Ei-iE

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Fighting the commercialisation of education

Education is a human right and a public good that can be fully realised only through the provision of free, equitable, inclusive, quality public education. The growing commercialisation and privatisation in and of the sector is the greatest threat to the universal right to education.

Across the world, corporate interests are striving to transform all levels of education, from early childhood to higher education, into yet another market with winners and losers. As private-sector management models are applied to education institutions, employment conditions in the sector are being undermined. As low-fee, low-quality private schools expand rapidly, there is a risk that governments abrogate their responsibility to ensure the right to education for all. Unaccountable corporations have undue influence on education policies and institutions. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this trend which risks transforming education into a commodity, favouring profit over quality education.

As educators, we put students before profit. In 2015 we launched our Global Response to the Commercialisation and Privatisation of Education. Through this campaign, we work to expose and challenge the policies and practices of governments, intergovernmental organisations and international financial institutions which undermine public education and the rights and status of teachers and education support personnel. We also resist global corporate actors, especially education technology providers, who push the commercialisation and privatisation in and of education.

Our work in this area

  1. News 25 October 2022

    Ghana: Campaign against privatisation and commercialisation of education

    The multi- education union initiative aims to counter privatisation and its harmful impact on education

    Taking stock of results achieved, member organisations of the Campaign Against the Privatisation and Commercialisation of Education (CAPCOE) have deplored an expanding privatisation of education – especially at basic level – in Ghana’s remote areas, they welcomed the teacher’s higher level of training as well as the reduction of the...

    Ghana: Campaign against privatisation and commercialisation of education
  2. Worlds of Education 25 October 2022

    Teachers, not computers, are the beating heart of education

    Susan Hopgood

    More than 130 countries committed to prioritise education at the United Nation’s Transforming Education Summit (TES), a global meeting of Heads of State held in September in New York.

    Teachers, not computers, are the beating heart of education
  3. Worlds of Education 14 October 2022

    Public-Private Partnerships at no cost to the State & to Society – Is this possible?

    Carolina Finette

    In this blog post, I share my personal trajectory as a teacher experiencing Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in the Brazil countryside and urge stakeholders to reflect on the problems involving such partnerships to education. In addition, I reflect on how such PPPs are a result of the lack of financing in...

    Public-Private Partnerships at no cost to the State & to Society – Is this possible?
  4. Worlds of Education 18 September 2022

    Teachers are ready to transform education — it’s time for governments to step up

    David Edwards

    Despite the global crises facing the world, the power and optimism inherent in education will always provide hope for our future. To move forward from this pandemic, and the deepening inequities it exposed, we need to transform education by fully funding public education systems and investing in, supporting, and respecting...

    Teachers are ready to transform education — it’s time for governments to step up
  5. Worlds of Education 8 September 2022

    The unheard impact: technology and the teaching profession

    Lainie Keper

    Education International (EI) recently hosted a consultation event to provide feedback into the 2023 Global Education Monitoring Report on technology and education.

    The unheard impact: technology and the teaching profession
  6. News 30 August 2022

    Nigeria: Union deeply advocating free quality public education

    For many years now , the National Union of Teachers (NUT) in Nigeria has been pushing for public education. Efforts include joining Education International’s Global Response campaign to counter the privatisation of education institutions, which undermines the right to education.

    Nigeria: Union deeply advocating free quality public education
  7. News 26 August 2022

    Nepal: Privatisation does not ensure equal access to education, more investment in public education is needed

    The Research “Lessons from the COVID- Pandemic in Nepal” analyses the impact of COVID-19 on education, highlights the role of teacher unions in protecting the rights of teachers and calls for policy measures to protect decent learning conditions for students and decent employment conditions for teachers.

    Nepal: Privatisation does not ensure equal access to education, more investment in public education is needed
  8. Take action! 19 July 2022

    Teachers around the world mobilise to transform education. Join us!

    1.6 billion students were out of school at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, millions are still struggling with trauma and learning loss. Teachers and education workers have done the impossible to support their students and school communities in this time of crisis. But the crushing workloads, poor pay, and...

    Teachers around the world mobilise to transform education. Join us!
  9. News 5 July 2022

    Nigeria: Teachers call for more investment in public education to combat growing privatisation

    The national president of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Audu Titus Amba, expressed concerns over the proliferation of unregulated private schools in Nigeria. These schools, with the sole aim of making profit, are detrimental to the achievement of quality education for all.

    Nigeria: Teachers call for more investment in public education to combat growing privatisation
  10. Publications

    Education versus austerity

    Why public sector wage bill constraints undermine teachers and public education systems -and must end
    24 June 2022

    At least 69 million more teachers are needed by 2030 to achieve the sustainable development goal on education, yet around the word existing teachers face low pay and deteriorating conditions, affecting the status of the profession. There is a clear common cause uniting low pay and teacher shortages – both...

    Education versus austerity
    1. Education versus austerity-Policy brief
  11. Worlds of Education 13 June 2022

    Why the education community should be paying attention to the WTO E-commerce Work Programme

    Michael Geist

    E-commerce has emerged in recent years as critical part of commercial activity. With mounting online sale of goods and delivery of services, the implications of e-commerce for the education community arise at both the commercial and policy levels. Indeed, e-commerce and online education delivery played an increasingly prominent and important...

    Why the education community should be paying attention to the WTO E-commerce Work Programme
  12. E-commerce, Education and Copyright: A Policy Brief

    by Michael Geist
    13 June 2022

    In the context of the World Trade Organisation’s 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) in Geneva on 12-15 June 2022, Education International calls on governments to deliver a comprehensive intellectual property waiver on Covid-19 vaccines, treatments and tests and warns of the risk of increasing commercialisation of education and research due to...

    E-commerce, Education and Copyright: A Policy Brief
    1. Download
  13. Worlds of Education 9 May 2022

    Education and Copyright: obstacles to teaching in the digital age

    Teresa Nobre

    Access to knowledge is an important aspect of the right to education . In order to respond to the needs in the classroom, teachers often complement traditional teaching resources (e.g., textbooks and other curated materials) with a wide spectrum of materials from a variety of sources (e.g., short videos, images,...

    Education and Copyright: obstacles to teaching in the digital age
  14. Worlds of Education 26 April 2022

    Enabling the future of youth research through copyright

    Sean M. Fiil-Flynn

    This year’s World Intellectual Property Day is being dedicated to the theme of youth empowerment . The focus is on recognition of the role of youth “stepping up to innovation challenges, using their energy and ingenuity, their curiosity and creativity to steer a course towards a better future.” Intellectual property...

    Enabling the future of youth research through copyright
  15. Worlds of Education 23 April 2022

    Economically disadvantaged Malawi teachers bear the brunt of IMF wage bill policies

    Dr. Limbani Eliya Nsapato

    Malawi has a long-term relationship with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which drives the country’s macroeconomic policies, often to the detriment of progress in targeted sectors such as education and health. Malawi became a member of the IMF on 19 July 1965 and has had at least 16 arrangements (loans)...

    Economically disadvantaged Malawi teachers bear the brunt of IMF wage bill policies
  16. Worlds of Education 22 April 2022

    The impact of IMF policies on the public service wage bill in Zambia

    Gideon Bulwani

    There is sufficient evidence to suggest that the International Monetary Fund austerity measures have the potential to negatively affect Zambian ability to attain SDG 4. It is a paradox that the global system encourages investment in access to quality education for all, while putting obstacles along the path to the...

    The impact of IMF policies on the public service wage bill in Zambia