty in all its dimensions
• Create sound policy frameworks at the national, regional and international levels, based on pro-poor and gender-sensitive development strategies, to support accelerated investment in poverty eradication actions

SDGs in Action

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Zero hunger.

Zero Hunger

The number of undernourished people has dropped by almost half in the past two decades because of rapid economic growth and increased agricultural productivity. Many developing countries that used to suffer from famine and hunger can now meet their nutritional needs. Central and East Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean have all made huge progress in eradicating extreme hunger.

Unfortunately, extreme hunger and malnutrition remain a huge barrier to development in many countries. There are 821 million people estimated to be chronically undernourished as of 2017, often as a direct consequence of environmental degradation, drought and biodiversity loss. Over 90 million children under five are dangerously underweight. Undernourishment and severe food insecurity appear to be increasing in almost all regions of Africa, as well as in South America.

The SDGs aim to end all forms of hunger and malnutrition by 2030, making sure all people–especially children–have sufficient and nutritious food all year. This involves promoting sustainable agricultural, supporting small-scale farmers and equal access to land, technology and markets. It also requires international cooperation to ensure investment in infrastructure and technology to improve agricultural productivity.

The number of undernourished people reached 821 million in 2017.

In 2017 Asia accounted for nearly two thirds, 63 percent, of the world’s hungry.

Nearly 151 million children under five, 22 percent, were still stunted in 2017.

More than 1 in 8 adults is obese.

1 in 3 women of reproductive age is anemic.

26 percent of workers are employed in agriculture.

• By 2030, end all forms of malnutrition, including achieving, by 2025, the internationally agreed targets on stunting and wasting in children under 5 years of age, and address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women and older persons
• By 2030, double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers, including through secure and equal access to land, other productive resources and inputs, knowledge, financial services, markets and opportunities for value addition and non-farm employment
• By 2030, ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, that help maintain ecosystems, that strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding and other disasters and that progressively improve land and soil quality
• By 2020, maintain the genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants and farmed and domesticated animals and their related wild species, including through soundly managed and diversified seed and plant banks at the national, regional and international levels, and promote access to and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, as internationally agreed
• Increase investment, including through enhanced international cooperation, in rural infrastructure, agricultural research and extension services, technology development and plant and livestock gene banks in order to enhance agricultural productive capacity in developing countries, in particular least developed countries
• Correct and prevent trade restrictions and distortions in world agricultural markets, including through the parallel elimination of all forms of agricultural export subsidies and all export measures with equivalent effect, in accordance with the mandate of the Doha Development Round
• Adopt measures to ensure the proper functioning of food commodity markets and their derivatives and facilitate timely access to market information, including on food reserves, in order to help limit extreme food price volatility.

Water unites communities

Can Myanmar bounce back?

Microfinancing powers small bu...

UNDP’s Engagement at Financing...

Mapping Essential Life Support...

Good health and well-being.

We have made great progress against several leading causes of death and disease. Life expectancy has increased dramatically; infant and maternal mortality rates have declined, we’ve turned the tide on HIV and malaria deaths have halved.

Good health is essential to sustainable development and the 2030 Agenda reflects the complexity and interconnectedness of the two. It takes into account widening economic and social inequalities, rapid urbanization, threats to the climate and the environment, the continuing burden of HIV and other infectious diseases, and emerging challenges such as noncommunicable diseases. Universal health coverage will be integral to achieving SDG 3, ending poverty and reducing inequalities. Emerging global health priorities not explicitly included in the SDGs, including antimicrobial resistance, also demand action.

But the world is off-track to achieve the health-related SDGs. Progress has been uneven, both between and within countries. There’s a 31-year gap between the countries with the shortest and longest life expectancies. And while some countries have made impressive gains, national averages hide that many are being left behind. Multisectoral, rights-based and gender-sensitive approaches are essential to address inequalities and to build good health for all.

At least 400 million people have no basic healthcare, and 40 percent lack social protection.

More than 1.6 billion people live in fragile settings where protracted crises, combined with weak national capacity to deliver basic health services, present a significant challenge to global health.

By the end of 2017, 21.7 million people living with HIV were receiving antiretroviral therapy. Yet more than 15 million people are still waiting for treatment.

Every 2 seconds someone aged 30 to 70 years dies prematurely from noncommunicable diseases - cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease, diabetes or cancer.

7 million people die every year from exposure to fine particles in polluted air.

More than one of every three women have experienced either physical or sexual violence at some point in their life resulting in both short- and long-term consequences for their physical, mental, and sexual and reproductive health.

• By 2030, reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births
• By 2030, end preventable deaths of newborns and children under 5 years of age, with all countries aiming to reduce neonatal mortality to at least as low as 12 per 1,000 live births and under-5 mortality to at least as low as 25 per 1,000 live births
• By 2030, end the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases and combat hepatitis, water-borne diseases and other communicable diseases
• By 2030, reduce by one third premature mortality from non-communicable diseases through prevention and treatment and promote mental health and well-being
• Strengthen the prevention and treatment of substance abuse, including narcotic drug abuse and harmful use of alcohol
• By 2020, halve the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents
• By 2030, ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health-care services, including for family planning, information and education, and the integration of reproductive health into national strategies and programmes
• Achieve universal health coverage, including financial risk protection, access to quality essential health-care services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all
• By 2030, substantially reduce the number of deaths and illnesses from hazardous chemicals and air, water and soil pollution and contamination
• Strengthen the implementation of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in all countries, as appropriate
• Support the research and development of vaccines and medicines for the communicable and noncommunicable diseases that primarily affect developing countries, provide access to affordable essential medicines and vaccines, in accordance with the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health, which affirms the right of developing countries to use to the full the provisions in the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights regarding flexibilities to protect public health, and, in particular, provide access to medicines for all
• Substantially increase health financing and the recruitment, development, training and retention of the health workforce in developing countries, especially in least developed countries and small island developing States
• Strengthen the capacity of all countries, in particular developing countries, for early warning, risk reduction and management of national and global health risks

Achieving the 10-10-10 HIV tar...

The many facets of climate and...

Afghans need sustainable alter...

UNDP at the 25th International...

Quality education.

Since 2000, there has been enormous progress in achieving the target of universal primary education. The total enrollment rate in developing regions reached 91 percent in 2015, and the worldwide number of children out of school has dropped by almost half. There has also been a dramatic increase in literacy rates, and many more girls are in school than ever before. These are all remarkable successes.

Progress has also been tough in some developing regions due to high levels of poverty, armed conflicts and other emergencies. In Western Asia and North Africa, ongoing armed conflict has seen an increase in the number of children out of school. This is a worrying trend. While Sub-Saharan Africa made the greatest progress in primary school enrollment among all developing regions – from 52 percent in 1990, up to 78 percent in 2012 – large disparities still remain. Children from the poorest households are up to four times more likely to be out of school than those of the richest households. Disparities between rural and urban areas also remain high.

Achieving inclusive and quality education for all reaffirms the belief that education is one of the most powerful and proven vehicles for sustainable development. This goal ensures that all girls and boys complete free primary and secondary schooling by 2030. It also aims to provide equal access to affordable vocational training, to eliminate gender and wealth disparities, and achieve universal access to a quality higher education.

Enrollment in primary education in developing countries has reached 91 percent.

Still, 57 million primary-aged children remain out of school, more than half of them in sub-Saharan Africa.

In developing countries, one in four girls is not in school.

About half of all out-of-school children of primary school age live in conflict-affected areas.

103 million youth worldwide lack basic literacy skills, and more than 60 percent of them are women.

6 out of 10 children and adolescents are not achieving a minimum level of proficiency in reading and math.

• By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and Goal-4 effective learning outcomes
• By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and preprimary education so that they are ready for primary education
• By 2030, ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university
• 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
• 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
• By 2030, ensure that all youth and a substantial proportion of adults, both men and women, achieve literacy and numeracy
• 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
• Build and upgrade education facilities that are child, disability and gender sensitive and provide safe, nonviolent, inclusive and effective learning environments for all
• 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
• 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

Building a more resilient educ...

Empowering Afghan women and gi...

How Do Investments in Human Ca...

Gender equality.

Gender Equality

Ending all discrimination against women and girls is not only a basic human right, it’s crucial for sustainable future; it’s proven that empowering women and girls helps economic growth and development.

UNDP has made gender equality central to its work and we’ve seen remarkable progress in the past 20 years. There are more girls in school now compared to 15 years ago, and most regions have reached gender parity in primary education.

But although there are more women than ever in the labour market, there are still large inequalities in some regions, with women systematically denied the same work rights as men. Sexual violence and exploitation, the unequal division of unpaid care and domestic work, and discrimination in public office all remain huge barriers. Climate change and disasters continue to have a disproportionate effect on women and children, as do conflict and migration.

It is vital to give women equal rights land and property, sexual and reproductive health, and to technology and the internet. Today there are more women in public office than ever before, but encouraging more women leaders will help achieve greater gender equality.

Women earn only 77 cents for every dollar that men get for the same work.

35 percent of women have experienced physical and/or sexual violence.

Women represent just 13 percent of agricultural landholders.

Almost 750 million women and girls alive today were married before their 18th birthday.

Two thirds of developing countries have achieved gender parity in primary education.

Only 24 percent of national parliamentarians were women as of November 2018, a small increase from 11.3 percent in 1995.

