Ei-iE

On 6 February, EI’s affiliate, Federación Colombiana de Educadores (FECODE), organised a demonstration calling for free public education, respect for the teaching profession, and quality health services for teachers. More than 6,000 demonstrators marched through the capital, Bogotá, to demand an end to the privatisation of education covertly promoted by...

The Namibia National Teachers’ Union (NANTU) and the Trade Union of Education of Finland (OAJ), two EI affiliates, have signed a three-year agreement on training.

The Canadian Teachers’ Federation (CTF), one of EI’s national affiliates, has released the third edition of ‘Copyright Matters! Some Key Questions and Answers for Teachers’. The publication takes into account key changes that have occurred in the area of copyright since the previous edition, published in 2005.

The Fédération des syndicats nationaux des travailleurs de l’éducation et de la recherche (F-SYNTER), held its fourth women’s congress on 26 January in Ougadougou. The education union received financial support from German colleagues in the Gewerkschaft Erziehung und Bildung (GEW), also an EI affiliate.

The campaign to abolish tuition fees in Bavaria has taken a step forward with a referendum on the issue set to be organised. This follows on from 10 per cent of Bavaria’s eligible voters agreeing to a referendum on the abolition of tuition fees.

EI General Secretary Fred van Leeuwen is now on Twitter - follow @fredvanleeuwen for news, views, insights and highlights from the global education scene.

In a well-received speech delivered at the World Bank, EI Vice-President Dennis van Roekel from the National Education Association/USA has raised some important issues about the Bank’s approach to education sector reform, how that approach impacts on teachers, misses important opportunities for educational improvement and equity ... and where the...

Six million people are unemployed in Spain, according to the latest official data, which paints a bleak picture about the state of the country. One-third do not receive any unemployment benefit and in almost two million households, each family member is unemployed. Twenty seven per cent of the population is...

The Syndicat national unitaire des instituteurs professeurs des écoles et PEGC - a national school teachers’ trade union (SNUipp-FSU), one of EI's national affiliates, announced that almost six teachers in 10 (58 per cent) went on strike on 12 February to demand a successful reform of school timetables for all...

Teaching is the profession that inspires the highest level of trust and confidence in Chile. That’s according to the findings of a national survey conducted in December, 2012, by Centro de Estudios de la Realidad Contemporánea, which was reported by EI’s affiliate Colegio de Profesores de Chile (CPC).

Following brutal gang-rape and murder of a female medical student in New Delhi last December, the EI South Asian Women’s Network (SWN) has issued a statement on violence against women in India.

EI strongly condemns the killing of Chokri Belaïd, a secular Tunisian political leader. In December 2012, the headquarters of the Union Générale Tunisienne du Travail (UGTT) union federation were attacked, and there were a series of violent repressions of demonstrations in Tunis and across the country.

EI affiliates in Ireland are taking part in a day of action organised by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) this Saturday, 9 February. The protest will call for the €64 billion bank debt burden on Ireland to be lifted. It will take place simultaneously in Dublin, Cork, Galway,...

On 6 February, the Sámi National Day, or Sámi Álbmotbeaivi (Sámi People’s Day), was celebrated throughout Sámpi, the land of the Indigenous Sami in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. This is the date of the first Sámi gathering in 1917 in Trondheim, Norway.

EI has called on the UN High Level Panel (HLP) on the Post-2015 Development Agenda to include education in the new development framework. The call was made at the 3rd meeting of the HLP, held in Monrovia, Liberia, from 30 January to 1 February 2013.

The entire faculty of Garfield High School in Seattle, US, has voted not to give students a standardised test used in teacher evaluations, the so-called Measures of Academic Progress (MAP).

On 28 January, pupils at a secondary school in Aere Mbar, a small village in southern Mauritania, ransacked the school, slightly injuring one of their teachers. They broke and burnt doors, tables and windows. This furious outburst was triggered by severe overcrowding in one of their classes: 105 pupils.

In December 1955, in Montgomery, USA, a black seamstress refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white passenger, even though this was required by regulations. Her name was Rosa Parks, and she has been called ‘the mother of the freedom movement’. February 4 is the 100th...