Education International insists that education is a human right and a public good, and it is the responsibility of all governments to provide all women and men, boys and girls, free quality public education. In recent years, EI has expressed concerns that proposals for a significant increase in the scope of trade liberalisation might see education services covered by commercial trade agreements. EI has actively lobbied to have education services excluded from the scope of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).
The General Agreement on Trade in Services, or GATS, is one of several agreements adopted in 1994 as part of the then established World Trade Organization (WTO). The GATS is a multilateral agreement that defines restrictions on a broad range of government measures that affect the trade in services. There are compelling reasons to be concerned that the GATS poses serious threats to vital public interest regulations, including those governing education.
Knowledge and intellectual property, provided through education, should likewise be available for free to all. More and more countries find it increasingly difficult to obtain copyright clearance and pay royalties for materials needed by teachers and students. EI therefore expresses similar concerns over trade in intellectual property, regulated through the TRIPS-treaty.
Education International and its member organisations oppose the commercialisation of education. We believe that education is a human right, a public service and not a commodity. The commercialization of education services carries risks of inequity, discrimination and a deepening of the digital divide.
GATS is a trade agreement, a multilateral investment agreement and a labour mobility agreement with far-reaching effects and restrictions on the decision-making capacities of national governments. At its heart, the GATS commits WTO members to a liberalization agenda, not just by eliminating barriers to trade and investment in services, but also by encouraging countries that have privatized, contracted out their public services or deregulated them to cement in these liberalisations by making relevant education services commitments under the GATS. Education, health care and other basic social services should be excluded from the GATS and other similar bilateral and regional trade agreements.
EI believes that the TRIPS agreement primarily serves the interests of the holders of intellectual property rights. A more balanced approach to intellectual property rules is needed to ensure that legitimate use of copyrighted and patented material not be constrained. In order to protect and promote access to teacher and learning materials, all countries must be allowed to maintain or adopt broad exemptions for educational, research and library uses in their national copyright laws.
EI believes that Vocational Education and Training is the sector that is particularly vulnerable to trends in trade in education. Therefore, it has adopted a set of ‘Guidelines on the Cross-Border Provision of Vocational Education and Training’ in 2007.
Statements:
World Congress Resolutions:
EI works with its member organisations to raise awareness about the dangers of trade in education and pushes for political action remove education services from the scope of the World Trade Organisation.
Internally, EI regularly updates its member organisations on the developments within the GATS negotiations through several methods:
EI also regularly organises workshops or sessions on GATS in its various conferences. For example, EI organised a conference at UNESCO headquarters in Paris in 2005, to discuss the implications of the GATS-treaty for education. At this conference, a strategy was agreed to popularise and raise awareness of the GATS (see TradEducation no. 5).
Externally, EI partners up with organisations having a similar interest in removing education from trade provisions and takes the lead to lobby national trade negotiators and representatives of the World Trade Organisation to raise awareness about trade in education. For example, Education International attended the Hong Kong Ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation in 2005 and issued a statement to ministers addressing the dangers of making further commitments on education under the GATS. In 2008, EI and Public Service International organised a session at the WTO Public Forum bearing the title ‘Public Services and the GATS: Trading Into or Trading Away the Future?’ At this workshop, experts and trade representatives jointly discussed the effects of trade agreements on public service provision and education.
Publications:
EI regularly publishes a newsletter with updates on education in relation to the GATS negotiations. The archive of the newsletter can be accessed through the following link:
Older versions of the newsletter, in PDF-version, can be found below:
- TradEducation N°12 December 2006
- TradEducation N°11 October 2006
- TradEducation N°10 August 2006
- TradEducation N°9 June 2006
- TradEducation N°8 April 2006
- TradEducation N°7 February 2006
- TradEducation N°6 September 2006
- TradEducation N°5 May 2005
- TradEducation N°4 March 2005
- TradEducation N°3 December 2004
- TradEducation N°2 June 2004
- TradEducation N°1 March 2004
Studies: