The United Nations 5 year review of its social commitments (in Geneva) was "another wasted opportunity" said the Global Campaign for Education (GCE), an international coalition of teachers’ trade unions and NGOs. Although the General Assembly reaffirmed the Framework for Action adopted at the World Education Forum in Dakar, it didn't move it forward and even created the risk of setbacks.

At April's World Education Forum in Dakar, governments promised that no country serious about meeting the 2015 Education for All targets would be allowed to fail for lack of resources. The Global Campaign for Education (GCE) hoped the Social Summit Review would press ahead with Dakar's 'Global Initiative' and finally take some decisive action. "The language adopted on education is an exercise in bureaucratic timidity", says Kailash Satyarthi, a member of the GCE’s Steering Committee.

While the UN General Assembly in June acknowledged the fact that 8 billion US dollars are needed to provide free and quality education for all, it in no way made clear how those resources will be raised, which body will take the necessary initiatives and who will monitor the process. "Manna from heaven is no more", said a Campaign spokesman, "so there should have been made binding commitments on this."

The GCE is worried about the omission that gender equality in education should be reached in 2005, as was underlined by the recent Beijing Review in New York. This and some of the phrasing in the 'Geneva' document created the risk of setbacks, compared to the outcome of the Dakar Forum.

The next steps in the Campaign

The GCE Steering Committee meeting held 29 June in Geneva agreed, in addition to the follow up of Dakar and Geneva, to set the focus in the next six months on the following events: the July G8 meeting in Japan, International Literacy Day (8 September), the annual World Bank/IMF meeting (mid-September in Prague), and World Teachers’ Day (5 October). On that occasion, the Steering Committee will meet in South Africa and celebrate WTD 2000 with our colleagues there.

Until the end of 2002, the formulation, implementation and monitoring of National Action Plans will also be ensured by the Campaign, its partners, national coalitions and their members.

Two new interim coordinators will be appointed for a semester, and all secretariat activities will be conducted from Brussels (Belgium) for the next two years.
 

 

REGIONS

Africa

South Africa hosts EI Seminar on Health Education and HIV/AIDS/STD prevention

Some 26 participants from 8 member organisations in Southern Africa registered for the 10-15 July 2000 seminar organised by Education International in parallel with the XIII International AIDS Conference held in Durban (South Africa). The EI seminar was organised with the support of UNESCO and FNV (Netherlands) in cooperation with WHO, UNAIDS and EDC (USA). Some of the issues on the agenda were Breaking the silence: Meeting the challenges and implementing school health programmes that prevent HIV infection and related discrimination; Partnerships with Ministries of Education and Health; the South Africa experience; the introduction and evaluation of an EI manual; trade union action plans, etc. The latest UNAIDS report predicts that half the teenage boys living across southern Africa will die of AIDS and notes that in some sub-Saharan countries many teachers are infected by the HIV virus.  “The global response is still just a fraction of what it could be,” said Peter Piot, the executive director of the UNAIDS program.

Effective Schools and Teachers for rural Africa

The EI Africa office participated in a three-day workshop organised by the World Bank on the thematic of Effective Schools and Teachers, from 30 May to 1 June 2000. The program addresses issues in rural Africa where the majority of the African population lives, and where neglect, illiteracy, disease and poverty are often prevalent. “Education in Africa faces many challenges but none is so urgent and pressing than the limited access and ‘poor’ quality which is in most cases characteristic of schooling in parts of rural Africa” commented EI coordinator Emmanuel Fatoma. The workshop objective was to draw on the experience of civil society organisations and share knowledge gleaned from academic study to better the World Bank’s understanding of the most effective policies and practices, with a view of applying that knowledge to the process of educational reforms and considering effective approaches open to governments, NGOs, donors and lending agencies. “It was indeed encouraging to know how much people are now learning about the imperative need to involve teachers, their unions and other stake holders in the educational reform process, management and evaluation” commented our colleague.
 

ASIA

Third EI Asia/Pacific Regional Conference addresses Quality Public Education for All

The third Education International Asia/Pacific Regional Conference under the theme Quality Public Education for All was held 27-29 April 2000 in New Delhi (India). Mr. J. G. Patil, Minister of State Human Resources Development in the Indian government, opened the Conference. 135 delegates and 123 observers from 45 teachers’ organisations in 23 countries participated in the Conference. Out of the total 258 participants, 84 were women.

