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:
Scotland: Education union leaders stress the power and vital importance of global solidarity
The transformative power and critical role of global union solidarity featured prominently at the 180th Annual General Meeting of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) which took place on 4 to 6 June in Dundee.
Achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4
5 June 2026
Belgium: budget cuts to state education adopted in a denial of democracy
Despite strong public opposition and strike action in schools across the Wallonia-Brussels Federation (FWB) called by a united front of education unions, the FWB Parliament, meeting in a plenary session, voted in the early hours of 5 June to approve the government’s planned cuts in education spending.
Achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4
26 May 2026
Haiti: Education unions stand firm in the face of insecurity and political instability
Despite the prolonged political crisis, endemic violence, and growing economic insecurity
, education unions in Haiti are continuing their campaign to defend public education and teachers’ rights. Meeting within the framework of the Go Public! Fund Education
campaign, trade union leaders present a clear picture of the situation and reiterate...
Education support personnel and education unions unite for gender justice
This year’s World Education Support Personnel (ESP) Day, May 16th, is an opportunity to celebrate, thank, and organise alongside ESP. Education International (EI) and its member organisations are focusing on gender justice in 2026. This reflects a structural reality across education systems worldwide: education support roles are highly feminised, systematically...
