International Day of Education

Although the world is decades into a digital revolution, known and trusted digital destinations for public education remain rare. Students, teachers and parents often do not know where to go online to get help with a class, find trusted digital resources or access open and free AI tools purpose-built to support public education. The International Day for Digital Learning 2026 will highlight how countries and education systems are beginning to change this reality by extending public education into online and digital environments. It will showcase where and how countries, provinces and school districts, together with their partners, are building and using digital commons to improve public education and its outcomes. On the occasion of IDDL 2026, UNESCO, UNICEF and ITU will launch and share details about the Charter for Public Digital Learning Platforms . The Charter will be launched in Helsinki, Finland, with leaders from UNESCO, UNICEF and ITU and representatives from countries and edu...

The Digital Transformation Country Engagement Day marks the opening of the Global Education Coalition ’s Sixth Annual Meeting and provides a dedicated space for technical dialogue, capacity building, and peer exchange among UNESCO Member States, multistakeholder partners, and education experts. Designed as a preparatory day ahead of the high-level GEC Annual Meeting , it aims to strengthen system-level understanding of digital transformation and support countries in translating global frameworks into national action . The day will focus on advancing system-level approaches to the digital transformation of education , offering dedicated spaces for participants to reflect on priorities, challenges, and pathways for action. Through complementary streams, including technical capacity building, ecosystem coordination, and regional thematic dialogue, participants will engage in structured discussions and interactive sessions exploring how digital transformation can be embedded within educat...

The Global Education Coalition annual meeting brings together UNESCO Member States, Coalition members, and education stakeholders to reflect on progress, priorities, and partnerships for advancing the digital transformation of education . Taking place at a critical moment for achieving SDG 4, the meeting provides a high-level space to examine how collective action can translate vision into measurable impact. Under the theme “ Turning vision into value: Transforming education together ,” the meeting will explore how investments in digital transformation and AI, when embedded within system-wide approaches, can generate positive social and economic outcomes for learners, teachers, and societies. It will highlight the Coalition’s role as a platform for aligning expertise, resources and innovation in support of inclusive, equitable, and country-led education transformation. The programme will feature a mix of high-level plenary discussions and ministerial dialogue, complemented by intera...

En la región mixe de Oaxaca, la música es parte vital de la vida, un lenguaje común. Está tan arraigada en la cultura mixe (ayuuk, en su lengua originaria) que muchas niñas y niños aprenden a tocar primero la flauta o la trompeta, incluso antes que a leer y escribir su propia lengua indígena o el español. “Aquí está la cuna de los músicos. Hace muchísimo tiempo los abuelitos tocaban música. Ahorita venimos los hijos, nietos y bisnietos. En toda esta región siempre van a encontrar música” , cuenta Berenice Cruz, clarinetista de 17 años de origen zapoteco y estudiante del Centro de Capacitación Musical y Desarrollo de la Cultura Mixe (CECAM) , ubicado en Santa María Tlahuitoltepec, en la Sierra Mixe, una región montañosa en el noreste de Oaxaca. 24 de Enero - Concierto del Día Internacional de la Educación 2026 : Cuando la música educa

  Education is a human right, and a springboard to greater opportunity, dignity and peace. Yet around the world, 272 million children and young people lack access to education because of poverty, discrimination, conflict, displacement and disasters. On this International Day of Education, I call on all governments, partners and donors to prioritize education in their policies, budgets and recovery efforts. We must close the persistent gaps in financing, access and quality that lock young people out of the future they seek and deserve. As this year’s theme reminds us, we particularly need to listen to the voices of young people themselves, and act on their pleas for qualified teachers, relevant skills and competencies training for a changing world, and equitable access to technology. Together, let’s build inclusive, resilient and innovative education systems for all people. António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations.

  On this International Day of Education , UNESCO is putting young people in the spotlight. It is our collective responsibility to offer younger generations, through education, better prospects for the future than those of the generations that came before. It is with this in mind that UNESCO helps its Member States to ensure that access to quality education is a reality for all, and not a privilege of the few. Around the world, UNESCO implements major educational programmes to unlock the potential of the millions of young people who need it most. This is the “UNESCO for the people” that we are striving to build. UNESCO runs large-scale education programmes using funds from the Global Partnership for Education. This is the case in places such as Côte d’Ivoire, Cambodia, Ukraine and Chad, where nearly 100,000 out-of-school young people have been able to return to school. We also work in the most challenging contexts, amid crises. In Haiti, for instance, we are supporting community sc...

The 2026 GEM Report aims to address the following questions: Among countries that started from similar levels of education development, which countries have improved much faster than others or stagnated in terms of early childhood education participation, out-of-school rates, completion rates and tertiary participation? Have they managed to reduce disparity? Among countries that have improved fast (or stagnated), what are the 2-3 key reasons that help explain the observed trends? What policies does research identify as having played a key role for improving education participation and reducing disparity in the long term – and how do they relate to factors put forward in country analyses? What is the role of financing policies to promote equity? What are the implications of the statistical, country case study and policy analyses for a forward looking education agenda? The recommendations would cover a range of issues, including: scope for improvement in approaches to monitoring partici...

  A NEW APPROACH FOR THE UPCOMING THREE GEM REPORT CYCLES   The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was designed to be universal. It has brought people and the planet, poor and rich countries, together for the first time under an integrated framework, through an inclusive and participatory process. The global education goal, SDG 4, which takes an expansive view of education, is critical for the achievement of all the SDGs, humans’ relationship with the planet, and their collective well-being. Nevertheless, ever since global education-specific or general development agendas were introduced, none has managed to reach anywhere near its objectives. In the case of education, the 2015 EFA Global Monitoring Report presented a sobering assessment of what had been achieved since 2000. Despite notable progress towards gender parity, there was also a notable failure to achieve universal primary completion, while the first global datasets being compiled at the time demonstrated low l...

Today’s January 24th observance recognizes the role of education in   helping societies progress fostering international peace and development   unlocking the potential of every child  Follow the conversations with the hashtags/  #EducationDay ,  #InternationalDayofEducation  

Propuestas para que el arte y la cultura sean parte de la formación integral y eje de la transformación de la educación superior. Desde nuestra experiencia como estudiantes y jóvenes vinculados a las instituciones de educación superior, consideramos que el arte y la cultura no pueden seguir ocupando un lugar marginal dentro de los proyectos universitarios. Frente a un contexto de desigualdades persistentes, violencias y crisis de sentido, proponemos avanzar hacia una educación superior que reconozca la educación cultural y artística como un eje estratégico para la formación integral, la justicia social, la vida en comunidad y la construcción de una cultura de paz. Con esta convicción, planteamos las siguientes propuestas: • Colocar al arte y la cultura en el centro de la formación universitaria , integrándolas de manera transversal en los planes de estudio y reconociéndolas como herramientas para el pensamiento crítico, la equidad y la transformación social, más allá de su carácter opt...

GenAI is used in research for four distinct but related purposes: manipulating language (including scientific language); managing knowledge; generating knowledge; and managing the entire chain of operations in a research project. Accordingly, GenAI models as used in research can be divided into four categories: 1) general purpose models, notably large language models (LLMs) – like GPT, Gemini and others – used by many researchers for generating text, images or computer code; 2) specialised models dedicated to managing various language-related tasks such as literature reviews, refereeing, and generating hypotheses or suggestions for experiments (“ideation”); 3) specialised models used to tackle highly complex scientific problems that involve vast quantities of data or complicated mechanisms (for example, the 3D shape of proteins); 4) research assistants and “robot labs”, which autonomously manage entire sequences of operations in a research project, from initial analysis of data to expe...