• End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere
• Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation
• Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation
• Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate
• Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decisionmaking in political, economic and public life
• Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of their review conferences
• Undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance and natural resources, in accordance with national laws
• Enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology, to promote the empowerment of women
• Adopt and strengthen sound policies and enforceable legislation for the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls at all levels

UNDP Gender Equality Strategy ...

The challenges of the Papua Ne...

Press releases.

UNDP applauds Namibian High Co...

Somalia’s Only All-Women Media...

Clean water and sanitation.

Water scarcity affects more than 40 percent of people, an alarming figure that is projected to rise as temperatures do. Although 2.1 billion people have improved water sanitation since 1990, dwindling drinking water supplies are affecting every continent.

More and more countries are experiencing water stress, and increasing drought and desertification is already worsening these trends. By 2050, it is projected that at least one in four people will suffer recurring water shortages.

Safe and affordable drinking water for all by 2030 requires we invest in adequate infrastructure, provide sanitation facilities, and encourage hygiene. Protecting and restoring water-related ecosystems is essential.

Ensuring universal safe and affordable drinking water involves reaching over 800 million people who lack basic services and improving accessibility and safety of services for over two billion.

In 2015, 4.5 billion people lacked safely managed sanitation services (with adequately disposed or treated excreta) and 2.3 billion lacked even basic sanitation.

71 percent of the global population, 5.2 billion people, had safely-managed drinking water in 2015, but 844 million people still lacked even basic drinking water.

39 percent of the global population, 2.9 billion people, had safe sanitation in 2015, but 2.3 billion people still lacked basic sanitation. 892 million people practiced open defecation.

80 percent of wastewater goes into waterways without adequate treatment.

Water stress affects more than 2 billion people, with this figure projected to increase.

80 percent of countries have laid the foundations for integrated water resources management.

The world has lost 70 percent of its natural wetlands over the last century.

• By 2030, achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all
• By 2030, achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations
• By 2030, improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping and minimizing release of hazardous chemicals and materials, halving the proportion of untreated wastewater and substantially increasing recycling and safe reuse globally
• By 2030, substantially increase water-use efficiency across all sectors and ensure sustainable withdrawals and supply of freshwater to address water scarcity and substantially reduce the number of people suffering from water scarcity
• By 2030, implement integrated water resources management at all levels, including through transboundary cooperation as appropriate
• By 2020, protect and restore water-related ecosystems, including mountains, forests, wetlands, rivers, aquifers and lakes
• By 2030, expand international cooperation and capacity-building support to developing countries in water- and sanitation-related activities and programmes, including water harvesting, desalination, water efficiency, wastewater treatment, recycling and reuse technologies
• Support and strengthen the participation of local communities in improving water and sanitation management

Restoring sacred land

Navigating the future of atoll...

(R)evolution

Affordable and clean energy.

Between 2000 and 2018, the number of people with electricity increased from 78 to 90 percent, and the numbers without electricity dipped to 789 million.

Yet as the population continues to grow, so will the demand for cheap energy, and an economy reliant on fossil fuels is creating drastic changes to our climate.

Investing in solar, wind and thermal power, improving energy productivity, and ensuring energy for all is vital if we are to achieve SDG 7 by 2030.

Expanding infrastructure and upgrading technology to provide clean and more efficient energy in all countries will encourage growth and help the environment.  

One out of 10 people still lacks electricity, and most live in rural areas of the developing world. More than half are in sub-Saharan Africa.

Energy is by far the main contributor to climate change. It accounts for 73 percent of human-caused greenhouse gases.

Energy efficiency is key; the right efficiency policies could enable the world to achieve more than 40 percent of the emissions cuts needed to reach its climate goals without new technology.

Almost a third of the world’s population—2.8 billion—rely on polluting and unhealthy fuels for cooking.

As of 2017, 17.5 percent of power was generated through renewable sources.

The renewable energy sector employed a record 11.5 million people in 2019. The changes needed in energy production and uses to achieve the Paris Agreement target of limiting the rise in temperature to below 2C can create 18 million jobs.

• By 2030, ensure universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services
• By 2030, increase substantially the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix
• By 2030, double the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency
• By 2030, enhance international cooperation to facilitate access to clean energy research and technology, including renewable energy, energy efficiency and advanced and cleaner fossil-fuel technology, and promote investment in energy infrastructure and clean energy technology
• By 2030, expand infrastructure and upgrade technology for supplying modern and sustainable energy services for all in developing countries, in particular least developed countries, small island developing States, and land-locked developing coun

Innovative Governance for Priv...

The big switch

Accelerating the Green Transit...

Targeted and Inclusive Approac...

Decent work and economic growth.

Over the past 25 years the number of workers living in extreme poverty has declined dramatically, despite the lasting impact of the 2008 economic crisis and global recession. In developing countries, the middle class now makes up more than 34 percent of total employment – a number that has almost tripled between 1991 and 2015.

However, as the global economy continues to recover we are seeing slower growth, widening inequalities, and not enough jobs to keep up with a growing labour force. According to the International Labour Organization, more than 204 million people were unemployed in 2015.

The SDGs promote sustained economic growth, higher levels of productivity and technological innovation. Encouraging entrepreneurship and job creation are key to this, as are effective measures to eradicate forced labour, slavery and human trafficking. With these targets in mind, the goal is to achieve full and productive employment, and decent work, for all women and men by 2030.

An estimated 172 million people worldwide were without work in 2018 - an unemployment rate of 5 percent.

As a result of an expanding labour force, the number of unemployed is projected to increase by 1 million every year and reach 174 million by 2020.

Some 700 million workers lived in extreme or moderate poverty in 2018, with less than US$3.20 per day.

Women’s participation in the labour force stood at 48 per cent in 2018, compared with 75 percent for men. Around 3 in 5 of the 3.5 billion people in the labour force in 2018 were men.

Overall, 2 billion workers were in informal employment in 2016, accounting for 61 per cent of the world’s workforce.

Many more women than men are underutilized in the labour force—85 million compared to 55 million.

• Sustain per capita economic growth in accordance with national circumstances and, in particular, at least 7 per cent gross domestic product growth per annum in the least developed countries
• Achieve higher levels of economic productivity through diversification, technological upgrading and innovation, including through a focus on high-value added and labour-intensive sectors
• Promote development-oriented policies that support productive activities, decent job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and encourage the formalization and growth of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises, including through access to financial services
• Improve progressively, through 2030, global resource efficiency in consumption and production and endeavour to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation, in accordance with the 10-year framework of programmes on sustainable consumption and production, with developed countries taking the lead
• By 2030, achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including for young people and persons with disabilities, and equal pay for work of equal value
• By 2020, substantially reduce the proportion of youth not in employment, education or training
• Take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms
• Protect labour rights and promote safe and secure working environments for all workers, including migrant workers, in particular women migrants, and those in precarious employment
• By 2030, devise and implement policies to promote sustainable tourism that creates jobs and promotes local culture and products
• Strengthen the capacity of domestic financial institutions to encourage and expand access to banking, insurance and financial services for all
• Increase Aid for Trade support for developing countries, in particular least developed countries, including through the Enhanced Integrated Framework for Trade-Related Technical Assistance to Least Developed Countries
• By 2020, develop and operationalize a global strategy for youth employment and implement the Global Jobs Pact of the International Labour Organization

AI Hub for Sustainable Develop...

“Life has its mysterious ways,...

Industry, innovation and infrastructure.

Investment in infrastructure and innovation are crucial drivers of economic growth and development. With over half the world population now living in cities, mass transport and renewable energy are becoming ever more important, as are the growth of new industries and information and communication technologies.

Technological progress is also key to finding lasting solutions to both economic and environmental challenges, such as providing new jobs and promoting energy efficiency. Promoting sustainable industries, and investing in scientific research and innovation, are all important ways to facilitate sustainable development.

More than 4 billion people still do not have access to the Internet, and 90 percent are from the developing world. Bridging this digital divide is crucial to ensure equal access to information and knowledge, as well as foster innovation and entrepreneurship.   

Worldwide, 2.3 billion people lack access to basic sanitation.

In some low-income African countries, infrastructure constraints cut businesses’ productivity by around 40 percent.

2.6 billion people in developing countries do not have access to constant electricity.

More than 4 billion people still do not have access to the Internet; 90 percent of them are in the developing world.

The renewable energy sectors currently employ more than 2.3 million people; the number could reach 20 million by 2030.

In developing countries, barely 30 percent of agricultural products undergo industrial processing, compared to 98 percent high-income countries.

• Develop quality, reliable, sustainable and resilient infrastructure, including regional and transborder infrastructure, to support economic development and human well-being, with a focus on affordable and equitable access for all
• Promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and, by 2030, significantly raise industry’s share of employment and gross domestic product, in line with national circumstances, and double its share in least developed countries
• Increase the access of small-scale industrial and other enterprises, in particular in developing countries, to financial services, including affordable credit, and their integration into value chains and markets
• By 2030, upgrade infrastructure and retrofit industries to make them sustainable, with increased resource-use efficiency and greater adoption of clean and environmentally sound technologies and industrial processes, with all countries taking action in accordance with their respective capabilities
• Enhance scientific research, upgrade the technological capabilities of industrial sectors in all countries, in particular developing countries, including, by 2030, encouraging innovation and substantially increasing the number of research and development workers per 1 million people and public and private research and development spending
• Facilitate sustainable and resilient infrastructure development in developing countries through enhanced financial, technological and technical support to African countries, least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing States 18
• Support domestic technology development, research and innovation in developing countries, including by ensuring a conducive policy environment for, inter alia, industrial diversification and value addition to commodities
• Significantly increase access to information and communications technology and strive to provide universal and affordable access to the Internet in least developed countries by 2020

Ensuring positive, people-focu...

