The Global Education Meeting (GEM) was held in Fortaleza, Brazil, and addressed the most pressing issues of global education - i.e. inclusion, equity and sustainable financing. While education systems are as different as they come, common challenges reveal patterns that are best tackled together.
Progress or stagnation?
The event was also an occasion to present UNESCO’s 2024/25 Global Education Monitoring Report, which underscored some of the most important challenges of our times.
First off, it is remarkable to realise that just over 110 million children and young people have entered school, which marks the highest number of students enrolled in history. At the same time, the report also unveiled striking inequalities that put Sustainable Development Goal 4 severely off track: 251 million children and young people are still out of school in the world, a mere 1% reduction in almost a decade of global efforts, with alarming disparities evident across nations. There is a tenfold difference between the richest and the poorest countries in the world: in the former, only 3% of school-aged people remain out of school, while the number rises to 33% in the poorest countries; this staggering figure is led by Sub-Saharan Africa, which leads as the world region with most out-of-school pupils. .
The Global Education Meeting emphasised the critical lack of financial resources allocated to education, exacerbated by the burdens of debt servicing. Low-income countries spend a meagre $55 per learner per year—drastically lower than the $8,543 spent by high-income counterparts.
Now what? The Fortaleza Declaration
During the event, 50 ministers of education signed and proclaimed a declaration, now dubbed Fortaleza Declaration, as a robust roadmap for addressing these challenges. It emphasises the necessity for innovative educational strategies that prioritise equity and inclusion, calling for renewed focus on financing education to ensure no child is left behind. Investment remains the most crucial issue to ensure we can meet SDG 4
“If SDG 4 is our destination, the Fortaleza Declaration is our compass,” said UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education, Stefania Giannini. “It’s a call for urgent action, innovative financing, and a collective will to ensure that quality education is a human right and a public good for everyone.”
The outcomes of the 2024 GEM will serve as crucial inputs for multilateral discussions, shedding light on the transformative power of education for a peaceful, equitable and sustainable future. The conference saw a high number of ministerial representatives together with academia, researchers and social partners; civil society representation was thinner than ideal, but its representatives will continue to closely follow all processes that aim to ensure inclusion and equity in education, everywhere in the world.
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