SDG 4 Scorecard Progress Report on National Benchmarks: Focus on Teachers

Setting SDG 4 benchmarks is a novel process. It has involved countries specifying their contribution to the achievement of the global targets based on their national plans and policies. Overall, 79% of countries have submitted benchmarks, or national targets, to be achieved by 2025 and 2030 for at least one of eight SDG 4 indicators. This process, supported by the UIS and the GEM Report, responds to the Education 2030 Framework for Action which had called on countries to establish ‘appropriate intermediate benchmarks for addressing the accountability deficit associated with longer-term targets’.

This report focuses on the benchmark indicator on qualified and trained teachers. Globally, the most common requirement to teach at all education levels is a bachelor’s degree. Teachers are more likely to have the minimum required qualifications in countries where the minimum requirement is higher. About 45% of countries in pre-primary education and 53% in primary and secondary education have a policy that makes continuous professional development compulsory. The higher the academic level required to become a teacher, the more likely it is that the country also has a compulsory continuous professional development policy.