Ei-iE

The international community of educators and school employees, represented by Education International, is deeply shocked by the killing of twenty children and six adults in the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, USA, yesterday.

“There are no records of a massacre of this size hitting a school population outside a warzone since the massacre at Virginia Tech in 2007,” says the General Secretary of Education International, Fred van Leeuwen, commenting on the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, USA, yesterday, whereby twenty children and six...

EI welcomes the release of three female members of KESK, the Turkish public services’ trade union confederation. The three, released on 13 December by the Ankara Court, include Güldane Erdo?an from the teacher union E?itim Sen, who has been imprisoned for 10 months.

On International Human Rights Day 2012, Education International (EI) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) launched a new international teachers’ union project in Egypt, Georgia, Honduras and Zimbabwe.

As trade unions mark the International Day for Human Rights on 10 December, EI pays tribute to teachers and education workers around the world who fight for the right to live and work in dignity. These educators also fight for freedom of expression, assembly and association; the right to bargain...

According to media reports yesterday, at least 28 students and a teacher were killed when a mortar hit the Batiha school in al-Wafidin camp, a community of about 25,000 displaced people, about twenty kilometres northeast of the capital. The reports said Syria’s official Sana news agency accused Syrian rebel forces...

On the occasion of World AIDS Day (WAD) on 1 December, education unionists worldwide renew their commitment to ‘getting to zero’: Zero new HIV infections, discrimination and AIDS-related deaths.

A draft treaty to be voted at the upcoming World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) has severe implications for teachers, students, education support staff, union members and the rights of individuals around the world.

EI welcomed the release from prison of Jalila Al-Salman, the acting President of the Bahraini Teachers’ Association (BTA), on 25 November.

On 13 December 2012, Turkey will see a new episode in the judicial harassment against trade unionists, as three women unionists, including Güldane Erdo?an from the teacher union Egitim Sen, will appear in front of the Court in Ankara. Those women were amongst of the 15 female union leaders who...

EI launched in November an Urgent Action Appeal for Bahrain. It demands that Jalila al-Salman and Mahdi Abu Dheeb, Vice President and President of the Bahrain Teacher Association (BTA), be released from jail.

Argentina, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Fiji and Peru were singled out by the Committee on Freedom of Association of the UN International Labour Organisation (ILO). Committee members reviewed cases involving rights to organise, negotiation through collective bargaining and engagement in social dialogue, on 1-16 November in Geneva.

Education International has expressed deep concern over the safety of school children and teachers in Gaza and Israel, as violence is escalating in the area. It has urged Hamas and Israel to call a permanent cease-fire, and to respect the principle of the right to education in safety.

The Federation of Teachers’ Organisations of Honduras (FOMH), of which there are five EI member organisations, has reported large-scale dismissals, salary cuts and temporary suspensions of teachers which have been justified by false allegations.

Leaders of teachers’ organisations in the Arab region are outraged by the recent verdict of a Bahraini appeal court in which it sentenced the President of the Bahraini Teachers Association (BTA), Mahdi Abu Deeb, to 5 years imprisonment for taking part in national demonstrations in 2011. The Vice President of...

On 5 November, schools across Quebec joined an event hosted by Laurier Macdonald High School in Montreal, to launch Media Literacy Week 2012. Students had the opportunity to talk with a panel of experts about online privacy as part of this year’s theme Privacy Matters.