Ei-iE

In a powerful address at the Education International 10th World Congress, Susan Hopgood, President of Education International, highlighted the urgent need to fully fund public education and support the teaching profession in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking to twelve hundred unionists from over 150 countries, Hopgood emphasized the critical role of educators and their unions to address the unprecedented challenges faced by the education sector.

The impact of COVID-19 on education

Reflecting on the last congress held in Bangkok in 2019, Hopgood noted the significant disruptions caused by the pandemic. “We faced the crisis of 1.6 billion learners directly affected by the largest disruption of education systems in history,” she said. The pandemic exacerbated existing issues, including a global teacher shortage of 44 million and declining national education budgets.

A global education crisis

Hopgood painted a stark picture of the current state of education, citing UNESCO’s statistics that 98 million children are out of school in Sub-Saharan Africa. Economic hardships and gender discrimination have reversed early 21st-century gains in girls’ education. “Today, hundreds of millions remain excluded from education,” she stated, underscoring the need for immediate action.

Historic recommendations for change

In response to these challenges, UN Secretary General António Guterres established a High-Level Panel on the Teaching Profession. The “historic” panel’s recommendations, released earlier this year, call for long-term funding for well-qualified teachers, competitive salaries, and the end of precarious employment. They also support collective bargaining and social dialogue to place teachers at the heart of decision-making.

“The UN put the teaching profession front and centre as the critical element in addressing the education crisis,” Hopgood remarked. “This is a strong recognition and respect for the teaching profession, again, made possible because of our campaigning on a global scale.”

The policies at the heart of EI’s advocacy on critical issues like the teacher shortage, education financing, collective bargaining and other forms of social dialogue, education technology, refugees, child labour and more have been set as an active agenda for coordinated international action that matches our own, Hopgood added.

The role of unions in shaping the future

Hopgood emphasized the importance of unions in advocating for educational reforms. “Our status is in turn a challenge for us to engage more intensively in policy and political decision-making,” she said. She called for collective action to defend the common good and advance a vision of education that promotes human rights, sustainability, and democracy: “The education crisis is no less a global crisis of the commons; testing both the ability of governments through the public sector to maintain and advance the public good and the capacity of the people to hold those governments democratically accountable for their actions.”

Addressing economic inequality

Highlighting the economic challenges faced by many countries, Hopgood criticized the lack of political will to support public education. “Some 3.3 billion people live in countries that spend more on debt interest payments than on education or health,” she noted. She called for accountability from governments and corporations to ensure adequate funding for education.

She reminded that, “in 2023, it was reported that education system resources had fallen in 65 percent of low- and middle-income countries and 33 percent of upper-middle and high-income countries since the start of the pandemic.

She was also adamant that “clearing the path forward from here is very clearly union work. You will hear more about what is being done and what we can all do through EI’s Go Public! Fund Education campaign to make governments accountable for ending the teacher shortage and funding quality public education.”

The climate crisis and education

Hopgood also addressed the impact of climate change on education, citing the World Meteorological Organization’s warning of an 80 percent chance of breaching 1.5°C of warming in the next five years. She stressed the need for education systems that promote scientific literacy and environmental stewardship.

She also underlined that a study in 2023 of the world’s 500 biggest companies by market value found that just 22 percent are aligned with the Paris Agreement to limit global warming, while the rest have done almost nothing in the past five years to cut pollution. The study said large companies are either more likely to contribute to extreme levels of warming or are not disclosing their greenhouse gas emissions at all.

Citing UN Secretary General Antonio Gutteres who likened fossil fuel companies to a sort of mafia, calling them the “godfathers of the climate crisis,” raking in record profits and feasting off trillions in taxpayer-funded subsidies, she insisted that “blazing the path forward is union work, some of it underway in EI’s Teach for the Planet campaign. And the public is with us. A recent survey by Gallup of 130,000 people in 125 countries found that 89 percent want stronger climate action by governments. Businesses that operate free of regulation and impinge on the public good need to be held accountable.”

The promise and perils of technology

While acknowledging the potential of technology to democratize education, Hopgood warned against unregulated and untested educational technologies. “Education technology solutions that are teacher-free are always designed for other people’s children,” she cautioned, advocating for responsible and equitable deployment of technology in education.

She said there is a reality about technology that cannot be ignored: “The tech industry is again doing what it is designed to do; its’ one role – to maximize profits.”

However, the role of education unionists is very different: “We need to think about maximising education systems for the benefit of our students. Our position is straightforward: Education technology that is designed responsibly and deployed equitably, focused on complementing and enhancing the role of educators in guiding and inspiring learners can be a profound component of education systems.”

A call for global solidarity

In closing, Hopgood called for global solidarity among educators and unions. “Through our unions, we define the notion of quality public education and the essential conditions of society to make it available to every student everywhere,” she declared. She urged the assembly to continue their efforts in advancing education and defending democracy.

She went on mentioning the words of Maria Ressa, the Filipina journalist awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work against dictatorship and the weaponization of disinformation who addressed the last EI Congress in 2019: “The end goal of disinformation is chaos and the breaking down of trust. If you don’t have the right information, you can’t act. Without facts, you can’t have truth. Without truth, you can’t have trust. Without all these, you can’t have shared reality, the rule of law, and democracy to deal with things like climate change.”

She continued: “I would add one more thing: without teachers and their unions, you can’t have any of this, truth, trust, or democracy. it's one thing to have knowledge, it's another thing to have wisdom and pedagogy and the ability to apply it ethically and morally to the benefit of many. The experience of education is more than just the delivery of content. Educational settings are where we build societies, and we build democracies. As individuals, we are underpaid and overworked and, yes, often overwhelmed, but through our unions and our allies we are never outnumbered. Through our unions, we define the notion of quality public education and the essential conditions of society to make it available to every student everywhere. Through our unions, we are elevating our profession into the ranks of leadership for the critical fights ahead of us.”

“At this intersection, there is no choice. Our direction is set. The world counts on us. We cannot be stopped. We will not be stopped,” Hopgood confidently concluded.

Over the next days, delegates will continue to work towards growing their unions, elevating their professions and defending democracy.