The Regional Ministerial Conference on Education Post-2015

The Regional Ministerial Conference on Education Post-2015 is taking place this week from the 19th -20th of February at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.

Representatives from Ministries of Education from Europe and North-America, together with international organisations, European institutions and civil society organisations, are gathering to further discuss the education agenda in the future Sustainable Development Goals to be adopted in September 2015.

Following the different consultations held so far, the key stakeholders on education in the region are coming together again to analyse the state of play of the proposals for the education agenda. Implications from the UN synthesis report adopted last December , as well as from the proposal by the Open Working Group for Sustainable development (goal 4 on education), will be discussed in terms of education targets and the framework of action to be adopted at the World Education Forum in Korea in May 2015.

The three main themes that will be addressed include Quality Education and learning outcomes; skills and competencies for life and work; and Education for sustainable development and global citizenship education. Recommendations will be formulated following sub-group work and will be included in the Conference Statement.

Recommendations are also being formulated concerning: the indicators and benchmarks for the post-2015 education agenda and monitoring mechanisms; governance, coordination and partnerships, and financing of education. Key points raised will be passed on to the intergovernmental negotiations that are taking place from now until September.

Main concerns by the Forum and other civil society organisations still remain: what place will non-formal education and lifelong learning will be given in the targets and indicators? How will teachers and educators be supported in their role? And how ambitious will the agreements on financing education be?

The Forum will be closely following the negotiations process during the next months leading up to the UN summit on sustainable development in September where the SDGs will be adopted.

Read more:

On the UNESCO website: here.