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The New Zealand Post Primary Teachers' Association (PPTA) President, Robin Duff, has welcomed the Minister of Education’s positive response to teachers’ concerns about workload in relation to the country's national certificate of educational achievement (NCEA).

EI's French affiliates, SE-UNSA and SNUIPP, have condemned a government plan to ask teachers to test children as young as five on their behaviour and learning abilities.

Education International has been informed that the Bahraini Teachers Association's (BTA) president, Mahdi 'Issa Mahdi Abu Dheeb (49 years of age) has been transferred to Jaw prison, Bahrain’s only men's prison, on October 12.

Education unionists from the EI-affiliated Kuwait Teachers’ Society (KTS) have shown their opposition to proposals to extend the number of school opening hours by protesting in front of the Ministry of Education.

Greek teachers have joined other public sector workers from all over the country to take part in strike action this week to protest against radical cuts that have been proposed by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund and implemented by the Greek government.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has voiced concern at the harsh sentences handed down by a military court to the two leaders of the EI Bahraini teacher association, 20 medical staff and at least 32 other individuals.

With unprecedented public demand for decent jobs, and pressure mounting on banks and the finance industry, the 2011 World Day for Decent Work today features over 400 actions across more than 80 countries.

Teachers’ unions in the Dominican Republic have mobilised the entire population to lobby the government to invest four per cent of its GDP into education.

Together with UNESCO, UNDP, UNICEF, and ILO, Education International has reminded national governments that "in order to achieve Education for All (EFA) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the gender dimension of teaching must receive particular attention, beginning with girls' access to schools."

The latest edition of UNICEF's 'Beyond School Books' podcast series commemorates World Teachers’ Day, held every year on 5 October.

To mark World Teachers' Day 2011, the UNESCO Institute of Statistics (UIS) has released updated projections on the global supply and demand for primary teachers until 2015. School enrolment is on the rise in the developing world, but in many countries the supply of primary teachers is not keeping pace.

Lärarförbundet, one of EI’s affiliates in Sweden, has welcomed the commitment by its government to invest SEK7 billion (US$1 billion) over the next four years to improve teacher training, raise the standard of mathematics teaching and improve completion rates in the humanities and social sciences.

This years’ World Teachers' Day theme - Teachers for Gender Equality - encompasses equality between female and male teachers; demands access for girls to gender-sensitive and quality education, and highlights the contribution of teachers and education in overcoming gender stereotypes.

The Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) has won its campaign to secure permanent contracts for more than 18,000 teachers. The move will benefit teachers who are currently employed on temporary contracts and will provide them with more favourable terms and conditions that include a higher salary and pension rights...

Thousands of Egyptian teachers who have been protesting for one week outside the Cabinet building in Cairo have agreed to suspend strike action to give the government time to respond to their demand for the Minister of Education to step down.

Speeches held during EI's sixth World Congress, held on 22-26 July in Cape Town, South Africa, are now available on-line for download.

Teachers’ unions in France, representing both the public and private sector workers, have jointly called a strike on 27 September to denounce the deterioration of the country’s school system and demand ‘zero job cuts in 2012’.

The final communiqué of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Financial Committee has taken heed of warnings from Global Unions to acknowledge that ‘the global economy has entered a dangerous phase’ and support calls for ‘bold action from members and the IMF’.