For the past three years, countries have progressively fulfilled a promise they made in 2015 to set national SDG 4 benchmarks. These commit them to achieve specific rates of progress by 2025 and 2030 against seven SDG 4 indicators.

These national targets have brought renewed energy to the 2030 Agenda in education. They have helped put the expected level of ambition between now and 2030 into perspective. They have helped put an end to the assumption that a country that has not achieved all targets has not made sufficient effort. And it is now being proposed by the SDG 4 High-level Steering Committee as the basis for the follow-up mechanism for commitments of the Transforming Education Summit.

The UN Secretary-General, as part of Our Common Agenda, called the extraordinary Transforming Education Summit to concentrate efforts where they are most needed to drive progress towards SDG 4. It was motivated by the consequences of the pandemic on education systems and their knock-on effect on efforts to address today’s major development challenges. Emerging from the consultations and several Commitments to Action are seven global initiatives, which will be presented on Leaders’ Day on September 19. These aim to capture the spirit of transformation that needs to be injected into education systems.

But the question in most people’s minds is how these aspirations and declarations will be translated into specific results and how countries and development partners will be held accountable for their achievement. Focusing on specific targets, expressed through well-defined indicators, has often accelerated efforts in many contexts.

The seven benchmark indicators already cover some global initiatives. For instance, the foundational literacy and numeracy global initiative can be monitored by the completion and minimum level of proficiency indicators, as also shown in the results released yesterday by the UIS and the GEM Report. Progress through the education in emergencies global initiative can be captured by the out-of-school rate, when disaggregated for refugee and displaced populations. Aspirations on the gender equality global initiative are reflected in the gender gap in secondary education completion, even if the concept of gender equality in and through education is broader and accordingly requires a broader set of indicators to be captured fully. And the education financing global initiative is adequately covered by the two benchmark indicators already in place since the Education 2030 Framework for Action.

The SDG 4 High-level Steering Committee’s Call for Action on the Summit follow-up process suggests that there is room to add a few more indicators to the SDG 4 benchmark indicator list to track progress towards other global initiatives expressing transformative commitments. Suitable indicators may be easier or more difficult to identify – and the support of the Technical Cooperation Group on SDG 4 indicators would be crucial in that respect.

An indicator, whether focused on schools or on learners, would be needed for instance for the greening education partnership, with its four dimensions on schools, curricula, teachers and adults aimed at getting every learner climate change ready.

An indicator would also be needed for the public digital learning initiative, with its three dimensions related to content, capacity and connectivity. For instance, the percentage of schools connected to the internet is a global SDG indicator, which it could benefit from incorporating more information sources. Once indicators have been identified, countries would then be asked to set their national targets.

Note: Indicators in bold are the 7 benchmark indicators. Indicators in other colours are placeholders for potential indicators, linked to global initiatives.

Words are not enough to transform education. This proposal builds on a tried-and-tested process: the benchmarks, which are country-led, and globally supported, with over 90% of countries participating already. It translates the promises made at the Summit on prioritization into concrete commitments that can be monitored on an annual basis, and which the UIS and the GEM Report, which share the mandate for monitoring SDG 4, commit to do in support of the SDG 4 High-level Steering Committee and its role.

Read the Call to Action for the follow up mechanism and support it through our social media resources.

A side-event will present the latest publication update on the national SDG 4 benchmarks and will discuss the Call to Action on the Summit follow-up.

It is hosted by Jordan and is supported by three international organizations, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat, the International Telecommunication Union and the World Food Programme, that are involved in global initiatives related to green, connected and healthy schools.

Join the event on Saturday 17 September at 10.00-11.30am EST

• in Room CR3, at the UN Headquarters
• online live on the day