This chapter examines the persistent challenge of achieving equitable quality education (SDG 4) amid global educational expansion. While mass schooling has reached unprecedented scales, inequalities in access, outcomes, and digital inclusion endure and often intensify, particularly for marginalized groups. Drawing on institutional theory and world society theory, this chapter analyze education as an institution shaped by global scripts (transnational norms diffused by UNESCO, the World Bank, and INGOs) and local mediation, where context-specific hierarchies adapt or resist universal models. Critically engaging East Asian and cross-national studies, this chapter demonstrate how structural disparities interact with technology’s dual role as equalizer and divider. Ultimately, SDG 4’s success hinges on confronting the political negotiation between global aspirations and situated realities, advancing education as both means and end of sustainable justice.