Statement from GCE On the occasion of the launch of the Global Education Monitoring Report 2020
“Inclusion and education: All Means All”

The Global Campaign for Education welcomes the launching of the Global Education Monitoring Report 2020 “Inclusion and education: All Means All”. This report is essential to understand the causes and the structural obstacles our societies have to overcome for the realisation of SDG 4 and also provides a perspective that applies to the entire Sustainable Development Agenda.

Inclusion is the way to the realisation of all human rights and therefore requires greater and better commitments from States. It is a sine qua non condition to drive positive change in societies and institutions and turn rhetoric into affirmative actions and concrete practices to reach out to those who are excluded because of background or ability.

The GEM Report 2020 is a key contribution to understanding the complex web of prejudices and stereotypes that prevent millions of children from entering school, which also negatively influence the entire school experience by maintaining conditions of racism, xenophobia and other forms of discrimination and intolerance.

Inclusion in education requires the assurance of free quality education and the removal of direct and indirect costs of education, as well as the strengthening of public financing and especially to improve the sensitivity of the budget, so that communities that have been historically excluded, such as people with disabilities, can count on the infrastructure, teachers and reasonable accommodation.

Trained, qualified and well-supported teachers open the doors of diversity and they continue to be the best partners for building opportunities for all, so GCE calls for continuous dialogue with them when making decisions on inclusive education policies.

We should not receive this report only as a high-level analytical exercise, but primarily as a call to action for governments and the society as a whole. We have the necessary tools to change an increasingly polarised and exclusionary world, undermined by models of accumulation, greed and selfishness. We must work together to create cultures of solidarity and justice.

Inclusive education is a means of developing an inclusive society and an inclusive society supports the development of inclusive schools. For this reason, the changes that we must promote should be present in all aspects of public and daily life. Otherwise, equality will remain a lone star in an empty sky.

The Global Campaign for Education also welcomes the launching of the online database “Worldwide Inequalities Database on Education (WIDE)”, the new tool “Scoping Progress in Education”, (SCOPE) and the platform, “Profiles Enhancing Education Reviews”, (PEER). Together they constitute a powerful framework for monitoring and supporting States and civil society, which we thank and celebrate as they continue the process of developing an inclusive education system.

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The Global Campaign for Education (GCE) is a civil society movement that aims to end exclusion in education. Education is a basic human right, and our mission is to make sure that governments act now to deliver the right of everyone to a free, quality, public education.