Ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning.

• Enrolment in primary education in developing countries has reached 91 per cent but 57 million children remain out of school
• More than half of children that have not enrolled in school live in sub-Saharan Africa
• An estimated 50 per cent of out-of-school children of primary school age live in conflict-affected areas
• 103 million youth worldwide lack basic literacy skills, and more than 60 per cent of them are women

Education is the key that will allow many other Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved. When people are able to get quality education they can break from the cycle of poverty. Education therefore helps to reduce inequalities and to reach gender equality. It also empowers people everywhere to live more healthy and sustainable lives. Education is also crucial to fostering tolerance between people and contributes to more peaceful societies.

Yes, education reduces inequality. Using data for 114 countries in the 1985-2005 period, one extra year of education is associated with a reduction of the Gini coefficient by 1.4 percentage points.

Yes, enrolment in primary education in developing countries has reached 91%. According to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS Data Centre), between 2000 and 2012, the percentage of out-of-school children among primary-school-age children has declined from 40% to 22% in sub-Saharan Africa and from 20% to 6% in South Asia.

More than half of children that have not enrolled in school live in sub-Saharan Africa, which makes it the region with the largest number of out-of-school children in the world. And this region has a very young population so it will have to provide basic education to 444 million children between the ages of 3 and 15 in 2030, which is 2.6 times the numbers enrolled today.

Yes, women and girls are one of these groups. About one-third of countries in the developing regions have not achieved gender parity in primary education. In sub-Saharan Africa, Oceania and Western Asia, girls still face barriers to entering both primary and secondary school. These disadvantages in education also translate into lack of access to skills and limited opportunities in the labour market for young women.

• Ask our governments to place education as a priority in both policy and practice.
• Lobby our governments to make firm commitments to provide free primary school education to all, including vulnerable or marginalized groups.
• Encourage the private sector to invest resources in the development of educational tools and facilities
• Urge NGOs to partner with youth and other groups to foster the importance of education within local communities

International voluntary work plays a key role in delivering and implementing the Sustainable Development Goals as volunteering supports social, economic and environmental change. It is an important driver of civic engagement in the 21st century. If you want to do more than just join the conversation, Volunteer World provides the chance to become active and help reach the SDG Goal #04 Quality Education. Click on the map to search for volunteer opportunities that help to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal: