Half a century behind schedule
Getting every child in the world to follow primary ánd secondary education by 2030 was the fourth Sustainable Development Goal set by the United Nations. ´Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunites for all´ was set as a goal in 2014. Several goals were formulated with universal secondary education being one of them.
A this moment efforts to achieve this are not nearly as much. It is more likely that children around the world will have followed only primary education when it is 2043. What is striking in the report is that not only the poor countries in the world have difficulties to achieve the goals, also one in ten countries in America and Europe won´t make it.
In the report the importance of education for social wellbeing is stressed. `Education can encourage constructive political participation: In 106 countries, people with higher levels of education were more likely to engage in non-violent protests. In 102 countries, adults with a tertiary education were 60% more likely to request information from the government than those with a primary education or less.”
Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals would mean a huge deal for societies, UNESCO notes. “universalizing upper secondary completion by 2030 would increase per capita income by 75% by 2050 and bring poverty elimination forward by 10 years.”
