Education provides the skills and critical thinking that prepare individuals to actively engage in open societies. It underpins the objectives of the Open Society Foundations in relation to justice and the rule of law, human rights, public health, freedom of information and the media, and economic and social justice. General education, as the largest item in most state budgets and the largest public sector employer, is an important priority for public policy. Education helps shape young lives and the society they themselves will shape. Inequity, discrimination, and lack of access to education weaken open societies and exclude marginalized communities, preventing them from participating in the opportunities and responsibilities enjoyed by the majority.

The Open Society Foundations’ Education Support Program seeks to further education justice by combating inequality and discrimination in education and through exposing the deeper structural inequalities that reproduce educational disadvantage and exclusion.

The program advances education justice through five interconnected themes:  

• Discrimination in Education
• Education in Conflict and Crisis Affected Countries
• Critical Thinking and Quality Education
• The Political Economy of Education
• Civil Activism in Education