Highlights from theme convenors of one of seven UKFIET 2025 conference themes, ‘Sustainable Development Goals’: Rona Bronwin, Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, and Najme Kishani, PAL Network.
With 2030 fast approaching and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) slipping further from reach, this year’s UKFIET conference invites urgent reflection on how education can help turn the tide just in time. The sub-theme on The Sustainable Development Goals: Accelerating Progress Through Education, is both timely and essential. What excites us most about this theme is the boldness of its scope and the richness of its contributions: from accountability and governance to early childhood development, teacher wellbeing, edtech, and grassroots-led transformation.
Our sub-theme brings together researchers, practitioners, and policymakers asking not just what works, but how, where and why. And in doing so, they challenge conventional wisdom and point us to a more inclusive, responsive and data-smart future for education.
Why this sub-theme, and why now?
Education is both a standalone goal and a powerful enabler of every other SDG. From poverty reduction and health equity to gender justice and climate resilience, education is the thread that weaves together the 2030 agenda. But progress is lagging, particularly for the most marginalised. This sub-theme directly confronts the politics of measurement, the shortcomings of standardised indicators, and the persistent gaps in data and delivery.
In a world facing poly-crises — conflict, displacement, climate shocks and inequality — education systems must adapt, innovate and lead. That’s the ambition of this sub-theme. We ask:
- How can education systems mobilise knowledge, partnership, and technology to accelerate SDG progress?
- How do we move from counting to accountability?
- And how do we build systems that deliver — not just for today, but for a just post-2030 future?
What sessions and stories can you expect?
Our sub-theme features six dynamic sessions, four symposiums, and one creative session that push the boundaries of what sustainable development in education can look like. These sessions are about reimagining the SDGs, each tackling a different driver of change in the SDG landscape. The six sessions are:
- From Metrics to Meaning: Reimagining Accountability for Equitable and Transparent Education Systems. Reimagines education data use in fragile settings, with global insights from India, Africa, South Asia and the Middle East—centring equity, AI and parental engagement.
- Starting Strong: Building Holistic Early Childhood Systems for Every Child. Reimagines education data use in fragile settings, with global insights from India, Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East—centring equity, AI, and parental engagement.
- Systems that Deliver: Innovations and Insights for Smarter Educational Planning. Highlights system-wide innovations from Kenya, India and Ghana—linking foundational learning, social protection and inter-sectoral planning for sustainable impact.
- Power in the People: Harnessing Community Knowledge and Action to Transform Learning. Explores grassroots education movements in Afghanistan, Nepal and India, showing how community-led action drives inclusion and challenges systemic inequities.
- Empowered Educators, Stronger Classrooms: Innovations in Teacher Support and Professional Growth: Features teacher-focused research from Nigeria, Pakistan and cross-country studies, emphasising agency, wellbeing and professional growth.
- Innovation in Education: Using Ed-Tech and Data to Accelerate Transformation toward SDG 4. Showcases AI and edtech innovations across 45 countries, including literacy tools in South Africa and community-based open schooling models.
Our Creative Session invites participants into an energetic, world café-style dialogue to co-design a bold and inclusive vision for the post-2030 global education agenda. From rethinking how goals are set, to who gets to shape them, this session centres the role of universities, researchers, and practitioners in driving meaningful change.
Our five powerful symposiums bring the SDGs to life through action. We dive into multilingual education across eight countries to ask: what does it really take to ensure no child is left behind linguistically? We explore the LEGO Engage Tool, used in 11 countries, to measure how joy, curiosity, and emotional climate fuel learning. We spotlight three approaches, from the household to national governments, which showcase options for robust foundational learning assessments in diverse contexts and could help better understand whether children are learning. Another session shakes up the research world with living evidence infrastructure, challenging us to rethink whose knowledge counts and how AI might democratise decision-making. These sessions are not just about tracking SDGs, they’re about transforming how we achieve them.
What connects it all?
Across every session, the sub-theme reflects three central commitments:
- Equity – with a sharp focus on marginalised learners: girls in crisis settings, Dalit women, learners in under-resourced schools, and teachers working in fragile contexts.
- Innovation grounded in context – from AI to indigenous knowledge, the solutions showcased are not one-size-fits-all but deeply embedded in local realities.
- Systemic transformation – whether through policy, pedagogy, data or delivery, these papers ask how education systems can evolve, not just incrementally, but fundamentally, to meet 21st-century challenges.
Join the conversation
This is not a moment for small steps. As we approach 2030, we need big questions, bold thinking, and collective action. This sub-theme is your invitation to engage with the people, policies and practices pushing the boundaries of what education can do.
Let’s move from metrics to meaning, from planning to people, from ideas to impact.
We look forward to seeing you at the UKFIET 2025 conference!