Dr. K. Venkatasubramanian, member of the Union Planning Commission, New Delhi, delivered a keynote address. Mr. Yuji Kawakami President of the APR Committee, Mr. S. Eswaran General Secretary of the All India Primary Teachers’ Federation, Mr. Fred van Leeuwen General Secretary of Education International, Mr. Noriyuki Suzuki ICFTU-APRO General Secretary, and Mr. John Woodall from the ILO-ROAP also addressed the Conference.

During the Conference, round tables on Quality Public Education for All, Globalization and Information Technology in Education, Child Labor and Education for a Culture of Peace were held. The round tables made recommendations in form of the resolutions to the Conference for adoption.

A four-day woman’s round table on girls’ education, held prior to the Conference, recommended four resolutions and the one-day Indigenous Education forum recommended one resolution to the Conference.

The Asia/Pacific Regional Report, focusing on the issues and activities undertaken by EI, was presented to the Conference for discussion and adoption. The report among other issues commented on the economic crisis, and education, trade and human rights situation in the region, gender equality questions, child labour problems and the development cooperation activities undertaken in the region.

Some of the positive outcomes in the Region noted were

•  Unionization of teachers of Korea, Indonesia and Thailand
•  Child Labor projects in Nepal, Philippines, Bangladesh and India
•  Japan Teachers’ Association’s assistance to Mongolian Child Labor project.
•  Role of EI in promoting educational activities responding to the changing needs and translating resolutions into actions.

Participants from Korea, New Zealand, Vanuatu, Mongolia, Sri Lanka, India and Nepal reported on the effects of structural adjustment on education in their countries.

The Conference adopted some 20 resolutions –on topics mentioned above and about local situations.

The Conference also made amendments to the EIAP Regional Bylaw article 5 (c) as follows:
the Regional Committee shall be composed of fifteen members as follows: Chairperson (1), Vice-Chairpersons (1 man and 1 woman), One man each from SAARC, ASEAN, Pacific and North Asia sub-regions, One woman each from SAARC, ASEAN, Pacific and North Asia sub-regions and open seats (4). No affiliate shall have more than one seat on the Regional Committee except in case of being elected to the EI Executive Board.

The Conference elected the EIAP Regional Committee for 2000-2003 (see our next issue).

New numbers for EI’s Kuala Lumpur office: phone: +60 3 2284 2140, +60 3 2284 2142,
and fax: +60 3 2284 7395. The E-mail address remains:  eduint@pc.jaring.my
 
 

EUROPE

75 participants attended EI/Europe’s First Round Table on Quality Education for All

The NUT (National Union of Teachers) hosted Education International/Europe’s first European Round Table on the issue of quality in education on 8 and 9 May 2000 in London (United Kingdom). Élie Jouen, EI Deputy General Secretary, welcomed four speakers from Croatia, the USA, France and Denmark, and NUT General Secretary Doug McAvoy. Some 75 trade unionists from 23 countries represented EI European affiliates. Two observers from the USA also attended the event. Various themes related to quality in education (see previous Monitor) were presented by guest speakers and discussed in group work.  Additional information is available in NUT’s The Teacher (June 2000) posted at: http://www.teachers.org.uk/teacher . A more detailed report, including proposals for future activities, was prepared for the EI European Committee.

5th EI Baltic Sea Conference wants a better future for all

This year’s EI Baltic Sea Conference brought together some 50 representatives of EI member unions in the Nordic countries, the Baltic States, Russia, Poland and Germany. Starting in Helsinki on the same day as the Education for All Forum in Dakar, the conference gave special attention to the role of those countries in support of the objectives of the Global Campaign (GCE). Participants noted the active role of the Nordic countries in development cooperation, and called for debt relief for the poorest developing countries.

Proceeding from Helsinki to Stockholm on a Baltic ferry, the conference addressed the new challenges facing educators in the 21st century, including the impact of new technologies, the knowledge society and life-long learning. Lively exchanges were held with the Directors General of Education in Finland and Sweden. The conference was combined with a meeting of EI higher education member organizations.

With a focus on Quality Public Education (see Monitor Vol. 7 No 3), the program featured guest speakers and several workshops. The meeting was opened aboard the m/s Silja Symphony by Pekka Koshinen, Vice President of the host organisation OAJ (Finland), who talked about developments in Baltic Sea unions’ co-operation, quoting an old Finnish saying that ‘there is no sense going beyond the sea to fish’. “What this proverb means is that all the necessary information, support, assistance and expertise can generally be provided by the neighbours and the immediate surroundings, he said, adding: “In fact we are now living up to this proverb by learning and sailing over the Baltic, which is the home sea of all of us here today.”