Reduced inequalities.

Income inequality is on the rise—the richest 10 percent have up to 40 percent of global income whereas the poorest 10 percent earn only between 2 to 7 percent. If we take into account population growth inequality in developing countries, inequality has increased by 11 percent.

Income inequality has increased in nearly everywhere in recent decades, but at different speeds. It’s lowest in Europe and highest in the Middle East.

These widening disparities require sound policies to empower lower income earners, and promote economic inclusion of all regardless of sex, race or ethnicity.

Income inequality requires global solutions. This involves improving the regulation and monitoring of financial markets and institutions, encouraging development assistance and foreign direct investment to regions where the need is greatest. Facilitating the safe migration and mobility of people is also key to bridging the widening divide.

In 2016, 22 percent of global income was received by the top 1 percent compared with 10 percent of income for the bottom 50 percent.

In 1980, the top one percent had 16 percent of global income. The bottom 50 percent had 8 percent of income.

Economic inequality is largely driven by the unequal ownership of capital. Since 1980, very large transfers of public to private wealth occurred in nearly all countries. The global wealth share of the top 1 percent was 33 percent in 2016.

Under "business as usual", the top 1 percent global wealth will reach 39 percent by 2050.

Women spend, on average, twice as much time on unpaid housework as men.

Women have as much access to financial services as men in just 60 percent of the countries assessed and to land ownership in just 42 percent of the countries assessed.

• By 2030, progressively achieve and sustain income growth of the bottom 40 per cent of the population at a rate higher than the national average
• By 2030, empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status
• Ensure equal opportunity and reduce inequalities of outcome, including by eliminating discriminatory laws, policies and practices and promoting appropriate legislation, policies and action in this regard
• Adopt policies, especially fiscal, wage and social protection policies, and progressively achieve greater equality
• Improve the regulation and monitoring of global financial markets and institutions and strengthen the implementation of such regulations
• Ensure enhanced representation and voice for developing countries in decision-making in global international economic and financial institutions in order to deliver more effective, credible, accountable and legitimate institutions
• Facilitate orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration and mobility of people, including through the implementation of planned and well-managed migration policies
• Implement the principle of special and differential treatment for developing countries, in particular least developed countries, in accordance with World Trade Organization agreements
• Encourage official development assistance and financial flows, including foreign direct investment, to States where the need is greatest, in particular least developed countries, African countries, small island developing States and landlocked developing countries, in accordance with their national plans and programmes
• By 2030, reduce to less than 3 per cent the transaction costs of migrant remittances and eliminate remittance corridors with costs higher than 5 per cent

Mauritania pilots digital ID a...

Sustainable cities and communities.

More than half of us  live in cities. By 2050, two-thirds of all humanity—6.5 billion people—will be urban. Sustainable development cannot be achieved without significantly transforming the way we build and manage our urban spaces.

The rapid growth of cities—a result of rising populations and increasing migration—has led to a boom in mega-cities, especially in the developing world, and slums are becoming a more significant feature of urban life.

Making cities sustainable means creating career and business opportunities, safe and affordable housing, and building resilient societies and economies. It involves investment in public transport, creating green public spaces, and improving urban planning and management in participatory and inclusive ways.

In 2018, 4.2 billion people, 55 percent of the world’s population, lived in cities. By 2050, the urban population is expected to reach 6.5 billion.

Cities occupy just 3 percent of the Earth’s land but account for 60 to 80 percent of energy consumption and at least 70 percent of carbon emissions.

828 million people are estimated to live in slums, and the number is rising.

In 1990, there were 10 cities with 10 million people or more; by 2014, the number of mega-cities rose to 28, and was expected to reach 33 by 2018. In the future, 9 out of 10 mega-cities will be in the developing world.

In the coming decades, 90 percent of urban expansion will be in the developing world.

The economic role of cities is significant. They generate about 80 percent of the global GDP.

• By 2030, ensure access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services and upgrade slums
• By 2030, provide access to safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems for all, improving road safety, notably by expanding public transport, with special attention to the needs of those in vulnerable situations, women, children, persons with disabilities and older persons
• By 2030, enhance inclusive and sustainable urbanization and capacity for participatory, integrated and sustainable human settlement planning and management in all countries
• Strengthen efforts to protect and safeguard the world’s cultural and natural heritage
• By 2030, significantly reduce the number of deaths and the number of people affected and substantially decrease the direct economic losses relative to global gross domestic product caused by disasters, including water-related disasters, with a focus on protecting the poor and people in vulnerable situations
• By 2030, reduce the adverse per capita environmental impact of cities, including by paying special attention to air quality and municipal and other waste management
• By 2030, provide universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible, green and public spaces, in particular for women and children, older persons and persons with disabilities
• Support positive economic, social and environmental links between urban, peri-urban and rural areas by strengthening national and regional development planning
• By 2020, substantially increase the number of cities and human settlements adopting and implementing integrated policies and plans towards inclusion, resource efficiency, mitigation and adaptation to climate change, resilience to disasters, and develop and implement, in line with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, holistic disaster risk management at all levels
• Support least developed countries, including through financial and technical assistance, in building sustainable and resilient buildings utilizing local materials

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Responsible consumption and production.

Achieving economic growth and sustainable development requires that we urgently reduce our ecological footprint by changing the way we produce and consume goods and resources. Agriculture is the biggest user of water worldwide, and irrigation now claims close to 70 percent of all freshwater for human use.

The efficient management of our shared natural resources, and the way we dispose of toxic waste and pollutants, are important targets to achieve this goal. Encouraging industries, businesses and consumers to recycle and reduce waste is equally important, as is supporting developing countries to move towards more sustainable patterns of consumption by 2030.

A large share of the world population is still consuming far too little to meet even their basic needs.  Halving the per capita of global food waste at the retailer and consumer levels is also important for creating more efficient production and supply chains. This can help with food security, and shift us towards a more resource efficient economy.

1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted every year, while almost 2 billion people go hungry or undernourished.

The food sector accounts for around 22 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions, largely from the conversion of forests into farmland.

Globally, 2 billion people are overweight or obese.

Only 3 percent of the world’s water is fresh (drinkable), and humans are using it faster than nature can replenish it.

If people everywhere switched to energy efficient lightbulbs, the world would save US$120 billion annually.

One-fifth of the world’s final energy consumption in 2013 was from renewable sources.

• Implement the 10-year framework of programmes on sustainable consumption and production, all countries taking action, with developed countries taking the lead, taking into account the development and capabilities of developing countries
• By 2030, achieve the sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources
• By 2030, halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses
• By 2020, achieve the environmentally sound management of chemicals and all wastes throughout their life cycle, in accordance with agreed international frameworks, and significantly reduce their release to air, water and soil in order to minimize their adverse impacts on human health and the environment
• By 2030, substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse
• Encourage companies, especially large and transnational companies, to adopt sustainable practices and to integrate sustainability information into their reporting cycle
• Promote public procurement practices that are sustainable, in accordance with national policies and priorities
• By 2030, ensure that people everywhere have the relevant information and awareness for sustainable development and lifestyles in harmony with nature
• Support developing countries to strengthen their scientific and technological capacity to move towards more sustainable patterns of consumption and production
• Develop and implement tools to monitor sustainable development impacts for sustainable tourism that creates jobs and promotes local culture and products
• Rationalize inefficient fossil-fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption by removing market distortions, in accordance with national circumstances, including by restructuring taxation and phasing out those harmful subsidies, where they exist, to reflect their environmental impacts, taking fully into account the specific needs and conditions of developing countries and minimizing the possible adverse impacts on their development in a manner that protects the poor and the affected communities

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Climate action.

There is no country that is not experiencing the drastic effects of climate change. Greenhouse gas emissions are more than 50 percent higher than in 1990. Global warming is causing long-lasting changes to our climate system, which threatens irreversible consequences if we do not act.

The annual average economic losses from climate-related disasters are in the hundreds of billions of dollars. This is not to mention the human impact of geo-physical disasters, which are 91 percent climate-related, and which between 1998 and 2017 killed 1.3 million people, and left 4.4 billion injured. The goal aims to mobilize US$100 billion annually by 2020 to address the needs of developing countries to both adapt to climate change and invest in low-carbon development.

Supporting vulnerable regions will directly contribute not only to Goal 13 but also to the other SDGs. These actions must also go hand in hand with efforts to integrate disaster risk measures, sustainable natural resource management, and human security into national development strategies. It is still possible, with strong political will, increased investment, and using existing technology, to limit the increase in global mean temperature to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, aiming at 1.5 ° C, but this requires urgent and ambitious collective action.

As of 2017 humans are estimated to have caused approximately 1.0°C of global warming above pre-industrial levels.

Sea levels have risen by about 20 cm (8 inches) since 1880 and are projected to rise another 30–122 cm (1 to 4 feet) by 2100.

To limit warming to 1.5C, global net CO2 emissions must drop by 45% between 2010 and 2030, and reach net zero around 2050.

Climate pledges under The Paris Agreement cover only one third of the emissions reductions needed to keep the world below 2°C.

Bold climate action could trigger at least US$26 trillion in economic benefits by 2030.

The energy sector alone will create around 18 million more jobs by 2030, focused specifically on sustainable energy.

• Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters in all countries
• Integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies and planning
• Improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning
• Implement the commitment undertaken by developed-country parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to a goal of mobilizing jointly $100 billion annually by 2020 from all sources to address the needs of developing countries in the context of meaningful mitigation actions and transparency on implementation and fully operationalize the Green Climate Fund through its capitalization as soon as possible
• Promote mechanisms for raising capacity for effective climate change-related planning and management in least developed countries and small island developing States, including focusing on women, youth and local and marginalized communities

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Life below water.

The world’s oceans – their temperature, chemistry, currents and life – drive global systems that make the Earth habitable for humankind. How we manage this vital resource is essential for humanity as a whole, and to counterbalance the effects of climate change.

Over three billion people depend on marine and coastal biodiversity for their livelihoods. However, today we are seeing 30 percent of the world’s fish stocks overexploited, reaching below the level at which they can produce sustainable yields.

Oceans also absorb about 30 percent of the carbon dioxide produced by humans, and we are seeing a 26 percent rise in ocean acidification since the beginning of the industrial revolution. Marine pollution, an overwhelming majority of which comes from land-based sources, is reaching alarming levels, with an average of 13,000 pieces of plastic litter to be found on every square kilometre of ocean.

The SDGs aim to sustainably manage and protect marine and coastal ecosystems from pollution, as well as address the impacts of ocean acidification. Enhancing conservation and the sustainable use of ocean-based resources through international law will also help mitigate some of the challenges facing our oceans.

The ocean covers three quarters of the Earth’s surface and represents 99 percent of the living space on the planet by volume.

The ocean contains nearly 200,000 identified species, but actual numbers may lie in the millions.

As much as 40 percent of the ocean is heavily affected by pollution, depleted fisheries, loss of coastal habitats and other human activities.

The ocean absorbs about 30 percent of carbon dioxide produced by humans, buffering the impacts of global warming.

More than 3 billion people depend on marine and coastal biodiversity for their livelihoods.

The market value of marine and coastal resources and industries is estimated at US$3 trillion per year, about 5 percent of global GDP.

• By 2025, prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds, in particular from land-based activities, including marine debris and nutrient pollution
• By 2020, sustainably manage and protect marine and coastal ecosystems to avoid significant adverse impacts, including by strengthening their resilience, and take action for their restoration in order to achieve healthy and productive oceans
• Minimize and address the impacts of ocean acidification, including through enhanced scientific cooperation at all levels
• By 2020, effectively regulate harvesting and end overfishing, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and destructive fishing practices and implement science-based management plans, in order to restore fish stocks in the shortest time feasible, at least to levels that can produce maximum sustainable yield as determined by their biological characteristics
• By 2020, conserve at least 10 per cent of coastal and marine areas, consistent with national and international law and based on the best available scientific information
• By 2020, prohibit certain forms of fisheries subsidies which contribute to overcapacity and overfishing, eliminate subsidies that contribute to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and refrain from introducing new such subsidies, recognizing that appropriate and effective special and differential treatment for developing and least developed countries should be an integral part of the World Trade Organization fisheries subsidies negotiation
• By 2030, increase the economic benefits to Small Island developing States and least developed countries from the sustainable use of marine resources, including through sustainable management of fisheries, aquaculture and tourism
• Increase scientific knowledge, develop research capacity and transfer marine technology, taking into account the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission Criteria and Guidelines on the Transfer of Marine Technology, in order to improve ocean health and to enhance the contribution of marine biodiversity to the development of developing countries, in particular small island developing States and least developed countries
• Provide access for small-scale artisanal fishers to marine resources and markets
• Enhance the conservation and sustainable use of oceans and their resources by implementing international law as reflected in UNCLOS, which provides the legal framework for the conservation and sustainable use of oceans and their resources, as recalled in paragraph 158 of The Future We Want

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Life on land.

Human life depends on the earth as much as the ocean for our sustenance and livelihoods. Plant life provides 80 percent of the human diet, and we rely on agriculture as an important economic resources. Forests cover 30 percent of the Earth’s surface, provide vital habitats for millions of species, and important sources for clean air and water, as well as being crucial for combating climate change.

Every year, 13 million hectares of forests are lost, while the persistent degradation of drylands has led to the desertification of 3.6 billion hectares, disproportionately affecting poor communities.

While 15 percent of land is protected, biodiversity is still at risk. Nearly 7,000 species of animals and plants have been illegally traded. Wildlife trafficking not only erodes biodiversity, but creates insecurity, fuels conflict, and feeds corruption.

Urgent action must be taken to reduce the loss of natural habitats and biodiversity which are part of our common heritage and support global food and water security, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and peace and security.

Around 1.6 billion people depend on forests for their livelihoods.

Forests are home to more than 80 percent of all terrestrial species of animals, plants and insects.

2.6 billion people depend directly on agriculture for a living.

Nature-based climate solutions can contribute about a third of CO2 reductions by 2030.

The value of ecosystems to human livelihoods and well-being is $US125 trillion per year.v

Mountain regions provide 60-80 percent of the Earth's fresh water.

• By 2020, ensure the conservation, restoration and sustainable use of terrestrial and inland freshwater ecosystems and their services, in particular forests, wetlands, mountains and drylands, in line with obligations under international agreements
• By 2020, promote the implementation of sustainable management of all types of forests, halt deforestation, restore degraded forests and substantially increase afforestation and reforestation globally
• By 2030, combat desertification, restore degraded land and soil, including land affected by desertification, drought and floods, and strive to achieve a land degradation-neutral world
• By 2030, ensure the conservation of mountain ecosystems, including their biodiversity, in order to enhance their capacity to provide benefits that are essential for sustainable development
• Take urgent and significant action to reduce the degradation of natural habitats, halt the loss of biodiversity and, by 2020, protect and prevent the extinction of threatened species
• Promote fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and promote appropriate access to such resources, as internationally agreed
• Take urgent action to end poaching and trafficking of protected species of flora and fauna and address both demand and supply of illegal wildlife products
• By 2020, introduce measures to prevent the introduction and significantly reduce the impact of invasive alien species on land and water ecosystems and control or eradicate the priority species
• By 2020, integrate ecosystem and biodiversity values into national and local planning, development processes, poverty reduction strategies and accounts
• Mobilize and significantly increase financial resources from all sources to conserve and sustainably use biodiversity and ecosystems
• Mobilize significant resources from all sources and at all levels to finance sustainable forest management and provide adequate incentives to developing countries to advance such management, including for conservation and reforestation
• Enhance global support for efforts to combat poaching and trafficking of protected species, including by increasing the capacity of local communities to pursue sustainable livelihood opportunities

Peace, justice and strong institutions

We cannot hope for sustainable development without peace, stability, human rights and effective governance, based on the rule of law. Yet our world is increasingly divided. Some regions enjoy peace, security and prosperity, while others fall into seemingly endless cycles of conflict and violence. This is not inevitable and must be addressed.

Armed violence and insecurity have a destructive impact on a country’s development, affecting economic growth, and often resulting in grievances that last for generations. Sexual violence, crime, exploitation and torture are also prevalent where there is conflict, or no rule of law, and countries must take measures to protect those who are most at risk

The SDGs aim to significantly reduce all forms of violence, and work with governments and communities to end conflict and insecurity. Promoting the rule of law and human rights are key to this process, as is reducing the flow of illicit arms and strengthening the participation of developing countries in the institutions of global governance.

By the end of 2017, 68.5 million people had been forcibly displaced as a result of persecution, conflict, violence or human rights violations.

There are at least 10 million stateless people who have been denied nationality and its related rights.

Corruption, bribery, theft and tax evasion cost developing countries US$1.26 trillion per year.

49 countries lack laws protecting women from domestic violence.

In 46 countries, women now hold more than 30 percent of seats in at least one chamber of national parliament.

1 billion people are legally ‘invisible’ because they cannot prove who they are. This includes an estimated 625 million children under 14 whose births were never registered.

• Significantly reduce all forms of violence and related death rates everywhere
• End abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against and torture of children
• Promote the rule of law at the national and international levels and ensure equal access to justice for all
• By 2030, significantly reduce illicit financial and arms flows, strengthen the recovery and return of stolen assets and combat all forms of organized crime
• Substantially reduce corruption and bribery in all their forms
• Develop effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels
• Ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels
• Broaden and strengthen the participation of developing countries in the institutions of global governance
• By 2030, provide legal identity for all, including birth registration
• Ensure public access to information and protect fundamental freedoms, in accordance with national legislation and international agreements
• Strengthen relevant national institutions, including through international cooperation, for building capacity at all levels, in particular in developing countries, to prevent violence and combat terrorism and crime
• Promote and enforce non-discriminatory laws and policies for sustainable development

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Partnerships for the goals.

The SDGs can only be realized with strong global partnerships and cooperation. Official Development Assistance remained steady but below target, at US$147 billion in 2017. While humanitarian crises brought on by conflict or natural disasters continue to demand more financial resources and aid. Many countries also require Official Development Assistance to encourage growth and trade.

The world is more interconnected than ever. Improving access to technology and knowledge is an important way to share ideas and foster innovation. Coordinating policies to help developing countries manage their debt, as well as promoting investment for the least developed, is vital for sustainable growth and development.

The goals aim to enhance North-South and South-South cooperation by supporting national plans to achieve all the targets. Promoting international trade, and helping developing countries increase their exports is all part of achieving a universal rules-based and equitable trading system that is fair and open and benefits all.

The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) says achieving SDGs will require US$5 trillion to $7 trillion in annual investment.

Total official development assistance reached US$147.2 billion in 2017.

