Education is a human right and a public good. The growing commercialisation and privatisation in and of education is the greatest threat to achieving free quality public education for all.
Our #StudentsBeforeProfit campaign advocates against the expansion of profit making in education.
If there was free, quality state education throughout the world, the existence of private schools would probably not pose much of a problem. Unfortunately, this is not the case, and the expansion of the private education system poses a big risk to universal schooling and quality education, foundations of an...
Read more The toxic influence of the private school system
Education technology companies do not usually sponsor global sports tournaments. The brand logo of Byju’s, however, is currently displaying in football grounds in Qatar, after becoming an official FIFA World Cup sponsor . But the most highly-valued EdTech company on the planet is also carrying a lot of recent reputational...
Read more Sportswashing edtech: how a World Cup corporate sponsor is playing with education
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.
Read more Teachers, not computers, are the beating heart of education
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...
Read more Public-Private Partnerships at no cost to the State & to Society – Is this possible?
Faced with an education timebomb, in September, Presidents and Prime Ministers will gather in New York for an unprecedented Transforming Education Summit . Never before have Heads of State been convened to focus their attention exclusively on education, but this is now truly urgent as progress towards globally agreed education...
Read more Transforming the financing of 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...
Read more Ghana: Campaign against privatisation and commercialisation of education
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...
Read more Teachers around the world mobilise to transform education. Join us!
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.
Read more Nigeria: Teachers call for more investment in public education to combat growing privatisation
Stop putting teachers at risk and advance balanced international reforms that empower educators and researchers worldwide to adapt and choose materials for quality education and research.
Read more Demanding progress for education and research at the World Intellectual Property Organization
Privatisation, the importance of State funding in public education, and campaigns to combat the privatisation and commercialisation in and of education all came under the spotlight at a recent online forum. Organised by Education International’s Africa Region (EIRAF) office, the webinar focused on the need to resist privatisation and defend...
Read more Africa: Educators united to resist privatisation and defend quality public education
Education International brought together over 100 leading researchers from education unions across the globe to explore how research can underpin union action for quality education.
Read more From research to global action for quality public education
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...
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...
This report is an initial mapping of education privatisation trends in the Caribbean region and will form the basis for further analysis and union action. It draws attention to favourable conditions for privatisation across the region, including a chronic underfunding of public education systems.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, a state of emergency engulfed higher education. The crisis of mass campus closures and a rapid ‘pivot’ to online learning became the context for attempts by private actors and commercial organisations to reconfigure the sector.
This report presents the findings of a study conducted in Kenya, focusing on the access and use of teaching, and learning materials from a copyright perspective. The study aimed to identify the teaching materials used in class, strategies to access them, teacher’s knowledge of copyright laws, copyright-related challenges that teachers...
The 43rd meeting of the World Intellectual Property Organisation’s (WIPO) Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) concluded with major wins for the rights of teachers and researchers to adapt and choose materials for quality education and research. Education International participated together with member organisations CONADU (Argentina), AUSPS (Fiji),...
Read more Great steps forward for teaching and research at the World Intellectual Property Organisation
We know from WIPO’s and our own research that copyright legislation is inadequate for education today. It creates barriers to ensure the right to education as well as curtails teachers’ academic freedom to choose and adapt materials including for cross-border collaboration and exchange.
Education International (EI) welcomes the decision from the World Bank’s private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), to stop investing in the for-profit chain of schools, Bridge International Academies. The IFC had invested more than US$ 10 million in Bridge International Academies operations in Africa and supported the company's...
Read more World Bank to exit investment in for-profit school chain Bridge International Academies
In a recent research paper, Carmen Ludwig and Edward Webster examined the role of global unions to contest the use and abuse of digital technology through transnational activism in two African contexts. Action included work with Education International’s Global Response against the privatisation of education.
Read more Challenging global tech giants: the critical role of Global labour
A study for the ETUCE, EI’s European region, showed the impact of market ideology and management practices and privatisation on industrial relations and social dialogue. In addition to looking at the evolution of EU policy in the past decade, researchers studied different methods and results of industrial relations in Francophone...
