Mr. President,

1. The Group of 77and China recognizes that despite the progress made at all levels to implement the internationally agreed goals and commitments with regard to education, more efforts are strongly needed, in order to realize the right of everyone to education, while assisting countries in improving quality of education and greater focus on learning.

2. The G77 and China reaffirms the right to education and the need for its full realization, and that education is essential for human development, sustainable development, world peace, just and democratic societies and the promotion of all human rights, including the right to development.

3. The G77 and China emphasizes the primary responsibility of each government for determining its national policies and strategies required for its social and economic development.

4. The Group reaffirms the need for governments to take the lead in education, while emphasizing that the challenges ahead can be taken up only through a coordinated and integrated approach in support of national development plans involving all relevant stakeholders.

5. The Group reiterates the importance of the role of the UN system, in close collaboration with all relevant stakeholders, in order to maximize capacities and multiply the transformational power of all parties to implement the internationally agreed goals and commitments with regard to education, including the Ministerial Declaration of the High-Level segment of ECOSOC in 2011.

6. The Group calls for a stronger coordination among the relevant UN entities and financial institutions in order to support national efforts for that purpose, within their respective mandates and in accordance with national development priorities, and mobilizing resources to raise the profile of the international education agenda and maximizing educational results.

7. We emphasize that education and development are interlinked and mutually reinforcing, and reiterate the importance of social protection measures to remove barriers to access to education for all children, youth and adults including women and girls, the poorest children living in cities, in the streets and in rural and remote areas, children with disabilities, migrant children, refugees and displaced persons, indigenous children, children in armed conflict and post-conflict situations and affected by natural disasters, and children living under foreign occupation.

8. We express concern over the persistently high levels of youth unemployment worldwide and recognize the need to design education and training programmes that improve employability and individual capacities through skills development. We emphasize the need to improve the quality and relevance of post-primary levels of education, including joint educational and skills development programmes for out-of-school children, by enhancing school-to-work transition for both youth and adults through the development of technical and vocational education and training programmes, apprenticeships and entrepreneurship education.

9. The G77 and China calls on the international community, including the United Nations system, especially the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, to strengthen the coordination and implementation of existing policies, programmes and follow-up mechanisms for Education for All by strengthening regional and international partnerships and cooperation, including North-South, South-South and triangular cooperation, based on the sharing of knowledge and good practices in the education sector.

10. Recognizing that education is a fundamental human right and essential to achieve the full enjoyment of human rights and development for all, the Group of 77 and China would like to call on the international community to translate commitments into action and to redouble its efforts to accelerate progress towards realizing the implementation of the agreed goals and commitments on education.

11. In that regard, the G77 and China believes that greater efforts are needed to support developing countries towards achieving the internationally agreed goals and commitments on education, and we call for strengthened commitments on official development assistance, as well as increased, predictable financial and technical support and capacity building that is aligned with countries' national priorities, as well as channeled in ways that strengthen national education systems. To this end, we encourage donors to work on national timetables to increase aid levels within their respective budget allocation processes towards achieving the existing ODA targets. The full implementation of these commitments will substantially boost the resources available to push forward the international development agenda.

Thank you.