Education – France is launching a new international strategy on basic education (2004-2028)

Education, a priority of France’s solidarity investments

In her opening remarks for the panel on education finance, Minister of State Zacharopoulou highlighted France’s commitment to education and called for international action to ensure the central place of education on the international agenda ahead of the Summit of the Future.

France has made education one of ten priorities of its solidarity investments through Priority 3 “Invest in youth by supporting education and teacher training in developing countries”.

This international strategy on basic education, focused on the period of pre-school to secondary school, reaffirms France’s action to further inclusive and equitable quality education, under all circumstances. She also stressed the importance of the first years of learning, which are decisive for the entire education experience of an individual and citizen and crucial to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4.

Provide collective responses to the crisis of education systems

This new roadmap intends to contribute to collective responses to the unprecedented triple crisis that education systems are experiencing:

• A learning crisis: more than two-thirds of 10-year-olds worldwide are unable to read and understand a simple text;
• A human resources crisis: the teacher shortage is universal;
• A financial crisis: There are not enough resources to meet needs.

The right to education has also been weakened by the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, the increase in conflicts, the climate crisis and the rollback in girls’ rights.

The priorities of France’s new international strategy on basic education for 2024-2028

1/ Quality of education, putting lifelong training of teachers and education professionals at the heart of this objective.
2/ Access to inclusive and equitable education, contributing to a learning environment and conditions which help to keep children in school.
3/ Support for the education of girls and teenagers, striving to remove obstacles to their school attendance.
4/ Support for education in crisis and emergency situations and the resilience of education systems.
5/ Support for finance and governance of education systems to better target priority needs.

Four cross-cutting priorities were identified to better recognize the interdependence between education and other global issues, and to make better use of France’s expertise in these four areas:

• Training of teachers and educational supervisors;
• Promotion of the French language to ensure quality education in a multilingual context;
• Gender equality to further the priorities of France’s feminist foreign policy;
• Integration of digital technology and environmental issues in education to better adapt to 21st century challenges.

The partnership-based approach, co-construction and dialogue will guide the implementation of this strategy, the fruit of joint reflection in Team France format, in collaboration with civil society and stakeholders in the sector.

As the common deadline of the Agenda 2030 approaches, France will seek to promote the key role education plays in achieving all of the Sustainable Development Goals, as a more efficient investment to alleviate poverty, fight inequalities and further the transition to sustainable and inclusive societies.

France’s international strategy on basic education for 2024-2028 - (PDF, 101.5 kb)