Liisa Jaakonsaari, MP, Chairwoman of the Foreign Affairs of the Finnish Parliament, reviewed changes in Europe and the rest of the world, calling for cooperation and collaboration based on the concept of partnership “for everything, everyone of us is interlinked more than ever before.”

Jukka Sarjala (National Board of Education) talked about promising developments and persisting problems in the world of education; the need for equality and quality; education policies in Finland concerning information and communications technology, with an accent on the importance of teacher training: “Every teacher is a key person”, he concluded. EI Senior Consultant Bob Harris presented the Global Campaign and OECD work on life-long education and explained EI’s efforts to achieve equal opportunities through public education and identified various issues: life-long learning, equity and access for women, the digital gap, conditions of teachers, and the role of education unions in mobilizing for a better future for all.

LATIN AMERICA

¿What’s new in Latin America?

The May 2000 issue of Carta Informativa (Vol 3, n°6), the EI Latin American office bulletin, reports on the Global Campaign for Education, the Global Action Week and events which took place last March in San José (Costa Rica): the 4th IEAL Regional Conference, a Round Table for women teachers, and the ORIT/ICFTU/EI meeting on life-long learning. The 16 page publication provides final declarations and conclusions as well as photos of the newly-elected Regional Committee (see our next issue) and other participants from all Latin-American affiliates. General Secretary Fred van Leeuwen and his Deputy Élie Jouen from the EI Brussels Head Office took part in these activities. Other news items cover education reforms in Nicaragua and Bolivia. For a copy (in Spanish), contact Chief Regional Coordinator Combertty Rodriguez García in Costa Rica at educint@sol.racsa.co.cr Fax: +1 506 283 7378.

The fourth Regional Conference of Education International in Latin America was held 20-22 March 2000. EI General Secretary Fred van Leeuwen opened the meeting with an appeal for the Global Campaign for education and for the promotion of quality public schooling for all. Member organisations analysed the professional and labour situation in the region, characterised by a general backward movement in education, by the process of state reform, neoliberal economic plans and attempts to privatise education.
In its conclusions, the Conference: reaffirmed that the state must guarantee lifelong learning that is free, public, of high quality, non-denominational, without discrimination or gender inequity,? recognized that educators have a strategic responsibility toward society and that “[they] must educate for change” if we hope for a better life and reiterated EI Latin America’s commitment to the principles and values that gave birth to Education International.

The Round Table for the region’s women teachers took place prior to the Conference (17 and 18 March 2000). It was a great opportunity to exchange experiences, to learn about trade union actions in favor of gender equity, and an occasion for collective thinking on themes such as health education, special education on reproductive rights and HIV/AIDS prevention at school. The Round Table shared the preoccupation expressed by the January 2000 Executive Board about the spread of AIDS and recommended the inclusion of these issues in training workshops for workers in education. The participants also proposed a regional network of women in the education sector.
 

EI/ICFTU-ORIT regional meeting on lifelong learning supports public education

EI unions and ICFTU-ORIT (Inter American Regional Organisation of Workers) affiliates met for the first time in San José (Costa Rica) on 23 and 24 March 2000 to debate the role the trade union movement must play, in cooperation with civil society, for change and the formulation of public policies concerning education among other subjects. In the final declaration, the participants committed themselves to promote public education, a central element in the establishment of democratic states in the region, and to contribute to the development of lifelong learning. They also stated that workers should be able to intervene in the reorientation of educational systems as well as in other social, cultural, political, and economic projects.

The trade union centers of the American continent expressed their support to the Global Campaign for quality public education for all initiated by EI and decided to take part in last April’s Action Week and other ensuing Campaign activities.
 

  BITS & BYTES...According to the ILO, 90 per cent of the world’s working-age population is not covered by pension schemes capable of providing adequate retirement income. Many schemes are badly managed, and problems are foreseen in coping with ageing populations and diversifying risk. See: Social Security Pensions: Development and reform, ILO, Geneva, 2000. 92-2-110859-7. Price 120 Swiss francs. http://www.ilo.org...

Starvation kills an estimated 24,000 people, most of them children, each day. As suggested in an earlier Monitor, you can still DONATE FREE FOOD through http://www.thehungersite.com  In less than one year, this site has collected 37 million donations totalling approximately five million kilograms of food!

Another site maintained by the US Association for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) collects funds in the same manner http://www.peaceforall.com  The donations offered by the sponsors go to refugee relief and peace promotion....

The May 2000 session of the UNESCO Executive Board authorized Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura to convene the 46th International Conference on Education (ICE) in 2001 and to prepare, on the basis of the results of the Dakar World Forum, a draft proposal and plan of action for a United Nations literacy decade....

