Let’s choose post-2015 education goals that reflect countries’ own needs

Education is both a human right and a necessary ingredient for global prosperity. A quality education can enable people to shape, strengthen and contribute to thriving economies and open, inclusive societies. It’s not just an outcome from development; it’s a foundational building block. But how should education be represented in a post-2015 development framework?

As with the Millennium Development Goals, the broader post-2015 debate is seeking to define goals that express global aspirations and motivate action that transforms development and reduces poverty. The framework needs to be universally applicable but it is crucial that countries signing up to it feel the goals are relevant and belong to them. Achieving this sense of ownership is the key to real change.

Whose priorities?

The massive youth bulge in many low income countries is growing and these young people are increasingly unemployed. What would they choose as their top priorities? In a thought-provoking study commissioned by the ONE Campaign, education comes far behind jobs, economic management and agriculture as pressing concerns felt by people in Africa, East Asia. Whose voices are being heard in the online survey of what people want in a post-2015 world?

A consensus is growing in the global education community that post-2015 education goals should focus on getting more children into school, reducing inequalities and making sure that children are learning. But how much does this international consensus match countries’ own priorities? And how do these themes translate into measurable action?

We all need to ask ourselves these questions so that post-2015 education goals reflect global aspirations and are underpinned by contextually relevant and nationally owned targets and indicators. Is the work on learning metrics being matched by work on developing indicators for access and equity?

A successful post-2015 framework needs wide support, to be nationally owned and to motivate action. The more views that are heard at this stage the more likely we are to achieve education’s transformational potential. We’d like to hear what your priorities are.