Access and Equity.

The 2026 GEM Report aims to address the following questions:

1. 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?
2. Among countries that have improved fast (or stagnated), what are the 2-3 key reasons that help explain the observed trends?
3. 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?
4. 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 participation at different education levels; lessons from past progress records on feasible but ambitious targets for an agenda post-2030 and a reflection on the implication for the right to education; mechanisms for setting targets; policy principles that have served countries that have expanded faster; and scope for improvement in approaches to monitoring policies.

The 2026 Global Education Monitoring Report, Countdown to 2030: Access and equity, will be launched on 25th March, 2026. The full-day event will follow the 23-24th March meeting of the Global Education Coalition, both taking place in UNESCO HQ in Paris, France. The report is the first in a three-part series of Countdown to 2030 reports, the next of which will cover learning and quality (2027) and relevance (2028/9). The 2026 GEM Report will provide the latest data and analysis on key global education indicators: the out-of-school rate, completion rate, early childhood participation, and higher education enrolment, including case studies of countries that have improved much faster than their peers over the past two decades. It will contain the analysis of a new series of GEM PEER country profiles on equitable finance mechanisms.

For additional information about the global launch on 25 March, visit this page.

GEM Report