4 Quality Education
Quality Education: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
To understand the world around us, access to basic education is crucial. Through quality education, people acquire the ability to listen, critically reflect about reality, and make informed choices about their life. This goal also seeks to improve school facilities, increase the number of training and vocational opportunities, and increase the number of trained teachers available to provide a safe learning environment.
Education is essential to achieve many of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Quality education allows people to break the cycle of poverty; it helps to reduce inequalities and reaches gender equality; It enables people to lead a healthier and more sustainable life and it is essential to foster tolerance and peaceful societies.
The integration of SDG into vocational education helps people to develop knowledge, skills, values, and behaviours needed to address 21st-century challenges. In particular, this SDG is related to vocational education through target 4.3 (equal access to affordable technical, vocational, and higher education); target 4.4 (increase the number of people with relevant skills for financial success), and target 4.5 (eliminate all discrimination in education).
Schools/universities are essential to provide learning spaces for students to plan and implement their ideas to contribute to achieve SDGs and to integrate these issues into curricula and extra-curricular activities.
Targets ▼
- 4.1 By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes
- 4.2 By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys have a good quality of early childhood development, care and pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary education
- 4.3 By 2030, ensure that all women and men have equal access to affordable, quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university.
- 4.4 By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults with relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship
- 4.5 By 2030, eliminate gender disparities in education and ensure equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for the vulnerable, including persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples and children in vulnerable situations
- 4.6 By 2030, ensure that all youth and a large proportion of adults, both men and women, achieve literacy and numeracy
- 4.7 By 2030, ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and an appreciation of cultural diversity and the contribution of culture to sustainable development
- 4.A Build and develop child-friendly, disability and gender-sensitive educational facilities that provide safe, non-violent, inclusive and effective learning environments for all
- 4.B By 2020, Increasing the number of scholarships available to developing countries globally, in particular least developed countries, small island developing States and African countries, for enrolment in higher education, including vocational training and information and communications technology, technical, engineering and scientific programmes, in developed countries and other developing countries
- 4.C By 2030, substantially increase the supply of qualified teachers, through international cooperation for teacher training in developing countries, especially the least developed countries and small island developing States
