As part of its publicity and advocacy programme, UNATU (the Ugandan National Teachers’ Union) has produced a DVD entitled “Teachers’ Conditions of Work and Life and Quality of Education” highlighting conditions experienced by teachers in Uganda. This research documentary uses statistical data to convey its message but gets to the core of the matter at hand by listening to the teachers themselves. As the producers note, the recording is “dedicated to enhancing the professionalism, status and morale of teachers through advocacy in order to achieve the Education For All (EFA) goals.” The research was commissioned by the National Executive Committee of UNATU and funded by FNV and EI. For more information please contact us.

On January 27th the Belize National Teachers’ Union (BNTU) participated in an Education Sector Retreat to improve the response to HIV/AIDS. The initiative was the result of a joint collaboration between the Ministry of Education in Belize, the UNESCO office for the Caribbean and the Education Development Center (EDC). Essentially the retreat was aimed at capacity building for the Education Sector to implement a comprehensive approach to combat HIV and AIDS. At the meeting, BNTU representatives delivered a presentation on the topic of a ‘Supportive Environment for HIV and AIDS’ and distributed materials on the teachers’ union response to the pandemic. For more information please contact us.

The Global Social Forum gets off the ground this year in three locations (Bamako, Caracas and Karachi). From January 19-23 the first of these events took place in Bamako, Mali. The proceedings opened with a march against poverty which brought together several thousands of civil society representatives, including a delegation from EI and its affiliates.

EI and SNEC (Mali), organised two workshops on education, one entitled “GATS and Education” and the other “EFA in Africa: 5 years after Dakar.” About eighty individuals from widely diverse backgrounds attended the EFA workshop. The debate was opened by a panel featuring Tibou Telly, Secretary General of SNEC; Sabine Detzel, UNESCO Paris; Edouard Matoko, Head of Office at UNESCO in Bamako and Abdelaziz Mountassir, SNE-FDT (Morocco) and EI Executive Board Member. Many participants, notably African delegates, made useful contributions during which it emerged that in spite of the progress noted in certain countries the majority of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have little chance of even partially achieving the goals on EFA by 2015. For more information, please contact us.

Under the working title of “Teacher Mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Update”, researchers in the UK have just published an 8-page article which provides insight into teacher mortality due to AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa. The authors comment on the fact that "teacher deaths account for less than 20% of total teacher attrition in most countries", something which demonstrates the importance of properly contextualising the impact of the epidemic. According to the research teacher mortality rates are either stable or in decline in quite a few countries due to behavioural change and access to ARV therapies. The report has been sent to EFAIDS coordinators in the ten countries highlighted in the report (South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia, Tanzania, Kenya, Malawi and Uganda). Given that this paper represents the most recent information that is available on the issue, EI highly recommends that unions draw upon it during debates with government on issues such as supply and demand in the education sector for the coming decade. For more information, contact us.

Education Today, the quarterly Newsletter from UNESCO on education features a four-page dossier “HIV and AIDS Education: an under-exploited potential”. The special edition highlights the fact that many national administrations have not reacted to experts’ claims that education is the best available means to control the spread of the HIV virus. Other issues dealt with in the newsletter include the importance of strong political will at the national level, the involvement of local schools and communities in the implementation of government responses and crucial efforts to overcome taboos about sex in order to facilitate HIV and AIDS education. For more information, please contact us.

As part of the Accelerate Initiative, the UNAIDS Inter-Agency Task Team (IATT) Working Group on HIV/AIDS and Education works with Education Ministry HIV/AIDS Focal Points within the ECOWAS region and Eastern Africa to create networks.

Confirmed Future Activities:

• National level workshop in Tanzania, 27th – 31st March 2006
• Regional workshop in Trinidad, 1st – 3rd June, 2006
• Sub-regional workshop in Lao PDR, 3rd-7th July, 2006

“ Individuals are driven to seek work overseas for a number of reasons including poor salaries and bad working conditions, and oversized classes; inadequate teaching aids and technological equipment and more opportunities for members of their families. To encourage them to stay there, salaries and conditions of service need to be improved upon. Also more opportunities for upgrading and self-improvement are essential.”

“ This might be true to a certain extent as the country benefits from the inflow of foreign exchange. However I believe that there is need for further research into this as remittances cannot match the cost of training, nor can it compensate for the ‘brain drain’ in the educational system. The teachers who are most needed by these countries are more often than not the ones who migrate. These include specialists, science and mathematics teachers. ”

“ EI affiliates could assist in several ways including:

• Collaborate in or initiate research studies on the impact of teacher migration on both the teachers’ countries of origin and the receiving countries;
• Lobby international organizations for grants, programmes and/or loans to support educational development so that the goals of “Education for all” can be realised;
• Intensify advocacy on the value of education to national development;
• Maintain and intensify links with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank to sensitise these institutions on the adverse effects of some of their policies on social services in the Caribbean and beyond.”