In 2017, international remittances totaled US$613 billion; 76 percent of it went to developing countries.

In 2016, 6 countries met the international target to keep official development assistance at or above 0.7 percent of gross national income.

Sustainable and responsible investments represent high-potential sources of capital for SDGs. As of 2016, US$18.2 trillion was invested in this asset class.

The bond market for sustainable business is growing. In 2018 global green bonds reached US$155.5billion, up 78 percent from previous year.

• Strengthen domestic resource mobilization, including through international support to developing countries, to improve domestic capacity for tax and other revenue collection
• Developed countries to implement fully their official development assistance commitments, including the commitment by many developed countries to achieve the target of 0.7 per cent of ODA/GNI to developing countries and 0.15 to 0.20 per cent of ODA/GNI to least developed countries ODA providers are encouraged to consider setting a target to provide at least 0.20 per cent of ODA/GNI to least developed countries
• Mobilize additional financial resources for developing countries from multiple sources
• Assist developing countries in attaining long-term debt sustainability through coordinated policies aimed at fostering debt financing, debt relief and debt restructuring, as appropriate, and address the external debt of highly indebted poor countries to reduce debt distress
• Adopt and implement investment promotion regimes for least developed countries  
• Enhance North-South, South-South and triangular regional and international cooperation on and access to science, technology and innovation and enhance knowledge sharing on mutually agreed terms, including through improved coordination among existing mechanisms, in particular at the United Nations level, and through a global technology facilitation mechanism
• Promote the development, transfer, dissemination and diffusion of environmentally sound technologies to developing countries on favourable terms, including on concessional and preferential terms, as mutually agreed
• Fully operationalize the technology bank and science, technology and innovation capacity-building mechanism for least developed countries by 2017 and enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology  

Capacity building

• Enhance international support for implementing effective and targeted capacity-building in developing countries to support national plans to implement all the sustainable development goals, including through North-South, South-South and triangular cooperation  
• Promote a universal, rules-based, open, non-discriminatory and equitable multilateral trading system under the World Trade Organization, including through the conclusion of negotiations under its Doha Development Agenda
• Significantly increase the exports of developing countries, in particular with a view to doubling the least developed countries’ share of global exports by 2020
• Realize timely implementation of duty-free and quota-free market access on a lasting basis for all least developed countries, consistent with World Trade Organization decisions, including by ensuring that preferential rules of origin applicable to imports from least developed countries are transparent and simple, and contribute to facilitating market access  

Systemic issues

Policy and institutional coherence

• Enhance global macroeconomic stability, including through policy coordination and policy coherence
• Enhance policy coherence for sustainable development
• Respect each country’s policy space and leadership to establish and implement policies for poverty eradication and sustainable development  

Multi-stakeholder partnerships

• Enhance the global partnership for sustainable development, complemented by multi-stakeholder partnerships that mobilize and share knowledge, expertise, technology and financial resources, to support the achievement of the sustainable development goals in all countries, in particular developing countries
• Encourage and promote effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships, building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships  

Data, monitoring and accountability

• By 2020, enhance capacity-building support to developing countries, including for least developed countries and small island developing States, to increase significantly the availability of high-quality, timely and reliable data disaggregated by income, gender, age, race, ethnicity, migratory status, disability, geographic location and other characteristics relevant in national contexts
• By 2030, build on existing initiatives to develop measurements of progress on sustainable development that complement gross domestic product, and support statistical capacity-building in developing countries

Sustainable Development Goals Integration

the encyclopaedia of pedagogy and informal education

What is education? A definition and discussion

Education is the wise, hopeful and respectful cultivation of learning and change undertaken in the belief that we all should have the chance to share in life., mark k smith explores the meaning of education and suggests it is a process of being with others and inviting truth and possibility., contents : introduction • education – cultivating hopeful environments and relationships for learning • education, respect and wisdom • education – acting so all may share in life • conclusion – what is education • further reading and references • acknowledgements • how to cite this piece.

picture: Education by Claude Gillot (1673–1722). creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

Introduction

When talking about education people often confuse it with schooling. Many think of places like schools or colleges when seeing or hearing the word. They might also look to particular jobs like teacher or tutor. The problem with this is that while looking to help people learn, the way a lot of schools and teachers operate is not necessarily something we can properly call education. They have chosen or fallen or been pushed into ‘schooling’ – trying to drill learning into people according to some plan often drawn up by others. Paulo Freire (1973) famously called this banking – making deposits of knowledge. Such ‘schooling’ too easily descends into treating learners like objects, things to be acted upon rather than people to be related to.

Education, as we understand it here, is a process of inviting truth and possibility, of encouraging and giving time to discovery. It is, as John Dewey (1916) put it, a social process – ‘a process of living and not a preparation for future living’. In this view educators look to learning and being with others rather than acting upon them. Their task is to educe (related to the Greek notion of educere ), to bring out or develop potential both in themselves and others. Such education is:

• Deliberate and hopeful. It is learning we set out to make happen in the belief that we all can ‘be more’;
• Informed, respectful and wise. A process of inviting truth and possibility.
• Grounded in a desire that at all may flourish and share in life . It is a cooperative and inclusive activity that looks to help us to live our lives as well as we can.

In what follows we will try to answer the question ‘what is education?’ by exploring these dimensions and the processes involved.

Education – cultivating hopeful environments and relationships for learning

It is often said that we are learning all the time and that we may not be conscious of it happening. Learning is both a process and an outcome. As a process, it is part of being and living in the world, part of the way our bodies work. As an outcome, it is a new understanding or appreciation of something.

In recent years, developments in neuroscience have shown us how learning takes place both in the body and as a social activity. We are social animals. As a result, educators need to focus on creating environments and relationships for learning rather than trying to drill knowledge into themselves and others.

Teachers are losing the education war because our adolescents are distracted by the social world. Naturally, the students don’t see it that way. It wasn’t their choice to get endless instruction on topics that don’t seem relevant to them. They desperately want to learn, but what they want to learn about is their social world—how it works and how they can secure a place in it that will maximize their social rewards and minimize the social pain they feel. Their brains are built to feel these strong social motivations and to use the mentalizing system to help them along. Evolutionarily, the social interest of adolescents is no distraction. Rather, it is the most important thing they can learn well. (Lieberman 2013: 282)

The cultivation of learning is a cognitive and emotional and social activity (Illeris 2002)

Alison Gopnik (2016) has provided a helpful way of understanding this orientation. It is that educators, pedagogues and practitioners need to be gardeners rather than carpenters. A key theme emerging from her research over the last 30 years or so that runs in parallel with Lieberman, is that children learn by actively engaging their social and physical environments – not by passively absorbing information. They learn from other people, not because they are being taught – but because people are doing and talking about interesting things. The emphasis in a lot of the literature about parenting (and teaching) presents the roles much like that of a carpenter.

You should pay some attention to the kind of material you are working with, and it may have some influence on what you try to do. But essentially your job is to shape that material into a final product that will fit the scheme you had in mind to begin with.

Instead, Gopnik argues, the evidence points to being a gardener.

When we garden, on the other hand, we create a protected and nurturing space for plants to flourish. It takes hard labor and the sweat of our brows, with a lot of exhausted digging and wallowing in manure. And as any gardener knows, our specific plans are always thwarted. The poppy comes up neon orange instead of pale pink, the rose that was supposed to climb the fence stubbornly remains a foot from the ground, black spot and rust and aphids can never be defeated.

Education is deliberate. We act with a purpose – to build understanding and judgement and enable action. We may do this for ourselves, for example, learning what different road signs mean so that we can get a license to drive; or watching wildlife programmes on television because we are interested in animal behaviour. This process is sometimes called self-education or teaching yourself. We join with the journey that the writer, presenter or expert is making, think about it and develop our understanding. Hopefully, we bring that process and understanding into play when we need to act. We also seek to encourage learning in others (while being open to learning ourselves). Examples here include parents and carers showing their children how to use a knife and fork or ride a bike; schoolteachers introducing students to a foreign language; and animators and pedagogues helping a group to work together.

Sometimes as educators, we have a clear idea of what we’d like to see achieved; at others, we do not and should not. In the case of the former, we might be working to a curriculum, have a session or lesson plan with clear objectives, and have a high degree of control over the learning environment. This is what we often mean by ‘formal education’. In the latter, for example, when working with a community group, the setting is theirs and, as educators, we are present as guests. This is an example of informal education and here two things are happening.

First, the group may well be clear on what it wants to achieve e.g. putting on an event, but unclear about what they need to learn to do it. They know learning is involved – it is something necessary to achieve what they want – but it is not the main focus. Such ‘incidental learning’ is not accidental. People know they need to learn something but cannot necessarily specify it in advance (Brookfield 1984).

Second, this learning activity works largely through conversation – and conversation takes unpredictable turns. It is a dialogical rather than curricula form of education.

In both forms, educators set out to create environments and relationships where people can explore their, and other’s, experiences of situations, ideas and feelings. This exploration lies, as John Dewey argued, at the heart of the ‘business of education’. Educators set out to emancipate and enlarge experience (1933: 340). How closely the subject matter is defined in advance, and by whom, differs from situation to situation. John Ellis (1990) has developed a useful continuum – arguing that most education involves a mix of the informal and formal, of conversation and curriculum (i.e. between points X and Y).

Those that describe themselves as informal educators, social pedagogues or as animators of community learning and development tend to work towards the X; those working as subject teachers or lecturers tend to the Y. Educators when facilitating tutor groups might, overall, work somewhere in the middle.

