2nd Asia-Pacific Regional Education Minister’s Conference (APREMC-II) - The Bangkok Statement addresses monitoring SDG 4

In early June 2022, education government officials from Asia and the Pacific reunited in-person for the first time for an international education conference since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. On this occasion, the education community drafted and endorsed the Bangkok Statement 2022 “Towards an effective learning recovery for all and transforming education in Asia-Pacific”.

The Bangkok Statement 2022 includes an emphasis on the importance of monitoring of the Education 2030 Agenda – Sustainable Development Goal 4 and transforming the current education delivery and education systems in the face of recovering from the impact of COVID-19.

Under the “Planning, Governance and Monitoring” section, Member States agree to endorse a set of policy options on monitoring SDG 4 more closely and the implementation of the Bangkok Statement 2022, taking into account national circumstances and priorities:

Undertaking a systemic risk analysis and planning to prepare for future shocks as well as for learning continuity between the school and home environments;

• Setting strong quality standards for public and private institutions and improving accountability structures to achieve greater quality of teaching and learning, other key cross-sectoral services in schools and efficiency of spending;
• Empowering local-level decision-making and planning and improving capacity to develop and implement local contextualized responses, in particular in emergency situations and to support school quality improvement and resilience;
• Strengthening autonomy, flexibility, leadership and planning at school level and train school leaders for improved school management and resilience;
• Enhancing cross-sectoral collaboration between health, education and other relevant ministries, local governments, communities and parents to ensure inclusive and protective learning environments in and around schools, delivering adequate services and preparing for future risks, including climate change and other humanitarian disasters;
• Improving monitoring and evaluation through strengthened data systems and its utilization, by integrating various quality data with improved disaggregation from education management information systems, household surveys and learning assessments, while leveraging technology, big data and AI with adequate data privacy protection and governance.

The Bangkok Statement reiterates the need for combining different databases and sources of data for SDG 4 monitoring as well as highlighting that education goes beyond the ministries or departments of education and requires the collaboration of the various ministries and departments with a stake in delivering education, such as TVET, ECE, non-formal or tertiary education. This includes sharing data.

For more information on the conference and the Bangkok Statement, click here.