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The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) has sent a letter from president Randi Weingarten to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressing the union's concern over the continuing suffering of the Zimbabwean people and urging U.S. leadership to end the reign of terror and devastation wrought by President Mugabe.

Education International (EI), Education Development Centre (EDC) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) are pleased to announce the release of their new toolkit ‘Leadership in the HIV and AIDS response: A toolkit for teachers’ unions to promote health and improve education’.

Hopes were raised when Zimbabwe’s new Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, promised that all civil servants, including teachers, would be paid in foreign currency by the end of February.

EI has written to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asking that a social dialogue begin without delay with the representatives of the Iranian teachers. EI has been in regular communication with the Iranian authorities since 2007, following the crackdown on Iranian teachers who believed implementation of the approved Parity Bill would...

The International Monetary Fund reports that increased government spending on public education will have a more powerful impact on the financial crisis than tax cuts.

EI has issued a statement of support for its member organisations in France representing higher education and research personnel, who are on a full-day strike today to protest the lack of consultation, mass dismissals and budgetary cuts the current government has inflicted on the sector.

Sajad Khaksari has been released from prison in Tehran, but only “on condition.” In other words, he is not really free and clear.

Facing the current global economic crisis and growing threats to public education at all levels, Education International salutes the student activists from 17 organisations around the world who have forged a new alliance to assert a principled and equitable approach to the challenges of higher education.

“Go after the teacher unions.” That was one piece of advice for President Barack Obama from media baron Rupert Murdoch, who spoke on 30 January to hundreds of business, union and civil society leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Sajad Khaksari, the 25-year-old son of one of Iran’s leading teacher trade unionists, was arrested on 28 January in Tehran and remains in custody.

After successfully negotiating a collective agreement including substantial salary increases, Kenyan teachers are now in their second week of strike demanding that the raise be effective immediately.

Education International will be among the global and national trade unions with a strong message to deliver at this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Both EI member organisations in Zimbabwe denounce the latest salary paid to teachers by the government. On 21 January, the teacher unions told reporters that their members were paid an average of Z$29 trillion as salary for January 2009. This amount is less than US$10.

Representatives of teacher unions from 24 countries across Africa met in Accra, Ghana during the first week of December to attend the annual EI EFAIDS evaluation and planning workshop.

Dutch unions AOb and CNV Onderwijs, the EFAIDS partners in the Netherlands, got creative with their plans for World AIDS Day 2008. The education unions coordinated Art for AIDS workshops in a number of schools.

World Trade Organization Director General Pascal Lamy was forced to call off plans for a mini-Ministerial meeting last month after key countries failed to bridge their differences.

India’s higher education regulators are proposing new rules to combat an influx of low-quality, private higher education providers into the country.

Labour unions and civil society organizations in Canada are expressing outrage over the recent announcement that the Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper has reached a free trade deal with Colombia.