Acting in hope

Underpinning intention is an attitude or virtue – hopefulness. As educators ‘we believe that learning is possible, that nothing can keep an open mind from seeking after knowledge and finding a way to know’ (hooks 2003: xiv) . In other words, we invite people to learn and act in the belief that change for the good is possible. This openness to possibility isn’t blind or over-optimistic. It looks to evidence and experience, and is born of an appreciation of the world’s limitations (Halpin 2003: 19-20).

We can quickly see how such hope is both a part of the fabric of education – and, for many, an aim of education. Mary Warnock (1986:182) puts it this way:

I think that of all the attributes that I would like to see in my children or in my pupils, the attribute of hope would come high, even top, of the list. To lose hope is to lose the capacity to want or desire anything; to lose, in fact, the wish to live. Hope is akin to energy, to curi­osity, to the belief that things are worth doing. An education which leaves a child without hope is an education that has failed.

But hope is not easy to define or describe. It is:

An emotion . Hope, John Macquarrie (1978 11) suggests, ‘consists in an outgoing and trusting mood toward the environment’. We do not know what will happen but take a gamble. ‘It’s to bet on the future, on your desires, on the possibility that an open heart and uncertainty is better than gloom and safety. To hope is dangerous, and yet it is the opposite of fear, for to live is to risk’ (Solnit 2016: 21).

A choice or intention to act . Hope ‘promotes affirmative courses of action’ (Macquarrie 1978: 11). Hope alone will not transform the world. Action ‘undertaken in that kind of naïveté’, wrote Paulo Freire (1994: 8), ‘is an excellent route to hopelessness, pessimism, and fatalism’. Hope and action are linked. Rebecca Solnit (2016: 22) put it this way, ‘Hope calls for action; action is impossible without hope… To hope is to give yourself to the future, and that commitment to the future makes the present inhabitable’.

An intellectual activity . Hope is not just feeling or striving, according to McQuarrie it has a cognitive or intellectual aspect. ‘[I]t carries in itself a definite way of understanding both ourselves – and the environing processes within which human life has its setting’ ( op. cit. ).

This provides us with a language to help make sense of things and to imagine change for the better – a ‘vocabulary of hope’. It helps us to critique the world as it is and our part in it, and not to just imagine change but also to plan it (Moltman 1967, 1971). It also allows us, and others, to ask questions of our hopes, to request evidence for our claims. (See, what is hope? ).

Education – being respectful, informed and wise

Education is wrapped up with who we are as learners and facilitators of learning – and how we are experienced by learners. In order to think about this, it is helpful to look back at a basic distinction made by Erich Fromm (1979), amongst others, between having and being. Fromm approaches these as fundamental modes of existence. He saw them as two different ways of understanding ourselves and the world in which we live.

Having is concerned with owning, possessing and controlling. In it we want to ‘make everybody and everything’, including ourselves, our property (Fromm 1979: 33). It looks to objects and material possessions.

Being is rooted in love according to Fromm. It is concerned with shared experience and productive activity. Rather than seeking to possess and control, in this mode, we engage with the world. We do not impose ourselves on others nor ‘interfere’ in their lives (see Smith and Smith 2008: 16-17).

These different orientations involve contrasting approaches to learning.

Students in the having mode must have but one aim; to hold onto what they have ‘learned’, either by entrusting it firmly to their memories or by carefully guarding their notes. They do not have to produce or create something new…. The process of learning has an entirely different quality for students in the being mode… Instead of being passive receptacles of words and ideas, they listen, they hear , and most important, they receive and they respond in an active, productive way. (Fromm 1979: 37-38)

In many ways, this difference mirrors that between education and schooling. Schooling entails transmitting knowledge in manageable lumps so it can be stored and then used so that students can pass tests and have qualifications. Education involves engaging with others and the world. It entails being with   others in a particular way. Here I want to explore three aspects – being respectful, informed and wise.

Being respectful

The process of education flows from a basic orientation of respect – respect for truth, others and themselves, and the world. It is an attitude or feeling which is carried through into concrete action, into the way we treat people, for example. Respect, as R. S. Dillon (2014) has reminded us, is derived from the Latin respicere , meaning ‘to look back at’ or ‘to look again’ at something. In other words, when we respect something we value it enough to make it our focus and to try to see it for what it is, rather than what we might want it to be. It is so important that it calls for our recognition and our regard – and we choose to respond.

We can see this at work in our everyday relationships. When we think highly of someone we may well talk about respecting them – and listen carefully to what they say or value the example they give. Here, though, we are also concerned with a more abstract idea – that of moral worth or value. Rather than looking at why we respect this person or that, the interest is in why we should respect people in general (or truth, or creation, or ourselves).

First, we expect educators to hold truth dearly . We expect that they will look beneath the surface, try to challenge misrepresentation and lies, and be open to alternatives. They should display the ‘two basic virtues of truth’: sincerity and accuracy (Williams 2002: 11). There are strong religious reasons for this. Bearing false witness, within Christian traditions, can be seen as challenging the foundations of God’s covenant. There are also strongly practical reasons for truthfulness. Without it, the development of knowledge would not be possible – we could not evaluate one claim against another. Nor could we conduct much of life. For example, as Paul Seabright (2010) has argued, truthfulness allows us to trust strangers. In the process, we can build complex societies, trade and cooperate.

Educators, as with other respecters of truth, should do their best to acquire ‘true beliefs’ and to ensure what they say actually reveals what they believe (Williams 2002: 11). Their authority, ‘must be rooted in their truthfulness in both these respects: they take care, and they do not lie’ op. cit.).

Second, educators should display fundamental respect for others (and themselves) . There is a straightforward theological argument for this. There is also a fundamental philosophical argument for ‘respect for persons’. Irrespective of what they have done, the people they are or their social position, it is argued, people are deserving of some essential level of regard. The philosopher most closely associated with this idea is Immanuel Kant – and his thinking has become a central pillar of humanism. Kant’s position was that people were deserving of respect because they are people – free, rational beings. They are ends in themselves with an absolute dignity

Alongside respect for others comes respect for self. Without it, it is difficult to see how we can flourish – and whether we can be educators. Self-respect is not to be confused with qualities like self-esteem or self-confidence; rather it is to do with our intrinsic worth as a person and a sense of ourselves as mattering. It involves a ‘secure conviction that [our] conception of the good, [our] plan of life, is worth carrying out’ (Rawls 1972: 440). For some, respect for ourselves is simply the other side of the coin from respect for others. It flows from respect for persons. For others, like John Rawls, it is vital for happiness and must be supported as a matter of justice.

Third, educators should respect the Earth . This is sometimes talked about as respect for nature, or respect for all things or care for creation. Again there is a strong theological argument here – in much religious thinking humans are understood as stewards of the earth. Our task is to cultivate and care for it (see, for example, Genesis 2:15). However, there is also a strong case grounded in human experience. For example, Miller (2000) argues that ‘each person finds identity, meaning, and purpose in life through connections to the community, to the natural world, and to spiritual values such as compassion and peace’. Respect for the world is central to the thinking of those arguing for a more holistic vision of education and to the thinking of educationalists such as Montessori . Her vision of ‘cosmic education’ puts appreciating the wholeness of life at the core.

Since it has been seen to be necessary to give so much to the child, let us give him a vision of the whole universe. The universe is an imposing reality, and an answer to all questions. We shall walk together on this path of life, for all things are part of the universe, and are connected with each other to form one whole unity. This idea helps the mind of the child to become fixed, to stop wandering in an aimless quest for knowledge. He is satisfied, having found the universal centre of himself with all things’. (Montessori 2000)

Last, and certainly not least, there is a basic practical concern. We face an environmental crisis of catastrophic proportions. As Emmett (among many others) has pointed out, it is likely that we are looking at a global average rise of over four degrees Centigrade. This ‘will lead to runaway climate change, capable of tipping the planet into an entirely different state, rapidly. Earth would become a hell hole’ (2013: 143).

Being informed

To facilitate learning we must have some understanding of the subject matter being explored, and the impact study could have on those involved. In other words, facilitation is intelligent.

We expect, quite reasonably, that when people describe themselves as teachers or educators, they know something about the subjects they are talking about. In this respect, our ‘subject area’ as educators is wide. It can involve particular aspects of knowledge and activity such as those associated with maths or history. However, it is also concerned with happiness and relationships, the issues and problems of everyday life in communities, and questions around how people are best to live their lives. In some respects, it is wisdom that is required – not so much in the sense that we know a lot or are learned – but rather we are able to help people make good judgements about problems and situations.

We also assume that teachers and educators know how to help people learn. The forms of education we are exploring here are sophisticated. They can embrace the techniques of classroom management and of teaching to a curriculum that has been the mainstay of schooling. However, they move well beyond this into experiential learning, working with groups, and forms of working with individuals that draw upon insights from counselling and therapy.

In short, we look to teachers and educators as experts, We expect them to apply their expertise to help people learn. However, things don’t stop there. Many look for something more – wisdom.

