Education

Education is a basic human right, a foundation for achieving human development and a key to tackling pressing global challenges. 

The 2030 Agenda recognises the role of education in providing the essential knowledge and skills to enable all further learning. It also highlights the vital role that education (Sustainable Development Goal #4 of the agenda) plays in achieving other 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including the SDGs related to health, gender equality, poverty reduction, growth and employment, sustainable consumption and production, and climate change. 

The New Consensus for Development has fully endorsed SDG 4 on education, which aims to ‘ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all’ ensuring that everyone has the knowledge, skills and values they need to engage actively and responsibly in society.

Education is one of the pillars of the EU Global Gateway and, as such, it will enable and strengthen connections between people, disciplines, and societies.

Consequently, over the 2021-2027 programming period, the European Union will support partner governments as they transform their education systems to:

• address historical inequities and deficits in participation and learning; and

• equip the largest cohort of young people in history for individual success and to play their part in the green, digital and democratic societal transitions.

This is a challenge that the European Union is uniquely positioned to tackle, through the combined capabilities and investments of the EU institutions and Member States, and by harnessing the diverse expertise available in the European Education Area.

In this context, the European Commission’s Directorate-General for International Partnerships (DG INTPA) is increasing its funding for education. It is making the sector a priority in the next programming period, focusing on ensuring quality education, equality, equity, and a better match between skills and jobs.

EU Strategic Priorities

In particular, EU programmes will promote a comprehensive approach to the sector, from early childhood to tertiary education, with a focus on:

• competence for the future;

• strengthening education systems and capacities at national or regional levels;

• securing everyone’s right to education, no matter their gender, socio-economic situation, learning impairment, disability, geographic location, language, ethnicity or sexual orientation;

• addressing the learning crisis and teacher deficit;

• increasing support in education and training in emergencies and protracted crises, with a specific focus on gender and displacement.

This guidance provides an updated results chain. It examines the outputs and outcomes that can be secured in education to build prosperous, inclusive, greener, safer and sustainable societies where individuals can develop to their full potential (impact level).

For each result, from output level to impact level, a number of indicators are proposed. These are inspired by or taken directly from various sources, including SDG indicators or indicators collated by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics.

The user of this guidance note should bear in mind, however, that indicators or results must comply with the reality of the country or the region, the type of intervention, the availability of data or the capacity to process and analyse them. For this reason, the proposed indicators and results can be adjusted to suit the context of the programme that is being developed.