Education workers and their unions must get involved in policy negotiations if the Sustainable Development Goal on Education will be achieved. That’s according to Alice Albright, CEO of the Global Partnership for Education in her keynote address.
Speaking to the fourth plenary of Education International’s 7th World Congress in Ottawa, Canada, the Chief Executive Officer of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) said that “We have to make quality education available, usual, and unremarkable,” adding that the Sustainable Development Goals showed the world was “waking up to the dire state of education in developing countries”.
Lifelong learning
This moment needs to be seized, said Albright, highlighting that the difference between the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and SDGs around education were that SDG4 includes access to education at all levels, including lifelong learning, whereas the MDG for education referred to universal primary education (UPE). “The SDG calls on us to get every child into school and that they are learning while they are in school,” she said.
Central role of teachers
However, SDG4 will not be achieved without trained, qualified, quality teachers, Albright said. “We need to invest in teacher training and development throughout their career, training that will empower teachers to develop quality education in the classroom.”
She also highlighted the central role teachers must play at the highest levels. “You are still the key to education reform and progress today,” she said. “You are the voice of your profession. In many countries, government is the biggest player in education but it is teachers who deliver it, so you need to be involved in policy dialogue. We want you to be involved in that policy dialogue.”