The Dakar Framework for Action Education For All: Meeting Our Collective Commitments  adopted by the World Education Forum Dakar, Senegal, 26-28 April 2000 is posted at http://www2.unesco.org/wef/en-leadup/dakfram.shtm....

One of the highlights of the International Year for the Culture of  Peace will be the presentation of up to 100 million signatures of Manifesto 2000 to the United Nations in September. You can still collect signatures with the material provided in EI’s kit Education Unions Working for a Culture of Peace or sign on Internet at: http://www.unesco.org/manifesto2000...

The NGO-UNESCO Liaison Committee is organising a symposium on The Culture of Peace: An Idea in Action as we are about to enter the International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World (2001-2010). In the meantime, don’t forget the Olympic Peace Truce campaign adopted by EI’s Second World Congress (see chapter 5 of the ‘Peace kit’).

An example of activities being prepared is an international festival of folk dances to take place in Algeria. Teachers and other Algerian citizens are campaigning for a truce during the Olympic Games taking place 15 September to 1 October 2000 in Australia. Another initiative for the IYCP can be found at http://www.nobelweb.org, and several more at http://www3.unesco.org/iycp/uk/uk_cad_int.htm

Changing the world step by step, more than 4500 groups from 155 countries are now involved in the World March of Women which will climax on 17 October 2000, International Day for the eradication of poverty. Women form the majority of the 1.5 billion people who live on US$1. per day or less. They are also the main victims of war, violence, rape, and sex trafficking. For more information, contact your national organisation or visit http://www.ffq.qc.ca/marche2000

The September 2000 issue of the Education International Magazine carries a dossier on Academic Freedom and reports on major events and recent international meetings.  Find regularly updated news about education, human and trade union rights on http://www.ei-ie.org .....
 

 

GOVERNANCE  EI Officers: looking forward to 2001 World Congress The Officers of Education International (President, Vice-presidents, General Secretary) met on 6 and 7 June 2000 at the Brussels Head Office to review a number of items and prepare the October EI Executive Board meeting. Future developments of the Global Campaign for Education, Education for a Culture of Peace/EI’s World Conference on Human Rights and the 2001 World Congress (theme, agenda, budget) were discussed. The Finance Committee examined EI Financial Reports for 1999 as well as the Budget for 2000 and other related matters. Steep changes in exchange rates required adjustments of EI’s expenses for the Congress. These issues and others -such as the review of EI structures, the concept of public education, the recruitment of members, relations with other organisations- will be on the agenda of the next Executive Board meeting scheduled from 24 to 26 October 2000. The Officers will meet again on 23 October, with nine months to go before the Third EI World Congress in Kathmandu (Nepal).

 
 

  World Teachers’ Day 2000: Teachers Expanding Horizons

UNESCO and Education International will celebrate the 7th World Teachers’ Day under the   theme Teachers Expanding Horizons. For EI, this year’s theme recognizes the work done by   education personnel to promote understanding and to build positively on cultural diversity.

Teacher 2000. One of the highlights of this year’s WTD will be TEACHER2000, a series of cultural activities organised by EI affiliate Opetusalan Ammattijärjestö (OAJ) comprising innovative open air events and performances in the centre of Helsinki (Finland) on 5 October, a festival of films about teachers on 6 October, and a cultural teacher event -with lectures, workshops and artistic & social activities- on 7 October. More information in English on http://www.oaj.fi/ope2000 or contact marjatta.melto@oaj.fi  A special invitation has been extended to OECD zone unions participating in their annual EI Round table, taking place 8-10 October 2000 in the Finnish capital to discuss Education and Technology – Stakes and Challenges for the public education sector.

WTD commemorative stamps. EI has just been informed that the Philippine Postal Corporation issued a stamp for WTD 1999 marking the Birth Centennial of Professor Juan F. Nakpil (University of the Philippines) and that Mali's Office national des postes (ONP) also released four postage stamps with various views of teachers and classrooms. This now brings the total for 1999 to 19 commemorative WTD stamps from six countries. Four countries have already announced issues for October 2000. Let us know if your postal authorities plan to honour your members on 5 October 2000, 2001, or later.

These commemorative stamps can be seen on our ‘Education & Philately’ web pages at http://www.ei-ie.org/phila.htm along with a unique collection of stamps on education and several Internet links with suggestions for teaching and learning through stamps. At least 50 major philatelic and educational web sites have already created links to this EI initiative. Members can participate in the development of this site by suggesting new links and by sending us stamps from your country on the topic of education.

