To ensure education, we need to improve the education systems and promote free education that is accessible for all, throughout the life cycle. Lifelong learning also prepares us for a changing job market.

Education is the basis of any society. It plays a direct role in determining the progress of a nation. The more educated a country is, better is the quality and standard of life. To promote education, we need to invest in building more schools, provide infrastructure and compensate teachers adequately.

· SDG 1 · SDG 5 · SDG 11

Facts and Figures

  • 130 million girls, between 6 to 13 years of age, are out of school *(UNESCO)
  • More than 50% of the world still remains uneducated.
  • Canada is the most educated country in the world.
There is urgent need for quality education and major interventions to promote female literacy

We must also remember that creating opportunities for adult education is important to ensure that people don’t lose jobs due to progress in digitalisation and machine learning.

While many students leave school before completing higher education and training, skill gaps emerge. Inadequate infrastructure in terms of schools and teachers or opportunities may result in out migration of people to other countries, resulting in brain drain.

Best Performing Countries in SDG4: Quality Education

Canada, China, Iran, Finland, Japan, Sri Lanka

Join in

  • Pass on books. Books that you have finished reading or books that your children no longer read. Create a small free books box outside your home and encourage people to donate books and spread knowledge.
  • Spend a part of your yearly vacation volunteering to teach children or individuals from unprivileged backgrounds, in shelter homes or schools in villages.

Book Recommendation

I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and was shot by the Taliban-By Malala Yousafzai

In this book, Malala Yousafzai, the Noble Peace Prize Laureate, narrates her story of standing up against terrorism and fighting for the right of every woman to be educated.


Our Partners for SDG 4

Together we can achieve more. We are pleased to be able to bring the important topics of education for sustainable development even further into the mainstream with our SDG4-Partners World Creativity and Innovation Day and Schule im Aufbruch.

World Creativity & Innovation Day is the International Day of Observance that celebrates those who use creativity to advance the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals. We invite everyone to celebrate and join our Community of Creatives. Creativity is what makes the world go round. And as creativity is borderless, more than 60 countries with all kinds of initiatives will participate in 2021.


The initiative Schule im Aufbruch is committed to a learning culture of all-round development and to imparting holistic and transformative education, based on the UNESCO World Programme of Action "Education for Sustainable Development" and UN Sustainable Development Goal 4 – Quality Education. Pupils become aware of their own potentials and strengths and are empowered to think and act in a sustainable way. The resulting change in attitude among both students and teachers lays the foundation for the transformation of schools into sustainable places of learning.

Another building block: The new learning format FREI DAY (free day) – encourages learning to change the world, one day every week, where students learn ways for futuristic design and implementation of sustainable projects and heartfelt topics.