Ei-iE

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.

Seven primary and middle school teachers in the South Korean capital Seoul have been fired for giving students and parents a choice about whether to take a national standardised test.

EI’s General Secretary Fred van Leeuwen got immediate agreement when he called on World Bank President Robert Zoellick to defend the Millennium Development Goals, and especially Education for All, against the ravages of the current financial and economic crises.

As from January 2009, both EI member organisations and members of the public are now able to consult the policy documents of the global union federation that represents employees in the education sector worldwide.

Anti-unionism is a widespread phenomenon in the USA. Senator Bill Hare of Illinois from the Democratic Party spoke to a global union gathering in Washington DC on 13 January on the Employee Free Choice Act. The Act is a legislation proposed to ensure that workers have a free choice and...