BAICE President, Prof. Kenneth King, will be talking about education, learning and the new Sustainable Development Goals in his Presidential Address at the UKFIET Confernce, titled “The Global Targeting of Education and Skill: Policy History and Comparative Perspective’. All conference participants are warmly welcome to listen the address onWednesday 16th September, 4 pm in the South School, Examinations Schools, Oxford.
Abstract
After countless meetings, debates and advocacy, there is now a final version of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including the SDG 4 on Education, that is likely to be confirmed at the UN General Assembly in New York on the 25th September 2015.
Global target setting is still a relatively young art, and there is much to be learnt from its short history about the ownership of the process, the roles of developed and developing economies, and the actual status of global targets over against national plans.
The policy history of global goals and targets is arguably inseparable from that of global and regional education commissions, and from universal declarations and conventions. But the very process of targetisation elevates targets over text. Equally, the requirement to ‘go global’ and to be ‘universal’ raises the bar much beyond what is feasible for many developing countries.
Global target setting is still a relatively young art, and there is much to be learnt from its short history about the ownership of the process, the roles of developed and developing economies, and the actual status of global targets over against national plans.
The policy history of global goals and targets is arguably inseparable from that of global and regional education commissions, and from universal declarations and conventions. But the very process of targetisation elevates targets over text. Equally, the requirement to ‘go global’ and to be ‘universal’ raises the bar much beyond what is feasible for many developing countries.
The Education SDG 4 is just a small part of a much larger development ambition. It may be essential, therefore, to be aware of what is also being proposed for education in the SDGs relating to decent work, health, and climate change, not to mention the proposed financing of the SDG aspirations and the plans for their compliance and governance. ‘Learning for Sustainable Futures’ is about much more than SDG4.