Go Public! Invest in Education Support Personnel: Ensure
inclusive education.
Education Support Personnel (ESP) have a critical role to play in supporting and sustaining educational communities and the students within them – especially those who have are excluded and marginalized.
Without ESP, schools would not be welcoming and clean, children would go hungry, their behavioural and health issues would go unaddressed, their academic, socio-emotional and practical needs would not be met, and they might not even make it to school safely.
Declining public education budgets and privatisation severely impact their job security, pay, workload, rights, and wellbeing. In the face of austerity, increasing privatisation and declining public funding, it is crucial to enable ESP to participate in shaping schools and education systems, to safeguard their rights and ensure good working conditions.
This means mobilizing and organizing ESP and a commitment to making sure their voices are meaningfully included in education unions.
Education Support Personnel are recognized annually on World Education Support Personnel Day introduced by Education International (EI) on
May 16th, 2018, to celebrate the vital role of ESP in equitable and inclusive
education systems and ensuring quality education for all.
Education International's longstanding advocacy for ESP Rights and Status
The recommendations of the United Nations on the teaching profession– where EI made sure the voice of all educators was heard – state that “education support personnel are key workers in education who should work interdependently with teachers and enjoy commensurate working conditions as teachers.”
World ESP Day webinar
To find out more about EI and the work of our member organizations join our World ESP Day meeting on May 14th. Click here to register.
The online meeting, Go Public! Invest in Education Support Personnel: Ensure inclusive education, will provide ample space for EI member organizations representing ESP to come together, share their experiences around the role of ESP in supporting inclusion in education, as well as union wins and challenges when supporting the inclusion of ESP in schools and union structures. We will also discuss how unionists best support each other and build union power to defend the rights and status of education support personnel.
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!
We have a sample World ESP Day video script and graphics (including EI logo). You can use it to record your own video for ESP Day to congratulate your members.
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:
North-Asian education unions mobilised for enhanced solidarity and cooperation to Go Public!
Leaders of Education International (EI) member organisations across North Asia have committed to “organise, organise, organise; day and night” and pledged to “strengthen solidarity across North Asia and to lay the foundations for ongoing cooperation.”
Mongolia: Strike called by education trade union widely followed
Teachers and education support personnel (ESP) are on strike across the country since October 16th, 2025, urging the government of Mongolia to increase their basic salary to 3.5 million tugriks (around 840 euros) as well as the education budget for 2026.
Ethiopia: Teacher unionists set bold agenda and chart the future for quality education
The 23rd General Assembly of the Ethiopian Teachers’ Association (ETA) convened from October 14th-15th, 2025, bringing together educators and union leaders from across the nation and continent. The event was a call for solidarity, reform, and renewed commitment to quality, inclusive public education.
From “unseen hands” to recognised professionals: Major union victory for education support personnel in the Philippines
When the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) launched the Education International (EI) Go Public! Fund Education
campaign in The Philippines, the union ensured that the country’s 120,000 education support personnel (ESP) were at the very center of its advocacy. ACT mobilised around the rights, living and working conditions of the...
