Ei-iE

Experts are warning members of the World Trade Organization of the risks they face if they include public services like education in trade and investment agreements.

A group of public interest organizations in the United States is suing the US Trade Representative office in an effort to obtain a copy of a draft treaty on intellectual property currently.

Five teachers and eight students have been killed, and nearly 30, 000 more students have been deprived of the right to education after the last schools still operating in Somalia’s capital city of Mogadishu were closed in mid-October due to the unacceptable risk of violence.

From October 19 to 21, 43 regional leaders of the General Union of Palestine Teachers (GUPT) participated in an organizing and training workshop designed to launch a series of training programs for the union to run through 2009.

At the validation conference of the campaign for full higher education staff and student mobility held in Villeneuve d'Ascq, France from 6-7 October, Education International and the European Students' Union launched the campaign publication "Barometer of Academic Mobility".

Education International its EU organisation, the European Trade Union Committee for Education (ETUCE), strongly support the call by their Italian member organisations - the Federazione Lavoratori della Connoscenza (FLC-CGIL), the CISL-Scuola and the UIL-Scuola for action against the plans by the government to dramatically downsize the education sector.

A report on violence in schools published last week by Plan International is sensationalist and unjustly targets teachers, said EI General Secretary Fred van Leeuwen in an address to the first congress of the South African teachers union NAPTOSA on 15 October.

Within the framework of EI's new Middle East and North Africa (MENA) programme, EI organized two training workshops with EI members in Lebanon, the League of Secondary Public School Teachers in Lebanon (LPESPL) and the Teachers’ Syndicate in Lebanon (TSL).

The Global Call for Action Against Poverty, a growing movement of citizens across the world, is urging everyone once again to stand up and take action against poverty, and for equity and justice.

With the country in turmoil, the public education system in a state of collapse, and teachers under attack, Education International is deeply concerned that Somali teachers and students are suffering profound violations of their rights on a daily basis.

The EI EFAIDS Evaluation and Planning Workshop for EI staff and partners was held in early September and provided an opportunity to review the Programme which has expanded steadily since 2006 and is now successfully implemented in almost fifty countries across four regions.

Education International is joining with trade unions in 115 countries in strong support of October 7, the World Day for Decent Work, and the campaign launched by the International Trade Union Federation to demand change in the world economy.

Education, schools and children will ultimately pay the highest price as the global financial crisis hits communities everywhere, EI Vice-President Patrick Gonthier warned participants in a Round Table held at UNESCO headquarters in Paris on 3 October to commemorate World Teachers’ Day 2008.

Teachers from across Central and Eastern Europe are reaching out to colleagues facing difficult circumstances in Georgia, Montenegro and Turkey. Representatives of 26 organisations from 17 countries met in Zagreb, Croatia, from 2-4 October.

The validation conference of the joint campaign organized by Education International and the European Student Union, “Let’s Go! Where to now?”, is being held in Villeneuve d’Ascq, France.

At its meeting this week in Brussels, the Executive Board of Education International accepted the resignation of two of its members, Yasuo Morikoshi (Nikkyoso/Japan) and Marilies Rettig (Canadian Teachers' Federation/Canada) and thanked them for their active and valuable engagement in EI's work. In their place, the Board appointed Yuzuru Nakamura...

Governments the world over must address the dramatic shortage of qualified teachers if they are to meet the social and economic challenges of the knowledge society, according to Education International, the global union federation representing 30 million teachers around the world.

Education trade union leaders are meeting in Zagreb to celebrate World Teachers’ Day at the Central and Eastern European Round Table meeting to be hosted by TUWPSEC, one of the five Croatian affiliates of Education International.