Read more Europe: Study on industrial relations and privatisation
The National Teachers Association (NTA) insists that reemployment rights of public retirees in Taiwan should be respected but their right to a full pension should be limited.
Read more Taiwan: Education union denounces government for allowing profiteering by retirees
Educational technologies have become central to higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic. The state of emergency in tertiary systems worldwide has enabled private edtech companies, global tech businesses, and the networks of promoters backing them, to define the post-pandemic future of the university.
Read more “Post-pandemic reform of higher education: Market-first or purpose-first digital transformation?”, by Ben Williamson and Anna Hogan.
The National Teachers’ Association (NTA) and the Taiwan Higher Education Union (THE Union) have accused private schools of appropriating publicly funded property as job insecurity among teachers in the sector increases.
Read more Taiwan: Private schools profit from government help, embezzle money, and leave teachers jobless
The Taiwanese government is widening the social gap and encouraging the privatisation of the early childhood education (ECE) sector. That’s according to the National Teachers’ Association (NTA) in its yearly summary.
Read more Taiwan: Education union highlights unequal conditions as it campaigns for quality education
At a recent meeting, the Committee of the Education International’s Arab Countries Cross Regional Structure reaffirmed their commitment to fight education privatisation and defend democracy in the region. Committee members reported on the challenges faced in their national settings, discussed recent union activities, and strategised for future action and campaigns.
Read more Arab educators tackle diverse challenges to education and teachers in their region
New research commissioned by Education International warns against the rampant privatisation of Moroccan schools, stressing that it has not improved learning outcomes, but has created a ‘multi-speed’ society.
Read more Morocco: Report highlights inequities caused by increased privatisation of education
Aspects and Trends of Emerging Privatization
Read more Public education in Greece
By Anna Hogan, Greg Thompson, Bob Lingard and Mesake Dakuidreketi.
Read more Commercial Activity in Pacific Education
Today Education International (EI) affiliates in Greece launched a study revealing the growing trend towards privatisation in public education, following years of austerity and poor funding. The report marks the beginning of a regional strategy to fight privatisation and commercialisation in education in Southern Europe.
Read more Greece: Report warns of emerging privatisation in public education
Nepal is grappling with a severe teacher shortage that threatens the future of its public education system. Despite the 2015 federal Constitution guaranteeing free and compulsory education, there is a critical shortage of over 65,000 teachers, particularly at lower secondary and secondary levels, to maintain national student-teacher ratios. Furthermore, 12.6...
Read more Addressing the teacher shortage crisis in Nepal: A call for action
Education International fully supports the thousands of teachers and members of its affiliates in Nepal demonstrating to demand a respected and valued teaching profession in the face of a new law that seeks to curb their trade union rights.
Read more Nepal: Massive mobilisation of teachers denounce education law which aims to restrict their rights
Education leaders and representatives from civil society came together at a three-day capacity building workshop in Nepal with a pressing agenda: to address the urgent need for increased domestic funding in the country's public education system. Their primary objective was to strengthen public education financing and advocate for the implementation...
Read more Go Public! Advocating for progressive taxation to fund public education in Nepal
Nepal’s school education system consists of at least one year of pre-primary education (also known as early childhood education and development or ECED), eight years of basic (grades 1-8) and four years of secondary (grades 9-12) education.
Over 140 union delegates from South Asian countries including India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal came together to reflect and learn from each other to play an active role in transforming education in South Asia.
Read more Educators in South Asia go public to fund education
In a significant move to strengthen Nigeria's education sector, the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) launched the Education International (EI) “Go Public! Fund Education” campaign in their country. This initiative aims to secure increased funding for public education and its personnel, while addressing the chronic underfunding that has plagued the...
Read more Nigeria: Education union and government gear up to go public and fund education
Educators from around the world expressed their concerns about the global teacher shortage, sharing firsthand experiences which highlight the detrimental implications for their classrooms and school communities. Their testimonies were part of consultations organised by Education International to bring the voices of educators to the UN High-Level Panel on the...
