The Oslo Summit on Education for Development, which convened 06-07 July 2015, brought the world’s education leaders to Norway, including Education International (EI), to agree on the necessary financing needed to realise the future global education goals, a consensus that must emerge from Addis Summit on Sustainable Financing.

"Our global EFA teacher report clearly shows that the missed opportunities of the past to realize the right to education can be remedied with immediate action and long-term vision to ensure every learner has a highly qualified, professionally trained, and well supported teacher," said EI General Secretary Fred van Leeuwen. "We have put forward a vision of the fundamental pillars for ensuring the right to quality education. We have proactively worked with our partners to ensure that classroom expertise and wisdom inform policy planning and implementation."

The question looming large is whether donor countries will commit to the necessary investment to ensure the right of all to a free, equitable, quality education, or turn their backs to the 59 million children out of school.

Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solbergand and UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon opened the Summit with calls for action in the critical areas of financing, girls, education in emergencies, and quality teaching and learning. They were joined by Malala, UN Special Envoy Gordon Brown, ILO Director General, Guy Ryder, and Global Partnership for Education (GPE) Board Chair Julia Gillard, among others, to shine a light on the dwindling resources, the growing needs, and the clear choice facing the planet ahead of the adoption of the new Sustainable Development Goals for 2030.

In the run up to Oslo, EI co-hosted one of the pre-events with UNESCO, the Government of Norway, and the European Commission at Norway House in Brussels called "Investing in Teachers Is Investing in Learning: a Prerequisite for the Transformative Power of Education." The Oslo Summit called for the third International Conference on Financing for Development in Addis Ababa to scale up international cooperation as described in the draft outcome document. Financing education must be a pivotal element of financing sustainable development.

During one of the Summit’s four main panels, "Quality and Learning", van Leeuwen laid out EI’s commitment to hold governments to account who privatise and outsource their responsibilities; to advance on the broad and bold agenda for education quality as included in the three pillars of the Unite for Quality Education Campaign; and to close the global teacher gap. He will also join UN Special Envoy Gordon Brown in calling for a special humanitarian fund for education in emergencies, such as those in Pakistan and Syria.

Education International and its national affiliate Utdanningsforbundet tweeted throughout the day and asked members and partners to join in turning up the heat as we near the finish line for post 2015. The goal was to let world leaders know that the organizers support free, inclusive quality education for all and demand urgent action.