Julia Gillard delivered a keynote address at the 2015 Mashable Social Good Summit in New York on the importance of education for the 2030 Agenda.

She warned that the international community is at risk of failing 124 million children and youth currently out of school and 250 million children in school but not learning the basics. At the current rate of change, she remarked, it will take a century to bridge the learning gap between developing and developed countries.

Leaders who have committed to the Sustainable Development Goal for education must now ensure that their words will not ring hollow and increase funding for education. It only costs US$1.18 a day to send a child to school in developing countries. Country governments can afford 88% of that dollar, therefore the financing gap that donors need to fill is just 14 cents a day per child.