UNESCO’s action in education
Our vision
Education is everyone’s right throughout life.
Education is a basic human right and a global public good with the power to transform individual lives, communities and the planet for the better over generations. UNESCO’s Education Sector provides global and regional leadership to ensure every child, youth and adult has access to quality education throughout life while keeping two priorities, Africa and gender, in focus.
Since its founding in 1945, in the aftermath of World War II, UNESCO’s education programme has evolved to match new global challenges including the existential threat of global warming, conflict, protracted crises and the accelerated digital revolution.
Education is a public good, it is delicate, it is fragile, but it is the best possible investment we can make.
Our mission
Rallying the world around the future of education.
91麻豆国产精品自拍 the power to catalyze transformation in education by bringing together stakeholders around the ambitious , and in particular, the targets set by Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4). The Organization works to implement, coordinate, finance and review this education agenda - globally, regionally and nationally - to guarantee everyone has the same educational opportunity. It uses its convening power to launch events such as the Transforming Education Pre-Summit (TES) in June 2022, which brought 154 ministers and around 2,000 participants together at UNESCO Headquarters to forge new approaches to education after the COVID-19 crisis, address the toughest bottlenecks to achieving SDG 4 and inspire young people to lead a global movement for education.
The pandemic, the worst disruption to education in history, which affected the learning of 1.6 billion children and youth and deepened existing learning inequalities, has served as warning and wake-up call for urgent change and innovation, the impetus for the in September 2022.
Our work: Reimagining, reshaping, rebuilding
UNESCO's task is to rethink and reimagine education for a sustainable future. The organization leads and coordinates the Education 2030 agenda through partnerships, monitoring and research. Our experts support countries to develop education systems that provide quality lifelong learning opportunities for all, and empower learners to be creative and responsible global citizens.
- Reimagining education
UNESCO anticipates and responds to emerging trends and needs in education, as seen in its ground-breaking , a global initiative to rethink how learning can shape the future of humanity and the planet.
- Designing policies
UNESCO works with countries to design, implement and share successful education policies, plans and best practices based on data collection, monitoring and dialogue with national authorities.
- Standard-setting
UNESCO develops and monitors legal frameworks and normative instruments to ensure the right to education. These include the Convention against discrimination in education, the recent landmark Global Convention on the recognition of qualifications in higher education and an online monitor, , measuring the status of national legal frameworks related to girls’ and women’s education.
- Catalyzing for international cooperation
UNESCO uses its convening power for international cooperation by promoting dialogue, exchange and partnership among the global education community, including civil society and youth. This includes global conferences exploring areas such as early childhood care and education (2022), higher education (2022), (2022) and education for sustainable development (2021) that set the agenda for the decade ahead.
- Capacity-building
UNESCO provides technical advice and support to develop the institutional and human capacity of countries to achieve their education goals. This includes training of education practitioners and officers in multiple fields, including educational planning, curriculum design, data collection and distance learning.
Our challenges
two thirds of them women
allocate less than 4%of their GDP to education
are affected by crises globally
don’t mention climate change
must be recruited to achieve universal primary and secondary education by 2030
are out of school globally
complete lower secondary school
to get the world on track to achieve SDG 4 by 2030
Our key achievements include
Education transforms lives
Education transforms lives every day and in every corner of society. This video explores the power of education and UNESCO’s role in leading and coordinating the Education 2030 Agenda, which is part of a global movement to eradicate poverty through 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Education is the right of every woman, man and child. Together, we’re shaping the global citizens of tomorrow, empowered on the path of education to build a more sustainable future.
“Girls must believe in themselves and stop thinking that science is only for boys”
Angel, 17, a student at Ngweli secondary school in Sengerema, United Republic of Tanzania, has made dramatic improvement in physics thanks to her teachers being trained in gender sensitivity as part of the UNESCO, UNFPA, UN Women Joint Programme. Tanzania has one of the lowest rates of secondary education enrolment in Africa at 32 per cent. Read more.
“I grew up in a modest family and married at the age of 15, so I could not finish school. But I was able to continue my studies at a UNESCO learning centre”
Isabel Aracely Tzoy Tzoc, an adult learner in Guatemala, gave up schooling when she married at 15 and suffered domestic abuse. At the UNESCO Malala Centre she was able to reintegrate in secondary level studies and through personal development workshops achieve a life free of violence. She hopes to become a doctor. Read more.
“After receiving the civil engineering diploma, I became interested in business management. I applied for a UNESCO scholarship and was accepted. Today, I have my own café”
Syrian refugee Saif Al-Sharaa was able to pick up his studies again in Jordan thanks to UNESCO’s technical and vocational education and training programme for vulnerable young Jordanians and Syrian refugees. After a scholarship and business management course he now owns the café where he worked as a student. Read more.
Brilliant work rewarded
UNESCO’s education prizes reward brilliant and innovative projects which work to achieve quality education for all while shining a light on critical themes.
- UNESCO Prize for Girls’ and Women’s Education
- UNESCO-Japan Prize on Education for Sustainable Development
- UNESCO-Hamdan Prize for Teacher Development
- UNESCO King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize for the use of ICTs in Education
- UNESCO Literacy Prizes: the UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize and the UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy
Our resources
UNESCO and education: a photo history
Let us take you on a visual journey through UNESCO’s work in education since 1945. We have selected 80 photos to illustrate the scale and diversity of UNESCO’s education programme across the globe.
- Explore the full photo selection in
- Check out the
- The photo selection is also available in a
