The Regional Center for Quality and Excellence in Education (RCQE) was established on October 25th, 2014, as a Category II Center under the auspices of The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) by virtue of a mutual agreement between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and UNESCO. This initiative embodies the commitment of both UNESCO and KSA to securing the “Right to Education for All”, achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and promoting quality and excellence in education in the Arab region and around the world, as they are a cornerstone for global sustainable development.

The Center is the first UNESCO Category II Center that specialized in Quality and Excellence in education worldwide. It continuously establishes and nurtures strong strategic partnerships with local, regional, and global stakeholders, and works with them in tandem. It also plays a key role in disseminating a culture of quality and excellence in educational systems. It does this not only by inspiring decision makers in Arab countries to develop policies based on best international practices and experiences, research findings and scientific studies, but also by developing human capacities and providing innovative educational solutions for quality and excellence, which lies at the heart of the Education 2030 Agenda. In addition to capacity development and knowledge dissemination, the Center empowers education systems in Arab countries through forward-looking studies that enable them to prepare proactively for a rapidly changing world and difficult to predict future.

The Center implements a set of initiatives and programmes through its Strategic Plan for 2022-2028, the most important of which are as follows:

The Center assesses the quality of education in Arab countries through a systematic and organized methodology of data collection, benchmarking and monitoring. It identifies the types of support needed by beneficiaries and education system based on SDG indicators and the targets of the 2030 Agenda. As such, RCQE assesses the quality of education according to the current and future needs and aspirations of the Arab countries, and based on the data, statistics and information issued by Ministries of Education and the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS). RCQE also collects data during the workshops it holds with experts, academics, researchers, and representatives of Arab Ministries of Education.

Key enablers of quality of education include a shared forward-looking education vision and understanding of quality education, as well as a strong commitment to working towards its achievement for all. Quality education should be satisfactory to all stakeholders, including learners, teachers, leaders, parents, and local communities. Equally important is the establishment of quality systems with an organizational structure that regulates, monitors, and evaluates progress towards achieving the expected outputs and results. Developing capacities in the field of quality and excellence in education constitutes for sure another enabling factor. As we could add promoting creativity and innovation in institutional performance to find solutions that contribute to creating high-quality and enabling learning environments. Last but not least, quality education implies adopting a shared learning concept that emerges from best practices related to quality and excellence in education at the local, regional and global levels.

There are key challenges facing progress and hindering the provision of quality education opportunities for all learners including the continuous change in knowledge and beneficiaries’ needs, unexpected crises such as the COVID‐19 pandemic, conflicts, and/or natural disasters. It is worth mentioning that low standards in measurements, criteria and indicators for assuring quality education and their application mechanisms lead to poor progress in achieving and maintaining quality, sustainability and governance.

Ministries of Education in Arab countries are making continuous qualitative efforts to achieve progress towards SDG4. However, this progress varies between the different Arab countries according to the challenges faced by each educational system. This being said, the efforts exerted during the COVID-19 outbreak to maintain the continuity of education and create educational opportunities for learners, despite the pandemic’s detrimental impact, is an indication of the success of education systems in maintaining their commitment to ensure quality education for all.

With this understanding in hand, the Center stresses the importance of rethinking education in a changing world, especially in the post COVID-19 period, by developing monitoring and follow-up mechanisms to measure progress on SDG4 indicators, as well as creating new practices that contribute to accelerating progress towards these indicators. It is also important to work towards overcoming learning losses in the aftermath of the pandemic, by maximizing the benefits of the new techno-pedagogical approaches.

Despite the overwhelming repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic, the global crisis showed us how adaptable and resilient educational systems, teachers, learners, and families can be. It has also presented an extraordinary opportunity to ensure the continuity of education and education systems through new innovative technological and digital solutions. This has not only contributed to deepening the responsibility towards the quality of education, but also redefined the role of teachers and increased the responsibility of learners and parents in the learning process, which led to the promotion of the slogan, "Quality education is everyone's responsibility".

Inclusive, equitable and quality education lies at the heart of UNESCO’s work and is a key enabler of sustainable development. Working towards achieving inclusive and quality education for all reaffirms the belief that education is one of the most powerful and confirmed vehicles for sustainable development.

Cognizant of UNESCO’s role in supporting the international community’s commitment to the 2030 Agenda and the immense diversity that exists both in the region and within Member States, RCQE is determined to constantly contribute to supporting the development of education in Arab countries, so that Arab countries can fully participate in today’s global exchanges and interactions through achieving and sustaining quality and excellence in their education systems.