Wisdom is not something that we can generally claim for ourselves – but a quality recognized by others. Sometimes when people are described as wise what is meant is that they are scholarly or learned. More often, I suspect, when others are described as ‘being wise’ it that people have experienced their questions or judgement helpful and sound when exploring a problem or difficult situation (see Smith and Smith 2008: 57-69). This entails:

• appreciating what can make people flourish
• being open to truth in its various guises and allowing subjects to speak to us
• developing the capacity to reflect
• 
  being knowledgeable, especially about ourselves, around ‘what makes people tick’ and the systems of which we are a part
• being discerning – able to evaluate and judge situations. ( op. cit. : 68)

This combination of qualities, when put alongside being respectful and informed, comes close to what Martin Buber talked about as the ‘real teacher’. The real teacher, he believed:

… teaches most successfully when he is not consciously trying to teach at all, but when he acts spontaneously out of his own life. Then he can gain the pupil’s confidence; he can convince the adolescent that there is human truth, that existence has a meaning. And when the pupil’s confidence has been won, ‘his resistance against being educated gives way to a singular happening: he accepts the educator as a person. He feels he may trust this man, that this man is taking part in his life, accepting him before desiring to influence him. And so he learns to ask…. (Hodes 1972: 136)

Education – acting so that all may share in life

Thus far in answering the question ‘what is education?’ we have seen how it can be thought of as the wise, hopeful and respectful cultivation of learning. Here we will explore the claim that education should be undertaken in the belief that all should have the chance to share in life. This commitment to the good of all and of each individual is central to the vision of education explored here, but it could be argued that it is possible to be involved in education without this. We could take out concern for others. We could just focus on process – the wise, hopeful and respectful cultivation of learning – and not state to whom this applies and the direction it takes.

Looking beyond process

First, we need to answer the question ‘if we act wisely, hopefully, and respectfully as educators do we need to have a further purpose?’ Our guide here will again be John Dewey. He approached the question a century ago by arguing that ‘the object and reward of learning is continued capacity for growth’ (Dewey 1916: 100). Education, for him, entailed the continuous ‘reconstruction or reorganization of experience which adds to the meaning of experience, and which increases the ability to direct the course of subsequent experience. (Dewey 1916: 76). His next step was to consider the social relationships in which this can take place and the degree of control that learners and educators have over the process. Just as Freire (1972) argued later, relationships for learning need to be mutual, and individual and social change possible.

In our search for aims in education, we are not concerned… with finding an end outside of the educative process to which education is subordinate. Our whole conception forbids. We are rather concerned with the contrast which exists when aims belong within the process in which they operate and when they are set up from without. And the latter state of affairs must obtain when social relationships are not equitably balanced. For in that case, some portions of the whole social group will find their aims determined by an external dictation; their aims will not arise from the free growth of their own experience, and their nominal aims will be means to more ulterior ends of others rather than truly their own. (Dewey 1916: 100-101)

In other words, where there are equitable relationships, control over the learning process, and the possibilities of fundamental change we needn’t look beyond the process. However, we have to work for much of the time in situations and societies where this level of democracy and social justice does not exist. Hence the need to make clear a wider purpose. Dewey (1916: 7) argued, thus, that our ‘chief business’ as educators is to enable people ‘to share in a common life’. I want to widen this and to argue that all should have a chance to share in life.

Having the chance to share in life

We will explore, briefly, three overlapping approaches to making the case – via religious belief, human rights and scientific exploration.

Religious belief. Historically it has been a religious rationale that has underpinned much thinking about this question. If we were to look at Catholic social teaching, for example, we find that at its heart lays a concern for human dignity . This starts from the position that, ‘human beings, created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26-27), have by their very existence an inherent value, worth, and distinction’ (Groody 2007). Each life is considered sacred and cannot be ignored or excluded. As we saw earlier, Kant argued something similar with regard to ‘respect for persons’. All are worthy of respect and the chance to flourish.

To human dignity a concern for solidarity is often added (especially within contemporary Catholic social teaching). Solidarity:

… is not a feeling of vague compassion or shallow distress at the misfortunes of so many people, both near and far. On the contrary, it is a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good; that is to say, to the good of all and of each individual, because we are all really responsible for all. On Social Concern ( Sollicitudo rei Socialis . . . ), #38

Another element, fundamental to the formation of the groups, networks and associations necessary for the ‘common life’ that Dewey describes, is subsidiarity . This principle, which first found its institutional voice in a papal encyclical in 1881, holds that human affairs are best handled at the ‘lowest’ possible level, closest to those affected (Kaylor 2015). It is a principle that can both strengthen civil society and the possibility of more mutual relationships for learning.

Together, these can provide a powerful and inclusive rationale for looking beyond particular individuals or groups when thinking about educational activity.

Human rights. Beside religious arguments lie others that are born of agreed principle or norm rather than faith. Perhaps the best known of these relate to what have become known as human rights. The first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights puts it this way:

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 26 further states:

(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit. (2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms….

These fundamental and inalienable rights are the entitlement of all human beings regardless of their nation, location, language, religion, ethnic origin or any other status (Article 2).

Scientific exploration. Lastly, I want to look at the results of scientific investigation into our nature as humans. More specifically we need to reflect on what it means when humans are described as social animals.

As we have already seen there is a significant amount of research showing just how dependent we are in everyday life on having trusting relationships in a society. Without them even the most basic exchanges cannot take place. We also know that in those societies where there is stronger concern for others and relatively narrow gaps between rich and poor people are generally happier (see, for example, Halpern 2010). On the basis of this material we could make a case for educators to look to the needs and experiences of all. Political, social and economic institutions depend on mass participation or at least benign consent – and the detail of this has to be learnt. However, with our growing appreciation of how our brains work and with the development of, for example, social cognitive neuroscience, we have a different avenue for exploration. We look to the needs and experience of others because we are hard-wired to do so. As Matthew D. Lieberman (2013) has put it:

Our basic urges include the need to belong, right along with the need for food and water. Our pain and pleasure systems do not merely respond to sensory inputs that can produce physical harm and reward. They are also exquisitely tuned to the sweet and bitter tastes delivered from the social world—a world of connection and threat to connection. (Lieberman 2013: 299)

Our survival as a species is dependent upon on looking to the needs and experiences of others. We dependent upon:

  Connecting: We have ‘evolved the capacity to feel social pains and pleasures, forever linking our well-being to our social connectedness. Infants embody this deep need to stay connected, but it is present through our entire lives’ ( op. cit. : 10) Mindreading: Primates have developed an unparalleled ability to understand the actions and thoughts of those around them, enhancing their ability to stay connected and interact strategically… This capacity allows humans to create groups that can implement nearly any idea and to anticipate the needs and wants of those around us, keeping our groups moving smoothly ( op. cit. : 10) Harmonizing: Although the self may appear to be a mechanism for distinguishing us from others and perhaps accentuating our selfishness, the self actually operates as a powerful force for social cohesiveness. Whereas   connection   is about our desire to be social, harmonizing   refers to the neural adaptations that allow group beliefs and values to influence our own. ( op. cit. : 11)

One of the key issues around these processes is the extent to which they can act to become exclusionary i.e. people can become closely attached to one particular group, community or nation and begin to treat others as somehow lesser or alien. In so doing relationships that are necessary to our survival – and that of the planet – become compromised. We need to develop relationships that are both bonding and bridging (see social capital ) – and this involves being and interacting with others who may not share our interests and concerns.

Education is more than fostering understanding and an appreciation of emotions and feelings. It is also concerned with change – ‘with how people can act with understanding and sensitivity to improve their lives and those of others’ (Smith and Smith 2008: 104). As Karl Marx (1977: 157-8) famously put it ‘all social life is practical…. philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; ‘the point is to change it’. Developing an understanding of an experience or a situation is one thing, working out what is good and wanting to do something about it is quite another. ‘For appropriate action to occur there needs to be commitment’ (Smith and Smith 2008: 105).

This combination of reflection; looking to what might be good and making it our own; and seeking to change ourselves and the world we live in is what Freire (1973) talked about as  praxis. It involves us, as educators, working with people to create and sustain environments and relationships where it is possible to:

• Go back to experiences . Learning doesn’t take place in a vacuum. We have to look to the past as well as the present and the future. It is necessary to put things in their place by returning to, or recalling, events and happenings that seem relevant.
• Attend and connect to feelings . Our ability to think and act is wrapped up with our feelings. Appreciating what might be going on for us (and for others) at a particular moment; thinking about the ways our emotions may be affecting things; and being open to what our instincts or intuitions are telling us are important elements of such reflection. (See Boud et. al. 1985).
• Develop understandings . Alongside attending to feelings and experiences, we need to examine the theories and understandings we are using. We also need to build new interpretations where needed. We should be looking to integrating new knowledge into our conceptual framework.
• Commit . Education is something ‘higher’ according to John Henry Newman. It is concerned not just with what we know and can do, but also with who we are, what we value, and our capacity to live life as well as we can . We need space to engage with these questions and help to appreciate the things we value. As we learn to frame our beliefs we can better appreciate how they breathe life into our relationships and encounters, become our own, and move us to act.
• Act . Education is forward-looking and hopeful. It looks to change for the better. In the end our efforts at facilitating learning have to be judged by the extent to which they further the capacity to flourish and to share in life. For this reason we need also to attend to the concrete, the actual steps that can be taken to improve things.

As such education is a deeply practical activity – something that we can do for ourselves (what we could call self-education), and with others.

Conclusion – so what is education?

It is in this way that we end up with a definition of education as ‘the wise, hopeful and respectful cultivation of learning undertaken in the belief that all should have the chance to share in life’. What does education involve?

We can begin with what Aristotle discusses as hexis – a readiness to sense and know. This is a state – or what Joe Sachs (2001) talks about as an ‘active condition’. It allows us to take a step forward – both in terms of the processes discussed above, and in what we might seek to do when working with learners and participants. Such qualities can be seen as being at the core of the haltung and processes of pedagogues and educators (see below). There is a strong emphasis upon being in touch with feelings, attending to intuitions and seeking evidence to confirm or question what we might be sensing. A further element is also present – a concern not to take things for granted or at their face value (See, also, Pierre Bourdieu on education , Bourdieu 1972|1977: 214 n1).

