Ei-iE

During his address to Education International's 6th World Congress in Cape Town, South Africa, EI General Secretary, Fred van Leeuwen, has encouraged educators from all over the world, gathered at the meeting, to become active and mobilise in order to confront the challenges the international teacher trade union movement faces.

Van Leeuwen said: "If we look at the history of Education International, I believe that we are ready to enter a new phase in our life.

In the first phase, from 1993 until 2001, much of the organisation’s capacity and energy was invested in building and consolidating unity. At the same time we developed our advocacy, and in the second phase, over the last decade, we gained recognition as the Voice of the Teaching Profession in the international community. We have good reasons to be proud of that.

But, colleagues no matter how crucial it is to be united and to be heard, it is not enough. We must now enter a new, third phase, a phase of strengthening our capacity to mobilise. We must move from unity, to advocacy to mobilisation. Yes, we are strong today. But we need more strength to confront the attacks on public education, the attacks on teachers and the attacks on our unions and associations. We need more strength to elevate our profession!"

To read Fred van Leeuwen's full speech to Congress, please download the Word document listed on the right-hand side of this page.