Ei-iE

In a time of crisis, hidden truths are revealed and what we have learned is that our collective humanity is in trouble. For it to flourish, I hope and believe teachers will play a leading role to create a future that has inclusivity as its foundation.

It is an indicator of the depth of the crisis created by Covid that OECD’s Secretary General, Angel Gurria should take on the responsibility for launching this year’s edition of Education at a Glance. While the OECD describes the EAG as a flagship publication and it’s full of interesting comparative...

These are the most extraordinary times. At the start of 2020, almost nobody could have anticipated the extent, and the manner, in which the world has been turned upside down by a virus that has taken hundreds of thousands of lives and left nobody unaffected.

A story was once told that after WWII, the then Emperor Hirohito of Japan called one of his soldiers and asked the question: “How many teachers survived?” This question is an acknowledgment by the emperor of the crucial role of teachers in building or re-building a nation. Without teachers, a...

In March 2020, the tropical heat was rising in Tamil Nadu, India. The teachers were in the thick of handling lesson planning, engaging with students and uploading our progress for the final term of the academic year in a buzzing school environment. The state government announced a complete lockdown in...

The Covid-19 pandemic was the context for two major disruptions in education. The first was the disruption to schooling for millions of students worldwide, and a rapid shift to remote learning online. The second, closely related disruption was the entry of the commercial education technology sector into public education at...

Teachers are all scrambling onto remote learning (or distance learning, or continuous learning, or crisis learning, or the nomenclature of your area) to support and stay connected with their students during this isolating time. The unexpected nature of the events around COVID-19 and the different levels and speeds of responsiveness...

Lebanon is a country with a population of 4.5 million and is home to a large number of refugees. Over two million Syrian refugees are now living in Lebanon, in addition to half a million of Palestinian refugees. More than 52% of the Syrian refugees in Lebanon are children, and...

In Italy, the first COVID-19 cases were discovered at the end of January. It was another month before the spread of the virus forced us to suspend face-to-face lessons. At the beginning of March, teachers, in lockdown at home, began distance teaching, while administrative, technical and cleaning staff still had...

Education International echoes the call of education workers from around the world: national governments must ensure their protection through evidence-based public health measures in the transition back to school. Read about how the global union federation responds to this call.

According to the ILO, there are over 150 million child labourers worldwide. Conscious of this challenge and keen to promote the right to a quality education for all, EI members in thirteen countries have initiated programmes to eradicate child labour with the support of EI and its partners. While there...

In the research study, conducted in 2018 and 2019 “EI/AOb Child Labour Projects: Transnational best practices and union impacts”, I examined how professional training programmes have enhanced teachers capacity to attract and retain children in school through participatory education techniques and how as a result of the child labour projects,...

On the World Day Against Child Labour, Education International President Susan Hopgood gives insights into the work of education unions to eradicate child labour, the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on vulnerable children, the lessons we have learned from previous crises and the way forward.

As in other parts of the world, the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic rapidly and radically upended universities and colleges in Canada. Across the country, campuses are deserted, teaching has migrated to virtual platforms, and important research has been put on hold.

The closure of schools has been commended as one of the most effective mitigatory measures to arrest the rapid spread of Covid-19 so far. Millions of learners and educators have been forced to continue learning through emergency remote instruction that involves online teaching. This presents novel challenges for educators in...

The Greek god Kairos represents an opportunity to be seized in the guise of a young man who is naked, but sports a tuft of hair on his head. When he comes within our reach, one of three things can happen: we do not see him; we see him but...

Ten years ago, Education International and the OECD began co-hosting with various countries an altogether unique, (somewhat unlikely) but critically necessary convening of ministers of education and heads of teachers’ unions. The purpose was to support an informed and honest policy dialogue between and among elected representatives of the teaching...

“With the closure of school buildings, we see that knowledge will find a way to flow, even if the traditional pathways are stoppered.” --Grant Lichtman --