EI is making a broad call to teachers and education-sector workers across the globe to participate in the survey, which will assess teaching and learning conditions. Its objective is to allow education professionals to inform the discussions that are currently taking place at the United Nations and that will set the global development agenda for the next fifteen years. The questions focus on topics such as the teachers’ working conditions in terms of workload, number of students, and resources available. It also enquires about educators’ qualifications, their rights as workers, their motivation, the possibility for active participation within their school system, and other issues.

In the year 2000, the international community promised that by 2015 there would be "quality basic education for all children, youth, and adults". At this point, there is broad consensus and ample evidence that this will not be achieved. The post-2015 global debate on education should, in view of EI, reflect the reality of the classroom and especially take into account the voice of education professionals. Hence, the survey focuses on the main areas that provide for quality education: quality teachers, quality tools, and a quality environment, and it asks the respondents to reflect their personal experience.

This goes in line with the statement of Fred van Leeuwen, EI’s general secretary, on the importance of highly qualified, self-starting, and motivated teachers in the education system:  "It is after all teachers and their collective voice that define a successful education system. Reaching out to teachers directly, we can better shape policy that will improve conditions in the classroom."