Madrid meeting approves the indicators to monitor progress towards SDG 4 in 2017

By Silvia Montoya and Jordan Naidoo, co-chairs of the Technical Co-operation Group for SDG 4 – Education 2030 Indicators

A crucial list of indicators for the achievement of the world’s global education goals was endorsed on Friday in Madrid. The meeting of the Technical Co-operation Group for SDG 4 – Education 2030 (TCG) signed off on the list of thematic indicators on education that countries have agreed to start using in 2017 to monitor progress.

The list has emerged from numerous discussions and debates and has already received broad approval. But some technical questions over their implementation remained. So the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), which co-chairs the TCG, recently conducted an online survey of TCG members – which includes representatives of governments, partner organizations and civil society groups – and the public to help fine-tune the list, generating more than 50 responses, many of them from Member States. At the Madrid meeting, the TCG scrutinized the list to ensure that the indicators are feasible and fit for purpose.

Education is key to social inclusion in cities

By: Anni Beukes, Mara Forbes and Kilion Nyambuga

More often than not, slum children of all ages have limited or no access to formal public schools within their settlements. Data collected by SDI, a network of community-based organisations of the urban poor in 32 countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America, from 1,000 slums in Africa, show that both the quality of instruction, as well as education facilities available to slum children is poor or of inferior quality. Classrooms are overcrowded and there is not much in the way of sports facilities, libraries or other recreational facilities. This is a challenge beyond the delivery of education. It is an interlinked development and governance challenge that requires planning, political and socio-economic engagement. Education must be integrated into urban planning to create sustainable cities.

When women in the savings groups of the SDI federations are asked what they are saving for overwhelmingly the response is: “for my children’s school fees and uniforms”. For example, Margaret lives in Dworzack, one of the 62 slum communities identified by the federation in Freetown. She is a member of the one of the federation savings group and has just withdrawn 700 000 Leones (USD 124) from her 2 million Leones (USD 354) federation savings account, to pay her children’s school fees for the new term. Margaret has no security of tenure, yet almost half of the money that she saves annually goes towards keeping her children in school.

Target 4.1 – What is at stake for monitoring progress on primary and secondary education?

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

Progress towards target 4.1 will be seen as a key measure of government and international community commitment to the SDGs.

Target 4.1 envisages quality education and universal primary and secondary school completion as a path to relevant and effective learning outcomes. There has been a lot of interest in the monitoring indicators for this target and the three main concepts that feature in it: completion, quality and learning.

 

The ambition of universal completion of primary and secondary education

The target has been criticized for its level of ambition. While the new agenda aims to achieve 12 years of education for the current cohort by 2030, it should not be forgotten that 25 million children do not even access primary school. Almost 30% of children from the poorest 20% of households in low income countries had never been to school in 2008-2014.

Looking at participation, 91% of children of primary school age, 84% of adolescents of lower secondary age and 63% of youth of upper secondary age were in school. But with many children starting school late, and high levels of students repeating years, this indicator can provide an overly optimistic picture.

Target 4.2 – What is at stake for monitoring progress on early childhood education?

4.2 By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary education

The SDG target on early childhood development, care and education is the only one where two global indicators have been proposed: the participation rate in pre-primary education, and the proportion of children who are developmentally on track. This reflects both a great interest in early learning foundations but also uncertainties over the feasibility of measuring early childhood development outcomes.

Target 4.2 reaffirms the international community’s focus on ensuring strong foundations for all children in the youngest age group through early childhood care and education. Monitoring the concepts in the target poses at least two challenges: first, there is not yet sufficient information on how many – and which – children benefit from pre-primary education for at least one year; and, second, while the target goes beyond care and education to early childhood development, a monitoring mechanism for the latter is still at an early stage.

Target 4.3 – What is at stake for monitoring progress on technical, vocational, tertiary and adult education?

4.3 By 2030, ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university

Target 4.3 covers a very wide range of education opportunities. For monitoring progress, two issues stand out. First, we must begin collecting information on adults participating in education programmes. Second, we need a common understanding of what makes access to technical, vocational, tertiary and adult education affordable.

Target 4.3 has expanded the scope of the international education agenda by including tertiary education. However, its defining feature is perhaps less the target and more the global indicator for the target, which covers adult education. The global indicator calls for us to measure the percentage of youth and adults participating in formal or non-formal education or training in the previous 12 months. This goes well beyond just technical, vocational and tertiary education, and expands the scope of the international agenda even further.

Going beyond technical, vocational and tertiary – to also capture adult education

The global indicator, by including adult education, corrects an important mistake. SDG 4 refers to ‘lifelong learning opportunities for all’. Lifelong learning comprises all activities undertaken throughout life with the aim of improving knowledge, skills and competencies from a personal, civic, social or employment-related perspective but is often understood to mainly refer to education opportunities for adults. Yet none of the targets refers to adult education, which is a major omission given how vital it is for ensuring we can work our way to a more sustainable way of living.

Some data is available on adult participation in formal primary and secondary education. It shows that, of all those enrolled, adults made up 4% in primary, 5% in lower secondary and 10% in upper secondary education according to the UIS. However, this only gives a partial picture.

Target 4.4 – What is at stake for monitoring progress on skills for work?

4.4 By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship

Global monitoring of skills for decent work is likely to prove elusive because of the loose definitions of the target. However, by focussing on digital skills, we could help promote this agenda as long as these measures are culturally unbiased, are sensitive to changes in technology, and include adults.

Target 4.4 draws attention to decent work, which is enshrined within Articles 6 and 7 of the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Decent work respects fundamental human rights as well as worker rights in terms of work safety, remuneration and the physical and mental integrity of the worker. The ILO has further developed the concept.

It is less clear what skills are needed for decent work, however. Simply put, skills needed for work are specific to the job opportunities, which differ enormously across countries. Other than the foundational cognitive skills of literacy and numeracy, it is difficult to envisage any other skills for work that are amenable to global monitoring by satisfying three criteria: relevant in various labour market contexts,  measurable at low cost; and acquirable through education.

City leaders can employ education for more than just growing their economy

One area where education doesn’t have to make its case is in its power to foster economic growth in urban areas. Cities can attract human capital and foreign direct investment by positioning themselves as global hubs for higher education, skills, talent, knowledge and innovation. Take the megacity of Shanghai, China, as an example, which has access to over 100,000 graduates, and has doubled the proportion of college educated labour force in a decade. Similarly, Stanford University has reportedly had significant global economic impact: 18,000 firms created by its alumni are based in urban areas in its home state of California.

But cities are about more than infrastructure, clean air and economic growth. People, and more people every day, live there. The goal on Cities in the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda aims to make them “inclusive and sustainable”. It says nothing about making them built up metropolises.

One of the major challenges cities face is that they house many people working in vulnerable informal employment. In 2013, domestic workers, homebased workers and street vendors accounted for about one-third of urban employment in India, for example; street vendors alone accounted for 15% of the urban workforce in South Africa. Since education is inextricably tied to employment prospects, it is a vital partner in fostering more inclusive economies. Our latest GEM Report, for instance, showed that 39% fewer workers from poorer backgrounds would be in low paying informal work and in working poverty if they attained the same education level as workers from richer backgrounds.

Visualising the remaining gaps in education

In recent years, the GEM Report’s World Inequality Database in Education has brought the magnitude of inequality in education between and within countries to wider attention.  Today, we are launching a number of new features on the website in response to Sustainable Development Goal 4.

The online database now allows visitors to order countries by how wide their inequalities in education are for each indicator using the parity index, where the most disadvantaged are compared to the most advantaged, for three characteristics: sex, location and wealth.

It shows that, for example, despite improvement since 2000, significant gender gaps in education remain. In the case of lower secondary completion, the most extreme injustices are still at the expense of females with fewer than 90 females for every 100 males completing lower secondary school in 30 out of 121 countries. In Afghanistan, only 33 females complete lower secondary school for every 100 males.

However, the WIDE site also shows that disparities sometimes move in the opposite direction, leaving boys the furthest behind. In 17 countries, fewer than 90 males for every 100 females completed lower secondary school. In Honduras, only 68 males complete lower secondary school for every 100 females.

Target 4.5 – What is at stake for monitoring progress on equity in education?

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

While there is progress toward monitoring education disparities, the new agenda calls for bolder steps to monitor different marginalized and vulnerable groups and the policies needed to overcome inequality.

The desire to ‘leave no one behind’ is the hallmark of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It has spurred demand for global monitoring and reporting of inequality, a trend also confirmed by the theme of UNESCO’s 2016 World Social Science Report. This year’s GEM Report looks at three issues at stake when monitoring equity in education: how we should report inequalities, who we should report on, and what else we should report on beyond parity

• How should we measure and report inequality?

The parity index is the proposed way for measuring inequalities in education at a global level. It expresses the value of an education indicator, such as access to education, or learning, for a disadvantaged group relative to its value for an advantaged group. The wealth parity index, for example, shows us that only 7 of the poorest 20% complete upper secondary education for every 100 of the richest 20% in low income countries.

Why hasn’t education got a seat at the table for urban policy discussions?

For too long, education has been missing from urban policy and planning discussions. As the New Urban Agenda is finalized, those going to the Habitat III Conference should take heed of the benefits that including education, training and lifelong learning into city governance can bring, which are highlighted in the PLACE chapter in the 2016 Global Education Monitoring Report.

Inequalities, unemployment, discrimination, violence, crime and economic stagnation are challenges faced by many cities the world over. These challenges are on the rise as urbanisation quickens, with migration from rural areas, the arrival of refugees, and overall population growth. Vast slums spreading through urban areas, back to back with high risers, and marked by a lack of access to basic services including education, are no longer shocking; they have become the norm. In education’s case for instance, the lack of equal access to quality schools with quality teachers in cities is not uncommon. Many children in slums, including those in Lagos, Nairobi, and in Mumbai, India, are more likely to be found in private schools, than in public ones, for the simple reason that there are no public schools in the vicinity.