25 March 2026, 9:00-17:00 BST
Register here to join in person in Paris
Or watch live on GEM Report social media channels.
The launch of the 2026 Global Education Monitoring Report on access and equity in education marks the start of the Countdown to 2030 series – a trilogy exploring access and equity (2026), quality and learning (2027), and the relevance of education (2028/9).
This first report in the series takes stock of who is accessing education and who is still being denied a place to learn. It analyses global trends in key indicators including early childhood participation, out-of-school rates, completion rates, and tertiary enrolment, over the past 25 years. Through case studies, it highlights countries that have expanded access to education faster than their peers. It also reports on the latest out-of-school population figures, calculated with the UNESCO Institute for Statistics.
The report is accompanied by new country profiles on the PEER platform documenting how education laws and policies on inclusion have evolved since 2000, and how deliberately countries reallocate financial resources to improve equity in education.
With over 20 ministers of education confirmed so far and numerous country officials, the high-level launch of the 2026 GEM Report will take place at UNESCO’s headquarters in Paris, back-to-back with the Global Education Coalition’s sixth annual meeting, taking place on March 23 and 24. The event will be divided into two parts:
- The morning session will feature a presentation of the 2026 GEM Report, a ministerial panel on positive stories of change at the national level, and a ministerial panel to debate policies to address the out-of-school population challenge co-hosted by the GEM Report and the SDG 4 High-level Steering Committee.
- The afternoon session will feature a discussion between regional organisations about principles to carry forward to the post-2030 agenda on equitable access to education followed by three sessions, co-organized with different UNESCO sections and institutes looking at:
- a) early childhood education participation;
- b) equitable finance n primary and secondary education; and
- c) post-secondary education participation.
Finally, a brief live consultation will discuss the focus of the 2027 GEM Report on quality and learning, and how it can best serve the education community.
Simultaneous interpretation will be provided in English, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese and Arabic.