EI News

The latest issue of EI's flagship magazine, Worlds of Education, reports on the various activities organised by affiliates on World Teachers' Day.

The controversial Copenhagen Accord, ratified early in the hours of 19 December, is the least that the international community could have agreed in order to recognise and begin to avert the worst expected consequences of global warming.

As a Global Union, EI is committed to support the Global Labour University. The Global Labour University is created by the Global Union Research Network (GURN), comprising the ILO's Bureau for Workers' Activities (ACTRAV), the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD (TUAC), the Global Union Federations (GUFs) and the ILO's International Institute for Labour Studies (IILS).

Without transformation of the global economic model, we will not be able to solve the world's most urgent problems, including poverty and climate change, said Pavan Sukhdev, leader of the Green Economy research project within the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

As world leaders meet at COP 15 to negotiate a global agreement to avert climate catastrophe, students and teachers in Copenhagen are taking concrete steps towards making their school carbon neutral by 2015 - a full decade before their city aims to achieve carbon-neutrality.

Education International has released a review of academic literature on Vocational Education and Training (VET). In recent months, VET has started to feature more prominently in debates on education, as it is considered pivotal in the recovery from the jobs crisis.

Jafar Ebrahimi, the teacher trade unionist that was held in jail simply for trying to organise a union meeting, was freed on bail in December. However, EI remains concerned about the continued detention of Farzad Kamangar, Rasoul Bodaghi and Hashem Khastar. EI addressed a letter to the Supreme Leader Ali Khamanei and the Head of the Judiciary to suspend the execution of Kamangar and to allow for international delegations to visit him in prison and to observe his upcoming court case.

Thanks to the constant pressure of the international community, many of the detained colleagues from the former ETA (now NTA) have been released. Only one, Meqcha Mengistu, is still held captive in Kality prison in Addis Ababa.

One year after it was refused registration by the Ministry of Justice, the National Teachers Association (NTA) is still deprived of legal status in Ethiopia.

Teacher union activists working on the EI EFAIDS Programme gathered in Grand Bassam in Cote d' Ivoire from 7 - 11 December 2009 to assess their progress to date on educating for HIV prevention and working to achieve EFA, and to plan a full programme of activities for 2010.

Amidst a mounting sense of urgency about the need to save our warming planet, trade unionists from all continents gathered in Copenhagen to coordinate their efforts to push world leaders towards an ambitious climate agreement that incorporates provisions for a just transition to a sustainable world with more green, decent jobs.

As the world marks 10 December, International Human Rights Day, Education International once again asserts that the right to education is a fundamental and inalienable right of every person, and denounces last week's bombing of a graduation ceremony in Somalia.

On 1 December, Latvian Higher Education Staff and Student Unions held a demonstration against budget cuts in the higher education and research sector. EI offers its full solidarity to the Latvian academic community, and has, together with ETUCE, made clear its support for the demands being made.

Acid attacks on Afghan girls, drive-by shootings of Colombian teachers, assassination of Iraqi academics and students, arson of schools in Thailand: These are only a few examples of the increasing violent political and military attacks on education. Urging the world to protect and defend education, EI has issued a formal Declaration that Schools Shall Be Safe Sanctuaries.

Trade Ministers from around the world meeting in Geneva ended their discussions on 2 December by reaffirming their political commitment to concluding talks on a new global trade pact in 2010, even as deep differences remain.

The second day of the WTO Ministerial Conference in Geneva has seen trade ministers shift their deliberations about the future of the multilateral trading system to closed working sessions.

As 2010 the target year for the fulfilment of universal access to prevention, treatment, care and support approaches teacher unions around the world are using World AIDS Day 2009 as an opportunity to redouble their work on AIDS and equally to petition governments to make the investment necessary to overcome the AIDS crisis.

At the World Trade Organization's 7th Ministerial Conference in Geneva, EI is urging trade ministers to keep education and other public services off the table.

Education and other public services are basic human rights, which must not be viewed as commodities or be subjected to commercial trade rules.

A student opened fire on classmates at Pecs University in southern Hungary, killing one student and wounding three persons, before turning himself in.