Objetive 4: Quality Education

Objective 4 establishes Guaranteeing an inclusive, equal and quality education and promoting opportunities for life-long learning for everyones. Once again, the photos illustrate the inequalities between countries in education: in the top photo, taken in a city in a country in the Maghreb, a group of girls –separated from the boys, who are on the other side of the classroom- listen to a classmate reciting parrot-fashion in a classroom with no resources nor stimuli for education, whereas in the photo below it, taken in a village school in a European country, teacher, girls and boys all sitting at the same level enjoy an attractive, fun quality education.

In spite of considerable advances in school enrolment over the past 15 years, around 263 million children and teenagers were not in school in 2014, among them 61 million who should have been in primary education. Once again, Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia are the most disadvantaged regions. Furthermore, many people who attend primary school do not acquire the basic knowledge of reading and maths by the end of the cycle.

Factors relating to equality at all levels, lack of able teachers and the poor state of schools are pressing problems. And among the goals for 2030, as well as ensuring that all girls and boys finish primary and secondary education, which must be of quality, equal and free, is that of ensuring an education for sustainable development and lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promoting a peaceful culture not a violent one, world citizenship and the appraisal of cultural diversity and the contribution of culture to sustainable development.