SDG #4: Quality Education - Mural One
The first of two murals for SDG #4: Quality Education brightens the walls of Samuel Gompers School in Philadelphia's Overbrook neighborhood. It was painted by muralist Isabella Akhtarshenas and celebrates curiosity and learning: the moment a child picks up a book, aims a telescope at the sky, or discovers a new instrument. Stylized books, telescopes, a tiger, calculators, and musical instruments fill the scene. Together they show that quality education is well-rounded: science, math, reading, art, and music all belong.
Installed where students and families arrive each day, the mural is a daily reminder that learning is something to be excited about. It was made possible by a $3,000 grant from Saint Joseph's University to the Samuel Gompers School.
Local Impact
Each mural project contains a grant awarded to a deserving organization doing related work.
The SDG #4: Quality Education grant for this mural went to the host, Samuel Gompers School, and was funded by $3,000 from Saint Joseph's University. Gompers is a School District of Philadelphia school and a designated Community School. Community Schools work with the City, the School District, community organizations, and neighborhood residents to support student success.
Academic partner: David Steingard (Haub School of Business), Saint Joseph’s University
Quality Education
Global Context
Goal 4 calls for inclusive, equitable, quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all by 2030. Even before COVID-19 the world was falling behind, and today it is still off track. The number of children, adolescents and young people out of school fell by a third between 2000 and 2015. It has since risen seven years in a row, reaching 273 million in 2024, or one in six worldwide. That is likely an undercount of at least 13 million, because of data gaps in the ten countries most affected by conflict. UNESCO estimates that one more child must enter school every two seconds just to stay on track.
Being in school is not the same as learning. Nearly 60% of children worldwide cannot read and understand a simple text by age 10, and the figure rises to seven in ten in low- and middle-income countries. Countries are furthest behind their national targets in three areas. They are 7 percentage points off track on training pre-primary teachers, 9 points off on early childhood participation, and 11 points off on reading proficiency by the end of primary school. Weak early foundations make every later stage of learning harder.
Public investment is moving in the wrong direction. In 2023, countries were further from the benchmarks of 4% of GDP and 15% of public expenditure than they were in 2015. The pandemic disrupted learning for 1.6 billion students at its peak, and many systems are still recovering. Progress is possible, and UNESCO highlights countries that have expanded access at scale. Getting there means reimagining education systems and treating education financing as a priority national investment. It also means supporting schools like Gompers, where that work reaches children every day.
Sponsor
Founded in 1851 as Philadelphia's Jesuit university, Saint Joseph's offers a liberal arts core alongside professional programs in business, nursing, health, science, and education.
Grantee
Samuel Gompers is a K-8 public school that caters to every student that walks through their doors. At Gompers they believe all students should be catered to, empowered, and valued. Gompers specializes in several in-school and after-school programs that cater to students’ needs and wants. Having a space that values every student while in the building is extremely important in the public school setting. A strong value and emphasis on a good education that is catered to each individual student is Gompers speciality.
About the Artist
Isabella Akhtarshenas is a muralist, ceramicist, and animator. She conveys intricate messages through simple shapes and bold color palettes, and her murals center on site-specific storytelling. She moved to Philadelphia in 2015 and has been painting murals since 2021. She draws inspiration from nature and from design for environmental sustainability.
Her recent projects include Shades of Enchantment (2024), designed with students at Franklin S. Edmonds School in Stenton and Mural Arts teaching artists. She was also one of six lead artists for Best Philly, a series of mini-murals on Mural Row at Schuylkill Yards in University City.
