Celebrating the crucial role of Education Support Personnel for quality education for all.
Education Support Personnel (ESP), a range of professionals like teaching assistants, school nurses, cafeterias workers, maintenance crews, and bus drivers, play a crucial role in ensuring quality education and a safe learning environment.
However, many are employed on precarious terms, facing increased exploitation and lacking fundamental rights such as collective bargaining. Advocacy efforts emphasize their rights to a safe workplace, professional development, and participation in decision-making processes at their institutions.
The Aveiro Statement – “Go Public: Fund Education Support Personnel” further encourages education unions, among others, to call for increased domestic and international public education financing and specific funding for education support personnel as part of Education International’s Go Public! Fund Education campaign.
Among other findings, the study shows that precarious contracts lead to heavy and fragmented workloads and mean that ESP are less able to integrate into the pedagogical dimension of the school. It also explains that, in extreme cases, ESP’s roles are redefined as unnecessary or as ‘voluntary’ roles. Their work being devalued, ESP may choose to leave the public education sector.
Confronted with deteriorating conditions, ESP and their unions are building coalitions to defend the public sector, engaging in lobbying and refining strategies by collaborating with researchers and the international community.
To find out more about this research joins us for our ESP Day webinar on May 16th, click here to register.
Join our campaign and raise your voice for public education everywhere!
Spread the word by sharing the resources below as we mobilize to go public and fund ESP!
Raise your voice in support of Education Support Personnel on social networks. Use the suggested posts and images below and don’t forget to tag Education International so we can amplify your message:
🎉 It’s World #ESPDay! 🆕 research shows the negative impact of privatisation and funding shortfalls for education support personnel. It’s time to respect and value these professionals, #GoPublic and #FundESP!
Education Voices | How persistent solidarity secured a historic win on pensions for higher education workers in the UK
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This testimony was collected as part of the research project entitled “In the eye of the storm: Higher education in an age of crises” conducted by Howard Stevenson, Maria Antonietta Vega Castillo, Melanie Bhend, and Vasiliki-Eleni Selechopoulou for Education International. The research report and executive summary are available here
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