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Two of EI’s national affiliates, the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT), have commented on plans to change the GCSE English grading process for 2013.

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.

Last week in Banjul, Gambia, Education International and the GTU laid the foundation of EI’s new initiative “Occupy Education”. The first stage of this pilot phase consisted of a needs assessment workshop the purpose of which was to identify current gaps and strategic areas for GTU’s future collaboration with EI,...

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.

A shortage of teachers in over 250 schools has been the focus of Government and education union action in Zanzibar. The fundamental issue for both is to determine how Zanzibar can train, recruit and retain teachers in their teaching jobs.

The EI annual Development Cooperation (DC) meeting gathered 37 participants from 13 countries on 12-13 November in Brussels, Belgium. One of the six sessions allowed participants to take stock of the impact of the economic crisis on DC funding and activities, and discuss solutions.

A workshop to launch the ‘Every Child Needs a Teacher’ programme was held on 30 October in Ségou, Mali. The workshop was part of the “Quality Educators for All” project, supported by EI.

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT), one of EI’s U.S. affiliates, will actively participate in the third annual Global Education Conference (GEC), to take place entirely online during International Education Week, from 12-16 November.

To protest against stonewalling by lawmakers introducing a new Education Bill, the Education and Science Employees Union of Russia (ESEUR) collected 1,081,934 signatures from its members and had them send 37,959 telegrams to the president, the parliament and the Ministry of Education.