Benchmarks for SGD

Ma. Kristine L. German

The Department of Education underscored three crucial factors in setting international and regional benchmarks for the Sustainable Development Goal (SGD) 2030 indicators to monitor the real progress of member states in UNESCO’s 2021 Global Education Meeting (GEM). The agency has noted that national policies, financing, and efforts at the regional level should be taken into account in establishing relevant benchmarking indicators. According to DepEd, there is a need to look at the legal framework as countries, which are now being benchmarked according to comparative standards, are not necessarily similar in the legal framework, especially in the role of the head of the state who manages the struggle against COVID. The DepEd also pointed out that the Philippines implemented a blended learning approach similar to other countries in Southeast Asia and developed a learning continuity plan to address the challenges in education amid the pandemic. Meanwhile, UNESCO cited a survey covering 142 countries that reveals the worsening educational gaps due to the pandemic: inequality of learning access, high female school dropout rates, and budget gap. It also mentioned that 11 million people in the world could fall below the reading skills threshold, and it would take 11 years for 23 member-states of the organization to catch up. UNESCO officials stressed the need to improve global cooperation mechanism between the countries by promoting evidence-based policy formulation and implementation, enhancing collection and availability of data, and driving financing mobilization and better spending. The author is Teacher III at Rafael L. Lazatin Memorial High School Balibago, Angeles City

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