Ei-iE

For the second consecutive year, Education International awards the Mary Hatwood Futrell Scholarship to three outstanding students at the George Washington University's Graduate School of Education and Human Development (GSEHD).

EI is pleased to announce an extension to the deadlines for receipt of notification of number of delegates and observers and requests for financial assistance from affiliates planning to attend the 5th triennial World Congress in Berlin, Germany from 22nd to 26th July, 2007.

Teachers will join workers from all other sectors across Australia today in the national day of protest against radical industrial relations reforms imposed by the government of Prime Minister John Howard.

The three-day strike in Croatia which began on 22 November ended in resounding victory for the teachers. The Croatian government and three EI member organisations signed two agreements on 25 November guaranteeing teachers a 6-percent pay rise every year over the next three years and bonuses over the next six...

Below is the text in English of the address by EI General Secretary to the Assembly of EI affiliate Nikkyoso in Tokyo on 25 November 2006.

In an address to 150 leaders of provincial branches of EI member organisation, Nikkyoso, EI General Secretary Fred van Leeuwen criticized the Japanese government for “the systematic rejection of dialogue” with the teacher union.

The Japanese government wants “schools to preserve traditional values of family and nation”. This is the main objective of a bill to revise the 1947 Fundamental Law on Education which the Lower House of Japan adopted on 16 November.

Teachers everywhere are concerned about the enormous problem of violence against women and girls, a violation of human rights that takes place on a vast scale worldwide.

EI recently attended an Expert Meeting on Universal Access to Services organised by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) from 14-16 November in Geneva.

EI is very pleased to report news today from Ethiopia Teachers’ Association General Secretary Gemoraw Kassa that the registrar’s office of the Federal Supreme Court has informed the ETA that the verdict delivered by the Supreme Court on November 20 is in favour of the authentic ETA.

"Teachers should be guaranteed a safe and secure working environment," says EI in a letter addressed to the President of Iraq, Jalal Talabani, on 16 November. Since February this year, 180 teachers have been killed and up to 100 have been kidnapped.

Heads of both main Global Unions representing public employees, Education International and Public Services International, will meet on 21 November in Brussels, Belgium to discuss their co-operation and common agenda.

Already the largest of the global union federations, Education International continues to grow stronger. EI now comprises 384 member unions in 169 countries and territories. Together, they represent more than 30 million teachers and education workers across the world!

The Annual Development Cooperation meeting took place in Brussels, Belgium, on 9 and 10 November.

The president of the Botswana Teachers’ Union has been reinstated in his teaching post, after EI and BTU members protested his unfair dismissal.

Education International welcomes the creation of the new global trade union centre, the ITUC (International Trade Union Confederation). The unification of the ICFTU and WCL with eight trade union centres previously affiliated to neither is a historic step by unions to meet future challenges.

EI issued a message to the Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe on 13 October, urging his government to stop harassing trade union leaders and members. EI was refering to the police intervention of World Teachers' Day celebration on 6 October by the Progressive Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ).

Below is the speech made by EI General Secretary and Chair of the Conference of the Global Union Federations at the founding congress of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) currently being held in Vienna, Austria.