Setting SDG 4 benchmarks is a novel process. It has involved countries specifying their contribution to the achievement of the global targets based on their national plans and policies. Overall, 79% of countries have submitted benchmarks, or national targets, to be achieved by 2025 and 2030 for at least one of eight SDG 4 indicators. This process, supported by the UIS and the GEM Report, responds to the Education 2030 Framework for Action which had called on countries to establish ‘appropriate intermediate benchmarks … for addressing the accountability deficit associated with longer-term targets’.
In total, 54% of the potential 2025 benchmark values (i.e. for all 8 indicators and the 23 disaggregation possibilities) have been submitted. Apart from the public expenditure indicators, for which there is a common benchmark for all countries, the two benchmark indicators with the highest submission rates are the early childhood education participation rate (72%) and the completion rate (65%). The two indicators with the lowest submission rates are the gender gap in upper secondary completion (36%), and school internet connectivity(32%). The latter is a new benchmark indicator and countries may have had too little time to set a target if they did not already have one.
