Legislative/UN Highlights

UN’s Education 2030 Framework for Action

While school districts across America reopen their doors for a new year of learning, the United Nations continues to focus its Education 2030 Framework for Action (FFA). Created in 2015, the initiative focuses on clear principles to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.”1 Education holds the key to transformation of all aspects of life. The goals are detailed as the UN’s Sustainability Goal No. 4 noting education as one of the necessary elements through which to end poverty and protect the planet, hoping to ensure prosperity for everyone around the world. According to UNESCO research, 263 million children and youth are not attending school, with 35 percent of those living in an area of war or conflict. Overall, 758 million people lack basic literacy skills. 

This initiative hopes to alleviate that plight by 2030 through free compulsory early childhood care, as well as pre-primary, primary, and secondary education, equal access to higher education (including technical/vocational), eliminating gender disparities, ensuring literacy skills promoting sustainable development and global citizenship, while also providing effective learning environments, scholarships, and trained teachers and educators.2

However, challenges will likely arise while meshing global learning metrics. Featured in juxtaposed vlogs on Aug. 10, Eric Hanushek, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University, and David Edwards, Deputy General Secretary of Education International both wrestled with the question: “Is it possible, and is it desirable, to measure students around the world by the same learning outcomes and metrics?” Visit the website: Global Learning Metrics. Additional panelists also delved into the side issues of feasibility, including pedagogy and cultural responsiveness. 

Continuing in a more practical vein for the Ohio classroom, UNESCO is gearing up for a couple events of note. First, the symposium in Thailand dubbed Cracking the Code: Girls' Education in STEM offers weekly STEM content for instructor use via their website UNESCO Girls' Education in STEM. They encourage sharing this content via social media as well. The annual event is by invitation through a June call for proposals. 

Secondly, International Literacy Day is coming up on Sept. 7-8 with the theme: Literacy in a Digital World. The main UNESCO celebration will be held in Paris and feature the announcement of the annual International Literacy Prizes honoring people with outstanding solutions for achieving the Education 2030 agenda.  Watch the website for the winners: UNESCO Literacy Prizes. Each prize winner receives a UN medal and a $20,000 stipend. 

To learn more about Education 2030, visit Leading Education 2030
1Education 2030: Incheon Declaration and Framework for Action, UNESCO, 2015. 20. 
2Education Transforms Lives, UNESCO, 2017. 6-7.