Transforming Education Summit (TES) engagements
Transforming Education Summit (TES) engagements
The United Nations Secretary-General convenes the Transforming Education Summit (TES) during the 77th UN General Assembly.
The Summit seeks to mobilise political ambition, action, solutions, and solidarity to transform education: take stock of efforts to recover pandemic-related learning losses, reimagine education systems for today and tomorrow's world, and revitalise national and global efforts to achieve SDG 4.
GCE is actively engaged in the TES Advisory Committee, represented by our CCNGO members Refat Sabbah (GCE President) and Helen Dabu (ASPBAE).
The Summit will take place in New York in September 2022. A Pre-Summit will be organised in Paris in June/July 2022 to harness the evolving discussions and generate more significant momentum in the lead up to September. The Summit will also draw on the findings emerging from the review of the implementation of SDG4 at the 2022 ECOSOC HLPF.
As you can see in the attached Draft Concept Note, the TES will employ three primary workstreams for advancing preparations:
- National consultations: To translate political commitments into action, Member States could be encouraged to embark on inclusive national consultations in the lead up to the Summit to develop a shared vision and commitment to transform education between now and 2030. Such dialogues could help identify ambitious yet feasible national benchmarks for advancing SDG4 by 2025 and 2030, duties on domestic financing for education and a commitment to integrate new thinking, approaches and learning methods into education plans and policies, drawing on the15 February 2022 3 findings of Reimagining Our Futures Together report from the International Commission on the Futures of Education and other inputs.
- Action Tracks will focus on thematic areas that require more significant action to transform education. The tracks will offer all Summit partners a space to share evidence-based solutions for accelerating SDG4 and reimagining education. They will also help mobilise international cooperation to support national education efforts, bolstering support for existing initiatives or fostering new actions and partnerships. Priority areas could address issues from across the education cycle, and those critical levers for change will be identified over the coming period.
The proposed action tracks are:
- Inclusive, equitable, safe and healthy schools,
- Learning and skills for life, work and sustainable development,
- Teachers, teaching and the teaching profession,
- Digital learning,
- Financing of education.
- Public engagement: Given the speed and scale of change needed to achieve SDG4 and reimagine education, deep and sustained public engagement and support will be essential. Building off a range of existing efforts and in tandem with the above-mentioned national consultations, the TES could build strong public engagement at the national and international levels, including placing youth and children to the fore of preparations, engaging all national stakeholders, and advancing public engagement campaigns.
Your comments on the CONCEPT NOTE are welcome. You can systematise them and send them to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
GCE members and partners are called to play a critical role in the preparations as well as in the Summit itself, so GCE will organising a meeting with the UNSG Special Advisor for the Summit, Dr Leonardo Garnier, to coordinate global consultation activities with civil society, to mobilise political commitment and provide critical inputs to each action track. Representatives from all constituencies will be invited to this meeting. GCE will notify you promptly of the date and time!
GCE believes that this is an excellent opportunity to influence global structures of education governance and lifelong learning, seriously threatened by corporate and privatising interests, and to strengthen inclusive, gender transformative and adequately financed systems to respond to all people's needs including in emergency contexts.
GCE calls on its members to participate in this process and advance the sustained efforts for the right to education and lifelong learning.
