The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has announced plans to launch the implementation of its Framework for Culture and Arts Education today, October 1.
The Implementation Guidance for the UNESCO Framework for Culture and Arts Education connects high-level vision to implementation. Each section includes clear projected results, showing the envisioned reality that will arise from the suggestions' execution, as well as leading questions to assist stakeholders in assessing the progress made.
The framework, which was adopted by 194 countries at the UNESCO World Conference on Culture and Arts Education in Abu Dhabi, UAE, in February 2025, sets out to achieve the following goals:
Improving access and equity through culture and arts education
Ensuring quality and lifelong learning in and through culture and arts education
Fostering appreciation of cultural diversity & capacity for critical engagement
Equipping learners with skills for resilient, sustainable futures
Institutionalising culture and arts education ecosystems
The guide is therefore structured around these goals and intends to turn these principles into action. With case studies from 52 countries, the guide provides policymakers, educators and cultural institutions with concrete tools to embed culture and the arts at every stage of learning.
The case studies range from institutional initiatives, such as Chile's Artistic Education Policy or Turkey's specialised teacher training programs, to digital learning innovations, such as Lithuania's online Competence Library, which fosters cultural knowledge and abilities.
Other examples include community outreach through art and music festivals in Azerbaijan, Iran, and Morocco, the use of physical legacy such as South Africa's Apartheid Museum, and a Pakistani Radio Programme that provides cultural learning to marginalised people.
UNESCO recommends closer coordination between ministries of culture and education, stronger teacher training, the use of local heritage and indigenous knowledge in curricula, and harnessing digital technologies such as Artificial Intelligence to widen access to culture and arts education.
The guide also emphasises the need for partnerships with artists, museums, and community organisations to make learning more relevant and participatory.
However, the organisation also acknowledges that its goals and plans have certain roadblocks, such as limited funding, siloed policymaking, teacher capacity gaps and rigid exam-oriented systems, and calls for structural reforms to solve them.
The Implementation Guidance will be launched during a high-level event taking place in Barcelona, Spain today, October 1.