G LO B A L E D U C AT I O N M O N I TO R I N G R E P O R T 2 0 1 6 SUMMARY IMPROVING EQUITY ■■ Universal primary and secondary education, especially for girls, is central to promoting women’s autonomy and decisionmaking. Achieving this target would curtail population growth, transform social norms and practices across generations, and limit the burden on the planet. ■■ Education policies targeting minority, refugee and internally displaced populations should prioritize appropriate languages of instruction and ensure the use of non-biased curricular and learning materials. Building up a pool of qualified teachers proficient in appropriate languages is important in countries with high proportions of ethnic minorities and migrant populations. ■■ Urban planning needs to involve education planning, and not leave rural areas behind. Planning of education, among other basic services, for slum dwellers is vital. Public amenities and good quality teachers should be equitably distributed, and schools made safe and violence free. Rural areas with declining populations and rural school consolidation require planning attention and community involvement. CHANGING THE FOCUS OF EDUCATION ■■ In developing skills policies, education systems should consider both medium- and long-term needs and the implications of sustainable growth. Teaching green skills to students and providing workers with opportunities to retrain and improve their skills are needed, as are changes in secondary and tertiary level curricula. Better cooperation with business and industry would improve relevance and quality of teaching. ■■ Civic, peace and sustainability education programmes can be important levers for SDG progress. Effectively implemented, they can ensure a more equitable justice system, build capacity in judicial and law enforcement, foster less violent and more constructive societies, increase understanding of the links between culture, economy and environment, and prioritize actions that improve the lot of future generations. The challenges of monitoring education in the Sustainable Development Goals S DG 4, with its 10 targets, represents a level of ambition for the next 15 years that goes beyond any previous global education agreement. The GEM Report presents the challenges of monitoring progress on education in the 2030 Agenda. It analyses all SDG 4 targets – some of which are poorly formulated – and discusses the technical challenges of monitoring the respective indicators. It also examines efforts to develop valid, reliable and comparable measurement tools. The GEM Report asks what the priorities are for global education monitoring and where countries and organizations need to focus resources. It examines the institutional, political and technical context within which indicators will be measured. THE ROLE OF THE GEM REPORT The GEM Report has a mandate to help the international community understand whether and how the world is making progress in education and lifelong learning. While the EFA Global Monitoring Report is seen as having fulfilled its mandate, the landscape is rapidly changing, with the expanded scope of the 2030 Agenda posing new challenges. 35