Latin America

Project against child labour in Nicaragua

A mission on child labour was organised in Léon and La Dalia, Nicaragua, from 2-10 November, following up on the “Out of work and into school” project.

In La Dalia, the Confederación General de Trabajadores de la Educación de Nicaragua (CGTEN-ANDEN) has trained 83 teachers on children’s rights, communication and negotiation skills. It has also helped those teachers to develop innovative pedagogic skills. As a direct result of the project, dropout rates have decreased sharply in the 29 schools included in the La Dalia “child labour free zone” promoted by CGTEN-ANDEN. One hundred teachers, including 15 school directors, joined CGTEN-ANDEN to be part of the La Dalia project, leading to a 28 per cent increase of the CGTEN-ANDEN membership in the zone.

Local education authorities committed to extend some of the innovations introduced by CGTEN-ANDEN in this project to the 173 schools of the municipality. These innovations include visits by teachers to the homes of pupils who have dropped out or are at risk of dropping out.

Samuel Grumiau represented EI at the event.

Pre-Regional Conference events in Brazil

From 13-17 November, personnel from the EI Latin America (EILA) regional office travelled to Belo Horizonte for the Women's Network Regional conference, which was attended by around 200 women and 20 men.

At the same time, EILA organised regional conferences on Indigenous peoples, higher education, lesbian, gay, Bisexual, transgender and intersex people, and early childhood education.

IV Latin American Pedagogical Movement Regional Conference in Brazil

Around 500 national representatives and around 200 representatives from across Latin America gathered in Belo Horizonte from 15-16 November for the IV Latin American Pedagogical Movement Regional Conference. Trade union representatives from Norway, Sweden, France, and the USA were also in attendance.

Amongst other topics, the EI Global Response to the privatisation and commodification in and of education and its regional impact was outlined.

The EILA office personnel, EI General Secretary Fred Van Leeuwen, EI Deputy General Secretary David Edwards, and Angelo Gavrielatos also participated in the event.