Over the past decades, great strides have been made around the world in expanding access to education at all levels and increasing school enrollment, in particular for women and girls.

Despite this, about 100 million school-age children on the planet do not attend school, and 3/5 of them are girls. India alone accounts for 40 million children who do not attend primary school, which is more than 1/3 of all children on the planet who are not covered by primary school. More than half of out-of-school children live in sub-Saharan Africa. 617 million youth worldwide do not have sufficient math and reading skills. Significant imbalances remain in access to education between children from poor and wealthy households, as well as between rural and urban populations.

This goal is aimed at providing an inclusive and high-quality education and creating conditions for lifelong learning. Realization of this goal assumes that all children will receive free primary and secondary education by 2030. SDG 4 also aims to ensure equal access to vocational training by addressing issues such as gender and social inequalities in order to achieve common access to quality higher education.

A key target for SDG 4 is to maintain universal access and improve the quality of education at all levels. Since 1991, the coverage of primary and general secondary education in Uzbekistan has been consistently high at the level of 98-99.8 percent. In turn, if the coverage of children with preschool education in 2011 was 18.2 percent, then in 2020 this figure increased to 50.9 percent. Also, the share of teachers with higher pedagogical education in general education institutions increased from 94.2 percent in 2011 to 99.1 percent  n 2020. In addition, one can observe an increase in the share of teachers with a teacher education in preschool education from 95 percent in 2011 to 98.3 percent in 2020. At the same time, a high level of literacy is maintained and a significant increase in academic performance in secondary education is ensured.

In turn, enrollment in higher education lags significantly behind the performance of countries with similar levels of development. With regard to the coverage in higher education of the population aged 25 and over, despite the fact that this indicator in 2011-2020 increased from 14.4 percent to 16.5 percent, Uzbekistan also lags behind the countries of the region and the world and is currently planning gradually expand coverage.

National Tasks

Target 4.1. By 2030, raise the primary and secondary education to a qualitatively new level leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes while maintaining universal coverage.

Target 4.2. By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre‑primary education so that they are ready for primary education.

Target 4.3. By 2030, ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality secondary special, tertiary, vocational and additional education.

Target 4.4. By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship.

Target 4.5. Ensure equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for the persons with disabilities by upgrading educational facilities to make them for children with disabilities safe, and providing safe and effective learning environments for all.

Target 4.7. By 2030, ensure that all learners and students acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development.

Target 4.а. Upgrade education facilities to provide safe and effective learning environments for all.

Target 4.b. By 2030, take measures to increase the number of loans and grants, including international ones, for enrolment in higher education programmes.

Target 4.с. By 2030, substantially increase the supply of qualified teachers (lecturers), including through international cooperation for training, re-training and in-service training of teachers and lecturers.

National indicators

1) For individual years, the data have been recalculated

2) From 2008 to 2017. the share of teachers with secondary specialized education in the total number of teachers with secondary specialized education

12) 2017-2019 proportion of schools with access to "ZiyoNet"

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