Ei-iE

As COVID-19 cases increased in Palestine, the General Union of Palestinian Teachers, in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, led a project on e-learning. This has assumed greater significance as schools will not reopen in August as had been previously planned.

In Kenya, the Universities Academic Staff Union has taken the vice-chancellors of two universities to court over cuts in lecturers’ salaries, which had been previously suspended by a judge.

Teachers are all scrambling onto remote learning (or distance learning, or continuous learning, or crisis learning, or the nomenclature of your area) to support and stay connected with their students during this isolating time. The unexpected nature of the events around COVID-19 and the different levels and speeds of responsiveness...

Representatives of French teachers’ unions have impressed upon public authorities the need to establish a real social dialogue to ensure high-quality education for all during and after the current global pandemic. In particular, they point to the statement adopted by the Education International European Region, ETUCE; which makes recommendations for...

Leading progressive thinkers and union leaders came together in a joint Education International-Public Services International online event to discuss the post-COVID-19 future and how to shape it. Union leaders from around the world were addressed by high-profile keynote speakers at the Democracy Conference on 29 June.

A German education union has cautioned against fake news and societal fragmentation and called for the inclusion of civic education in vocational training and further education.

Education unionists in Kurdistan have highlighted their demands to on border security and salary payments along with the impact of COVID-19 on union elections and teachers’ health and safety.

The Government of Zimbabwe announced that schools would reopen, already for examinations in late June and move forward in steps in the following weeks to re-open schools despite risks of an intensification of COVID-19 infections. Education trade unions challenged the re-openings as unsafe and premature and called for social dialogue...

Education International and Public Services International have joined forces for a high-profile conference that brings together leading progressive thinkers and union leaders to discuss the post-Covid19 future and how to shape it. The online event will take place on 29 June.

Lebanon is a country with a population of 4.5 million and is home to a large number of refugees. Over two million Syrian refugees are now living in Lebanon, in addition to half a million of Palestinian refugees. More than 52% of the Syrian refugees in Lebanon are children, and...

COVID-19 has exposed the vulnerabilities and structural inequities of our societies. The most vulnerable, amongst them refugee and displaced populations, have been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and related lockdown measures.

Alarming reports of an exponential increase of gender-based violence have emerged from all regions of the world, since full or partial lockdowns were imposed in most countries over the last three months in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Education unions have mobilised to combat this worrying trend.

The Bahrain Teachers’ Association has made proposals regarding the reopening of schools and education institutions for the next academic year, 2020-2021, stressing seven measures to be taken.

The Gambia Teachers Union has been proactive in its advocacy and activities in response to the COVID-19 epidemic as it turns its focus to guaranteeing a safe return to schools and quality education for all.

In Italy, the first COVID-19 cases were discovered at the end of January. It was another month before the spread of the virus forced us to suspend face-to-face lessons. At the beginning of March, teachers, in lockdown at home, began distance teaching, while administrative, technical and cleaning staff still had...

Education International echoes the call of education workers from around the world: national governments must ensure their protection through evidence-based public health measures in the transition back to school. Read about how the global union federation responds to this call.

According to the ILO, there are over 150 million child labourers worldwide. Conscious of this challenge and keen to promote the right to a quality education for all, EI members in thirteen countries have initiated programmes to eradicate child labour with the support of EI and its partners. While there...

The Argentinian government and CTERA, a member organisation of Education International, have signed an important collective agreement aimed at restructuring work in education during the lockdown and combating the work overload imposed by teleworking.