• Report of the World Round Table on Vocational Education and Training - EI, July 2000, 75 pages. Available in English, French and Spanish.
• Global Campaign for Education -  EI, June 2000, 12 pages. Special dossier of Education International’s quarterly magazine. Available in English, French and Spanish.
• Development Cooperation Volume 3 – EI, June 2000, 12 pages. Available in English, French and Spanish.
• European Lobbying Kit – Building an EI trade union and human rights network. EI, May 2000, 80 pages. Available in English and French.
• Report of the Second International Conference on Higher Education and Research (Budapest, 23-25 September 1999). EI, March 2000, 52 pages. Available in English and French.
• Education of Girls. EI, February 2000. Available in English, French and Spanish.

OECD’s Education at a Glance 2000 Edition focuses on education and skills

This year’s edition of Education at a Glance reports internationally comparable data on lifelong learning and its impact on society and the economy. It also provides new insights into the financing of education, with a focus on public subsidies and transfers for education and their beneficiaries. New indicators also reflect on international student mobility, participation in skill improvement among the employed population and students with special educational needs. Some of the indicators cover almost two-thirds of the world population. The data underlying the OECD education indicators are accessible at:  http://www.oecd.org/els/stats/els_stat.htm
Education at a Glance – 2000 Edition. ISBN 92-64-17199-1, 380 pages. Price:  FF275.

Educational measurement examined in UNESCO’s Education for All, Status and Trends

The fifth issue of Education for All, Status and Trends, examines the reasons for the growing global interest in educational measurement, lays out some of the central findings of the movement and then takes up the all-important question of how assessment of student outcomes can be put to the service of promoting quality education for all children. EFA Forum, May 2000. ISSN 1020-0908, 72 pages. Available in English, French and Spanish at http://www.education.unesco.org/efa  Printed copies can be ordered from the EFA Forum at UNESCO’s headquarters, 7 place de Fontenoy, 75352 Paris 07 SP, France.

EURYDICE publication on Higher Education Reform in Europe

Two decades of reform in higher education in Europe: 1980 onwards. EURYDICE, February 2000, 194 pages. ISBN-2-87116-292-1. Available in English and French at http://www.eurydice.org

UNESCO’s World Education Report 2000: towards education for all throughout life

The fifth edition of the biennial series focuses on the right to education as proclaimed in Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
World Education Report 2000 - The right to education: towards education for all throughout life.
UNESCO, April 2000, 178 p., ISBN 92-3-103729-3, price 150 FF/22.87  euros. See: http://www.unesco.org

ILO’s World Labour Report 2000 proposes social protection for all

The International Labour Office revealed that seventy-five percent of the 150 million people unemployed around the world lack any unemployment insurance protection. ILO’s World Labour Report 2000: Income Security and Social Protection in a Changing World says that even the world’s richest countries in Europe and North America reduced protection provided by unemployment insurance in the 1990s. “Globalization and the liberalisation of trade has translated into lower incomes and heightened insecurity” notes the Office.
World Labour Report 2000: Income Security and Social Protection in a Changing World. ILO, Geneva, June 2000, ISBN 92-2-110831-7, price 45 Swiss francs. Contact:  http://www.ilo.org/publns pubvente@ilo.org
 
The Face of Decent Work: new ILO video on occupational health and safety

The International Labour Office (ILO) has produced a video called The Face of Decent Work as a
discussion/education tool in addressing occupational health and safety, and workers' rights in general. The video runs around 20 minutes and explains how decent working conditions, protection of workers and workers' rights are fundamental to decent work anywhere in the world. If you would like a free copy of the video, which comes with some suggestions for use, please send your request by E-mail to graham@ilo.org indicating the version you want (English, French Le visage du travail décent or Spanish El rostro del Trabajo decente), the format (VHS PAL, SECAM, NTSC, etc.) and your name/mailing address.
 

The EI Monthly Monitor is published in English, Spanish and French (total printed: 2,780 copies) by the Education International Information Department.
New address: 5, boulevard du Roi Albert II (8th floor), 1210 Brussels, Belgium. Tel: +32 2 224 0611  Fax: +32 2 224 0606
E-mail: headoffice@ei-ie.org  Posted on Internet: http://www.ei-ie.org

Formed in 1993 out of the International Federation of Free Teachers' Unions (IFFTU) and the World Confederation of Organizations of the Teaching Profession (WCOTP), EI is an umbrella for some 296 national organizations representing some 24 million education workers in 153 countries and territories. EI is associated with the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions.

Editor: Patrice Vézina, with the assistance of the EI team.
Secretariat: Anabel Vallines
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ISSN: 1027-2194