Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what the Government's policy is on supporting education throughout the world.

Supporting delivery of Sustainable Development Goal 4 by promoting 12 years of quality education for all children, especially girls, by 2030 is a top priority for the Prime Minister, and was a commitment in the Conservative Manifesto.

Girls’ education is central to the UK’s drive to tackle poverty, boost economic growth, improve stability, reduce conflict and to address climate change.

The UK is a leading donor and between 2015 and 2019 UK Aid supported 14.3 million children to gain a decent education.

DFID’s 2018 education policy sets UK priorities for global education to:

- Improve teaching: develop teacher’s skills and knowledge, boost motivation, retain and monitor performance,

- Back education reforms which deliver results in the classroom, to make systems more accountable, inclusive and effective,

- Step up targeted support for the most marginalised children (focusing on hard to reach girls, children affected by crises, children with disabilities).

We are delivering this by providing focused support in 20 countries and supporting education in a further 50 through global programmes such as the Girls’ Education Challenge and support to the Global Partnership for Education.