Beyond that, we can see a guiding eidos or leading idea. This is the belief that all share in life and a picture of what might allow people to be happy and flourish. Alongside is a disposition or haltung   (a concern to act respectfully, knowledgeably and wisely) and interaction (joining with others to build relationships and environments for learning). Finally, there is praxis – informed, committed action (Carr and Kemmis 1986; Grundy 1987).

The process of education

At first glance, this way of answering the question ‘what is education?’ – with its roots in the thinking of  Aristotle , Rousseau , Pestalozzi and Dewey (to name a few) – is part of the progressive tradition of educational practice. It seems very different from ‘formal tradition’ or ‘traditional education’.

If there is a core theme to the formal position it is that education is about passing on information; for formalists, culture and civilization represent a store of ideas and wisdom which have to be handed on to new generations. Teaching is at the heart of this transmission; and the process of transmission is education…

While progressive educators stress the child’s development from within, formalists put the emphasis, by contrast, on formation from without— formation that comes from immersion in the knowledge, ideas, beliefs, concepts, and visions of society, culture, civilization. There are, one might say, conservative and liberal interpretations of this world view— the conservative putting the emphasis on transmission itself, on telling, and the liberal putting the emphasis more on induction, on initiation by involvement with culture’s established ideas.(Thomas 2013: 25-26).

As both Thomas and Dewey (1938: 17-23) have argued, these distinctions are problematic. A lot of the debate is either really about education being turned, or slipping, into something else, or reflecting a lack of balance between the informal and formal.

In the ‘formal tradition’ problems often occur where people are treated as objects to be worked on or ‘moulded’ rather than as participants and creators i.e. where education slips into ‘schooling’.

In the ‘progressive tradition’ issues frequently arise where the nature of experience is neglected or handled incompetently. Some experiences are damaging and ‘mis-educative’. They can arrest or distort ‘the growth of further experience’ (Dewey 1938: 25). The problem often comes when education drifts or moves into entertainment or containment. Involvement in the immediate activity is the central concern and little attention is given to expanding horizons, nor to reflection, commitment and creating change.

The answer to the question ‘what is education?’ given here can apply to both those ‘informal’ forms that are driven and rooted in conversation – and to more formal approaches involving a curriculum. The choice is not between what is ‘good’ and what is ‘bad’ – but rather what is appropriate for people in this situation or that. There are times to use transmission and direct teaching as methods, and moments for exploration, experience and action. It is all about getting the mix right and framing it within the guiding eidos and disposition of education.

Further reading and references

Recommended introductions.

Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and Education. New York: Collier Books. (Collier edition first published 1963). In this book, Dewey seeks to move beyond dualities such as progressive/traditional – and to outline a philosophy of experience and its relation to education.

Thomas, G. (2013). Education: A very short introduction . Oxford: Oxford University Press. Simply the best contemporary introduction to thinking about schooling and education.

Boud, D., Keogh, R. and Walker, D. (eds.) (1985). Reflection. Turning experience into learning . London: Kogan Page.

Bourdieu, Pierre. (1972|1977). Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. First published in French as Esquisse d’une théorie de la pratique, précédé de trois études d’ethnologie kabyle, (1972).

Brookfield, S. (1984). Adult learners, adult education and the community . Milton Keynes, PA: Open University Press.

Buber, Martin (1947). Between Man and Man. Transl. R. G. Smith. London: Kegan Paul .

Carr, W. and Kemmis, S. (1986). Becoming Critical. Education, knowledge and action research. Lewes: Falmer.

Dewey, J. (1916), Democracy and Education. An introduction to the philosophy of education (1966 edn.). New York: Free Press.

Dewey, J. (1933). How We Think. A restatement of the relation of reflective thinking to the educative process. (Revised edn.), Boston: D. C. Heath.

Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and Education. New York: Collier Books. (Collier edition first published 1963).

Dillon, R. S. (2014). Respect. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2014 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.). [ http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2014/entries/respect/ . Retrieved: February 10, 2015].

Ellis, J. W. (1990). Informal education – a Christian perspective.   Tony Jeffs and Mark Smith (eds.)   Using Informal Education. Buckingham: Open University Press.

Emmott, S. (2013). 10 Billion . London: Penguin. [Kindle edition].

Freire, P. (1972). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Freire, P. (1994) Pedagogy of Hope. Reliving Pedagogy of the Oppressed . With notes by Ana Maria Araujo Freire. Translated by Robert R. Barr. New York: Continuum.

Fromm, E. (1979). To Have or To Be . London: Abacus. (First published 1976).

Fromm, E. (1995). The Art of Loving . London: Thorsons. (First published 1957).

Gallagher, M. W. and Lopez, S. J. (eds.) (2018). The Oxford Handbook of Hope . New York: Oxford University Press.

Gopnik, A. (2016). The Gardener and the Carpenter. What the new science of child development tells us about the relationship between parents and children . London: Random House.

Groody, D. (2007). Globalization, Spirituality and Justice . New York: Orbis Books.

Grundy, S. (1987). Curriculum. Product or praxis . Lewes: Falmer.

Halpern, D. (2010). The hidden wealth of nations . Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.

Halpin, D. (2003). Hope and Education. The role of the utopian imagination . London: RoutledgeFalmer.

hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to Transgress. Education as the practice of freedom , London: Routledge.

hooks, b. (2003). Teaching Community. A pedagogy of hope. New York: Routledge.

Hodes, A. (1972). Encounter with Martin Buber. London:   Allen Lane/Penguin.

Illeris, K. (2002). The Three Dimensions of Learning. Contemporary learning theory in the tension field between the cognitive, the emotional and the social. Frederiksberg: Roskilde University Press.

Kant, I. (1949). Fundamental principles of the metaphysic of morals (trans.  T. K. Abbott). New York: Liberal Arts Press.

Kaylor, C. (2015). Seven Principles of Catholic Social Teaching. CatholicCulture.org. [ http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=7538#PartV . Retrieved March 21, 2015].

Klein, N. (2014). This Changes Everything. Capitalism vs. the climate . London: Penguin. [Kindle edition].

Liston, D. P. (1980). Love and despair in teaching. Educational Theory . 50(1): 81-102.

MacQuarrie, J. (1978). Christian Hope . Oxford: Mowbray.

Marx, K. (1977). ‘These on Feurrbach’ in D. McLellan (ed.) Karl Marx. Selected writings . Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Moltmann, J. (1967). Theology of hope: On the ground and the implications of a Christian eschatology . New York: Harper & Row. Available on-line: http://www.pubtheo.com/page.asp?PID=1036

Moltmann, J. (1971). Hope and planning . New York: Harper & Row.

Montessori, M. (2000). To educate the human potential . Oxford: Clio Press.

Rawls, J. (1972). A Theory of Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Rorty, R. (1999). Philosophy and Social Hope . London: Penguin.

Sciolli, A. and Biller, H. B. (2009). Hope in the Age of Anxiety. A guide to understanding and strengthening our most important virtue. New York: Oxford University Press.

Seabright, P. (2010). The Company of Strangers. A natural history of economic life. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Smith, H. and Smith, M. K. (2008). The Art of Helping Others . Being Around, Being There, Being Wise . London: Jessica Kingsley.

Smith, M. K. (2019). Haltung, pedagogy and informal education, The encyclopedia of pedagogy and informal education . [ https://infed.org/mobi/haltung-pedagogy-and-informal-education/ . Retrieved: August 28, 2019].

Smith, M. K. (2012, 2021). ‘What is pedagogy?’, The encyclopedia of pedagogy and informal education . [ https://infed.org/mobi/what-is-pedagogy/ . Retrieved February 16, 2021)

Thomas, G. (2013). Education: A very short introduction . Oxford: Oxford University Press. [Kindle Edition].

United Nations General Assembly (1948). The Universal Declaration of Human Rights . New York: United Nations. [ http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/ . A ccessed March 14, 2015].

Warnock, M. (1986). The Education of the Emotions. In D. Cooper (ed.) Education, values and the mind. Essays for R. S. Peters . London: Routledge and Keegan Paul.

Williams, B. (2002). Truth & truthfulness: An essay in genealogy . Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press.

Acknowledgements : Picture: Dessiner le futur adulte by Alain Bachellier. Sourced from Flickr and reproduced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) licence. http://www.flickr.com/photos/alainbachellier/537180464/

The informal-formal education curriculum diagram is reproduced with permission from Ellis, J. W. (1990). Informal education – a Christian perspective. Tony Jeffs and Mark Smith (eds.) Using Informal Education . Buckingham: Open University Press. You can read the full chapter in the informal education archives: http://infed.org/archives/usinginformaleducation/ellis.htm

The process of education diagram was developed by Mark K Smith and was inspired by Grundy 1987. It can be reproduced without asking for specific permission but should be credited using the information in ‘how to cite this piece’ below.

This piece uses some material from Smith (2019) Haltung, pedagogy and informal education and (2021) What is pedagogy? (see the references above).

How to cite this piece : Smith, M. K. (2015, 2021). What is education? A definition and discussion. The encyclopedia of pedagogy and informal education . [ https://infed.org/mobi/what-is-education-a-definition-and-discussion/ . Retrieved: insert date ].

© Mark K Smith 2015, 2021