Is it too much to ask for free quality education for all?

Education is an inalienable human right – but across the world this right is being undermined by the impacts of inequality, a lack of political commitment and inadequate investment in education. We need to give education its rightful place at the heart of international efforts to improve people’s lives – and current discussions on a new global development framework offer a chance to do so.

Education International (EI) – which represents 30 million teachers and education employees worldwide – welcomes the recognition by the UN High Level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda of education as a priority in its own right as well as a necessity for reaching other goals. The inclusion of pre-primary and vocational education as well as universal access to lower-secondary education signals a clear ambition to go beyond the MDG framework. However, EI is concerned about the suggested targets being focused on learning outcomes, notably reading, writing and counting, as well as skills for work, and the narrow approach to quality education that these reflect.

First, the full achievement of the right to education implies equity. Unequal educational outcomes often reflect deeper inequalities in society that governments and international organizations must address to ensure quality education. The post-2015 framework must overcome all forms of discrimination, including multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, with particular attention to gender.Drawing on its knowledge of the experiences of educators, and of the challenges faced in classrooms every day, EI is focusing on three interlinked areas of education where a renewed commitment from governments and the international community is desperately needed.