What are the Sustainable Development Goals?

The Sustainable Development Goals call on all countries to work together to tackle the world’s toughest challenges.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by United Nations Member States in 2015, was created as a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that cover a broad range of issues. They recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations requires improving health and education, reducing inequality, spurring economic growth and tackling climate change.

How do the SDGs pertain to education?

Education is covered broadly in SDG goal #4 which calls on countries to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

SDG goal #4 has seven targets and 3 means of implementation covering different areas:

• SDG 4.1 focuses on ensuring that by 2030, all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education that can lead to relevant and effective learning outcomes.
• SDG 4.2 focuses on early childhood development, care and pre-primary education.
• SDG 4.3 calls for equal access to affordable and quality technical, vocational, and tertiary education.
• SDG 4.4 relates to the relevant skills for work.
• SDG 4.5 calls for eliminating disparities in education and ensuring equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for the vulnerable.
• SDG 4.6 looks at literacy and numeracy among youth and adults.
• SDG 4.7 focuses on the knowledge and skills required to promote sustainable development.
• SDG 4.a, 4.b and 4.c are means of implementation and focus on education facilities, scholarships, and teachers respectively.

Each target includes one or more indicators. The focus of this microsite is the first global SDG Indicator 4.1.1, the foundational stone of all the education agenda. Indicator 4.1.1 calls on countries to measure progress goal #4 by having them assess and report the “Proportion of children and young people: (a) in grades 2/3; (b) at the end of primary; and (c) at the end of lower secondary achieving at least a minimum proficiency level in (i) reading and (ii) mathematics, by sex.”

The UNESCO Institute for Statistics is a custodian agency for the monitoring SDG goal #4 data at the global level. More information on all the indicators of goal 4 is available here.

Why is indicator 4.1.1 singled out in this Learning Data Toolkit?

Indicator 4.1.1 allows the global community to monitor the quality of education delivered in the 179 countries that have signed on to the Sustainable Development Goals. However, the data submitted by these countries must be comparable, i.e., at each targeted grade level countries must measure similar mathematics and reading knowledge and skills, and use a common definition of the performance pupils must demonstrate if they are meeting minimum proficiency levels for the grades and discipline.

There are different options countries can use to report on SDG 4.1.1. This toolkit is intended to help education officials and stakeholders understand the different options available, and the considerations of each.

What is the definition of “Minimum Proficiency Level” in reading and mathematics used to measure performance on indicator 4.1.1?

The Minimum Proficiency Level (MPL) is the benchmark of basic knowledge in a domain (mathematics, reading, etc.) measured through learning assessments.

The MPLs for reading and mathematics used to report on indicator 4.1.1 describe the basic knowledge and skills students must be able to demonstrate for specific grade levels. These benchmarks are based on an analysis of curriculum and assessment programs from around the world.

The table below summarizes the MPLs validated by the international community at a 2019 meeting of the Global Alliance to Monitor Learning (GAML) , an institutional alliance that oversees the coordination of efforts to measure learning and the harmonization of standards for measuring learning.

More about Minimum Proficiency Levels

Minimum proficiency levels for reading and mathematics – Indicator 4.1.1

Education level	Mathematics	Reading
Grades 2/3	Students demonstrate skills in number sense and computation, reading simple data displays, shape recognition and spatial orientation.	Students read aloud and comprehend many single written words, particularly familiar ones, and extract explicit information from sentences. They make simple inferences when longer texts are read aloud to them.
End of primary	Students demonstrate skills in number sense, computation, real world problems, basic measurement, 2D shape recognition, and reading and interpreting simple data displays.	Students independently and fluently read simple, short narrative and expository texts. They locate explicitly stated information, interpret and give some explanations about the key ideas in these texts. They provide simple, personal opinions or judgments about the information, events and characters in a text.
End of lower secondary	Students demonstrate skills in computation, solving problems in measurement and geometry, interpreting and constructing a variety of data displays, and making use of algebraic representations.	Students locate and connect multiple pieces of related information across sections of texts to understand key ideas. They make straightforward inferences when there is some competing information. They reflect and draw conclusions based on evidence, in a variety of text types.

The Global Proficiency Framework, or GPF, describes the specific knowledge and skills that students in grades one to nine should be able to demonstrate in reading and mathematics at their respective grade levels. It differs from the MPLs in that it assigns student mastery a performance level  — Does not meet minimum proficiency, Partially meets minimum proficiency, Meets minimum proficiency, and Exceeds minimum proficiency.

The framework, adapted from the International Bureau of Education (IBE-UNESCO)’s Global Content Framework was developed by a group of 80 researchers, curriculum experts, and psychometricians from across the globe, with support from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), the World Bank, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), and the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO).

The GPF serves to guide progress towards and report results against SDG 4.1.1. And, as with the MPLs, it provides decision makers with a clear definition of what it means to meet minimum levels of performance in reading and mathematics.

More about the GPF for Reading and Mathematics.