Ei-iE

EI General Secretary, Fred van Leeuwen, has paid a courtesy visit to the Secretary of Education of the United States of America, Arne Duncan, in Washington DC.

At their meeting, in which they were joined by representatives of EI's affiliate member, the National Education Association, Mr van Leeuwen thanked Secretary Duncan for taking the initiative of convening an international summit on the teaching profession next month in New York.

The summit will be co-hosted by EI and the OECD, and will bring together education ministers and union leaders from 18 countries that have high performing education systems by OECD standards.

It is the first time that there has been a global conference on the future of the teaching profession, as well as being the first time that education ministers globally have discussed with teacher union leaders the best ways of supporting teachers and maintaining and enhancing the quality of teaching and learning.

It is expected that education unions and education ministers will evaluate and compare notes on current teachers' policies in their countries from which international research on education and ideas from individual countries on improving their education systems can be debated.