Read more Elevating Teachers' Voices to the High-Level Panel on the Teaching Profession
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.
Read more Nigeria: Union deeply advocating free quality public education
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.
Read more Nigeria: Teachers call for more investment in public education to combat growing privatisation
Education International (EI) welcomes the decision from the World Bank’s private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), to stop investing in the for-profit chain of schools, Bridge International Academies. The IFC had invested more than US$ 10 million in Bridge International Academies operations in Africa and supported the company's...
Read more World Bank to exit investment in for-profit school chain Bridge International Academies
On Friday 3 October, Education International Latin America (EILA) commemorated World Teachers’ Day (WTD) with the participation of representatives from Peru, Costa Rica, Argentina, Colombia, Honduras, Ecuador and Paraguay.
Read more Peru: Latin America commemorates World Teachers’ Day
Education International affiliates from across the region came together to coordinate their work on the new global campaign and to urge governments to invest more in public education in their countries.
Read more Go Public! Fund Education: Global campaign launched in Latin America
In response to the Peruvian government's ruling on labour issues, which allows private companies to regulate employment in the context of the COVID-19 crisis, trade unions have launched a campaign to demand the repeal of Emergency Decree 038-2020, which authorises the complete suspension of work, effectively undermining collective bargaining.
Read more Peru: Threat to Labour Rights
The teaching profession is traditionally known to be a noble profession and a driver for all sectors and industries we have in the world of work. The profession is highly valued but greatly ignored by many African governments: they want quality teaching but take a short-sighted approach and are unwilling...
Read more Investing in quality education and teachers: an African perspective on EI’s upcoming World Congress
“We will use the experience provided by the Uganda National Teachers’ Union (UNATU) as a starting point, making sure that we are now going to convince the government to cooperate with us.” That is how Garang Deng Kuol Athian, chairman of the National Teachers Union South Sudan (NTUSS), described the...
Read more South Sudan: A young union strengthened and emboldened by South-South cooperation
From India to Senegal, from Albania to Uganda and Mali, Education International (EI) members raised their voices in support of quality education to commemorate World Day Against Child Labour on June 12th.
Read more Inclusive, quality education: the key to ending child labour
Education International, the global federation of educators, strongly condemns the horrific attack on Lhubiriha secondary school in Mpondwe, Uganda and mourns in solidarity with the families and communities impacted by this devastating act of violence.
Read more Uganda: Education International condemns the horrific attack on Lhubiriha Secondary school
Working as a teacher in an emergency situation is challenging but it can also be very rewarding. The opportunity to be a positive influence on my students, watching a student learn, grow and become a good person, knowing that I can be part of this process gives me a wonderful...
Read more Overwhelmed, undervalued, and underpaid: Governments must act to support teachers in contexts of displacement
The Teacher-led Learning Circles for Formative Assessment (T3LFA) project facilitated professional learning and development to advance teachers’ leadership of educational improvement with a focus on increasing confidence in, understanding of, and use of student focused formative assessment practices for enhanced student learning. The dual focus on both teachers’ development and...
In a world facing a global teacher shortage, where the privatisation and commercialisation of education undermine the value of public service, Education International’s Go Public! Fund Education campaign stands as a vital movement. Led by the teaching profession, it is working to protect and strengthen public education across Latin America...
Read more Uruguay: An urgent call to defend public education
Unlike primary school teachers involved in the Teacher-led Learning Circles for Formative Assessment (T3LFA) project in its six other countries, the 20 teachers participating Uruguay have been involved in an accelerated programme of Professional Learning and Development (PLD).
Read more Breaking boundaries: Teacher-led Learning Circles in Uruguay persist to develop promising formative assessment practice
In Uruguay, student learning at primary school level is assessed in different ways. Traditional summative practices coexist with practices aligned with the concept of formative assessment or the idea of assessing for learning. Academic freedom and solid teacher training in Uruguay – teachers are either graduates from official or accredited...
Read more Formative assessment: an opportunity to make progress on professionalisation