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Following the historic adoption of UNESCO’s 2023 Recommendation on Education for Peace, Human Rights and Sustainable Development,  the International Day of Education 2024 was dedicated to education for peace and the role education and teachers play in countering hate speech, a phenomenon which has snowballed in recent years with the use of social media, damaging the fabric of our societies. UNESCO’s guide on  helps countries tap into the power of education to counter hate speech online and offline.

Sustaining political momentum in education is at the heart of UNESCO’s mandate to coordinate the UN’s global education goal (SDG 4).

In June, the SDG4 High-Level Steering Committee, co-chaired by UNESCO’s Director-General, Audrey Azoulay, and the President of Chile, Gabriel Boric, convened a stocktake of transformative actions in education since the 2022 Transforming Education Summit. 

A global UNESCO survey on country actions highlighted 7 ways countries are transforming education and accelerating progress towards SDG 4. 

A new UNESCO report  estimated for the first time that the private, fiscal and social costs of children leaving school early and not gaining basic skills are enormous, adding up to trillions of US dollars lost to economies around the world by 2030. 

In October, UNESCO organized the 2024 Global Education Meeting in Fortaleza, back-to-back with the G20 ministerial meeting on education. The Fortaleza Declaration, adopted by more than 650 participants including over 50 Ministers, emphasized  inclusion, equity and sustainable financing, as top priorities for the remainder of the 2030 Agenda.

2024 was the African Union's Year of Education and UNESCO was at the forefront of advancing learning across the African continent. 

With 75% of Africans under 35, the continent’s younger generation holds the key to unlocking economic growth, innovation and sustainable development – if well-educated and equipped with the right skills. UNESCO convened several conferences on how Africa's future hinges on transforming science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, especially for girls, and enhanced higher education systems to unlock the talent of its youth and power sustainable development. It also organized a Forum on transforming knowledge for Africa's future, including through stronger collaboration within the UNESCO Chairs and UNITWIN networks. 

In 2024, armed conflict, climate disasters and public emergencies disrupted education, leaving millions without access to learning. Education is life sustaining in crises, and UNESCO is working to restore a sense of normalcy and hope to crisis-affected populations through education.

Three years since the de facto authorities seized power in Afghanistan, secondary and higher education remains banned for girls and women over 12. , while primary school enrolment also dropped by 1.1 million girls and boys in recent years. Despite challenges, UNESCO continued to strive to ensure educational continuity for all Afghans.

In 2024, as Ukrainian children spent their third summer in the midst of the ongoing war, UNESCO provided psychological activities to support the social, emotional, physical and cognitive development of 16,000 children in nearly 400 summer camps.

War in Ukraine has jeopardized the right to education for 5.7 million school-aged children and hindered teachers’ ability to work. UNESCO’s response included the online Community of Modern Teachers and Psychologists, supporting 24,000 members to share knowledge, skills and innovative techniques. 

In the Gaza Strip, UNESCO supported displaced children and families to help them cope with the trauma inflicted by the conflict and humanitarian crisis. Over 1,500 children and 810 caregivers were reached by mental health and psychosocial support.

Teachers are vital to drive the transformation of education and shape the next generation of learners.  The first Global report on teachers, a collaboration between UNESCO and the International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030, revealed an urgent need for 44 million primary and secondary teachers by 2030. Sub-Saharan Africa is especially affected, with an estimated need for 15 million new teachers. 

On World Teachers’ Day on 5 October, three innovative programmes from Bangladesh, Brazil and Togo were awarded the UNESCO-Hamdan Prize for Teacher Development.

UNESCO released two new global standards for greening schools and curricula to empower young people to play a concrete role in tackling the climate crisis. The green schools quality standard  and the green curriculum guidance provide countries with concrete advice on how to mainstream environmental education across school subjects, at all levels of education.

Artificial Intelligence and particularly generative AI is rapidly transforming our world and changing the way we live, work and learn. To help education systems keep pace, UNESCO launched two new AI competency frameworks - one for students and one for teachers. These frameworks aim to guide countries in supporting students and teachers to understand both the potential and the risks of AI, and to engage with it in a safe, ethical and responsible manner in education and beyond.