This presentation was given by Pauline Rose at an EU Member States Education and Development Experts Meeting, Brussels, May 2013. In it, she argues that the right to an education, as guaranteed under international and national laws and conventions, must be at the core of development goals. As a right, education should be free and compulsory. It should help people fulfill their potential and should foster the well-being and prosperity of individuals and society. Ensuring that all people have an equal chance of education, regardless of their circumstances, must be at the heart of every goal. No person should be denied access to quality education because of factors such as poverty, gender, location, ethnicity or disability.

It goes on to explain that the goals should recognize the learning needs at each stage of a person’s life, and that learning takes place in non-formal as well as formal settings. One main goal should set the overall ambition for education as part of a broader post-2015 global framework. This overarching goal should be universally applicable, and divided into individual goals that make up a post-2015 education framework. Each of these individual goals should also be linked with other goals to be identified in the broader global framework.

The goals should enable governments and the international community to be held to account for their education commitments. Each goal must have a specific deadline, be worded clearly and simply, be measurable, and have the ambition of getting to zero. The framework should include a commitment to monitoring the goals regularly and rigorously at the global, national and local levels.