Ei-iE

As the school year begins across Kenya, the Kenya National Union of Teachers, KNUT, has successfully initiated legal action to block government plans to hire ‘intern’ teachers, fearing that this new development would create a new sub-class of underpaid teachers, which would further endanger the achievement of quality education.

Advancing quality education is a priority for the Ghana National Association of Teachers, which has been working extensively on the more serious barriers to quality as another academic year begins.

Roxana Rogalski of the Argentinian teacher union federation, CTERA, shares her experience of working on the EI EFAIDS Programme in Argentina.

Zimbabwean teacher unions ZIMTA and PTUZ have called the recent salary increase that places teacher salaries at US$155 a month ‘inadequate’ and urged the government to provide a living wage for teachers.

Honduran teacher unions have opted to join a general strike in the face of escalating violence in the country. Following the recent killings of two teachers, teacher unions have abandoned their previous compromise plan of teaching three days a week and supporting the national resistance to the unelected regime two...

Unions across West Africa have had a busy first half of 2009 working on the EFAIDS Programme, and have been particularly active in the area of training and publications.

World AIDS Day may be several months away but teacher unions are eager to start preparing their activities. For many students school is a valuable, and sometimes the only source, of accurate information on HIV and AIDS.

People living with HIV are feeling the effects of the global economic crisis as governments around the world cut spending on treatment. According to Miguel D’EScoto President of the UN General Assembly, “many governments are resigned to reducing programmes and diminished expectations”.

Astrid McDonald of Bond van Leraren (BvL) shares insights into the work of the EI EFAIDS Programme in Suriname.

The Senegalese teacher unions have completed a survey of schools to identify the progress made and challenges faced in achieving gender equality in schools as part of their EFAIDS Programme.

The Uganda National Teachers’ Union with their EFAIDS partner the National Union of Educational Institutions held a highly successful four day ‘training of trainers’ workshop in Kampala in early June. The Master Trainers are now well equipped to carry out local level training on HIV and AIDS education for their...

The Zambia National Union of Teachers held a 3-day Trainer of Trainers Workshop in Livingstone in early June. Organised to introduce participants to the updated EFAIDS resource, ‘Leadership in the HIV Response’ the workshop brought together regional EFAIDS Coordinators from each of the nine regions of the country.

Training for both teachers and the wider community has been the focus of the EFAIDS Programme of the St Vincent and Grenadines Teacher Union in recent months. Master trainers Oswald Robinson, Gloria Endeavour and Rudolph Roberts coordinated the training sessions and reached over one hundred people.

Since the beginning of 2009 the Surinamese unions participating in the EFAIDS Programme have been busy training teachers on HIV and AIDS issues.

Education International participated in the 15th annual meeting of the UNAIDS Inter-Agency Task Team (IATT) on Education which took place from 15- 17 June 2009 in Limerick, Ireland. A one day Symposium on the theme ‘Teachers and HIV & AIDS: reviewing achievements, identifying challenges’ preceded the meeting.

Teacher unions working on the EI EFAIDS Programme shared their experiences with participants of the IIEP and UNAIDS-IATT Web Forum Report: ‘Teachers and HIV & AIDS: Reviewing achievements, identifying challenges’. Below are summaries of some of their contributions to the E-Forum.

The 98th Session of the International Labour Conference, (ILC), took place in June 2009 in Geneva, and marked an important stage in the process towards the adoption of an international labour standard on HIV/AIDS.

Teachers and unionists from Cote d’Ivoire gathered in the capital, Yamoussoukro, for a 3-day national refresher workshop in late March. The event updated the training of master trainers on EFA and AIDS related issues.