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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...

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...

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.

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.

Education International has launched a COVID-19 Solidarity Fund to strengthen education trade unions following the COVID-19 pandemic. The solidarity of many member organisations has already provided contributions, and requests to provide support for union activities have been received from other affiliated unions.

Many economists predict that the COVID-19 pandemic will produce the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Policies and the details of their implementation will not only determine if economic recovery is successful, but if that recovery accelerates or slows the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals...

Ten years ago, Education International and the OECD began co-hosting with various countries an altogether unique, (somewhat unlikely) but critically necessary convening of ministers of education and heads of teachers’ unions. The purpose was to support an informed and honest policy dialogue between and among elected representatives of the teaching...

Organised teachers in Cameroon have warned the government that a resumption of classes on 1 June carried out without sufficient preliminary planning would put the educational community in danger. They have especially insisted on reduced class sizes and the provision of masks and hand sanitizer.

Schools that had been closed since 20 March reopened on 1 June, but the status and safety of thousands of teachers are still in danger.

In Kenya, education unions have joined with civil society organisations in presenting public authorities with recommendations and steps to be taken to guarantee a safe reopening of schools and education institutions.

In Brazil, the Confederação Nacional dos Trabalhadores em Educação (CNTE) has issued a manifesto of measures to safeguard public health and workers’ lives.

In Malaysia, the Sarawak Teachers’ Union has been responding to issues such as remote teaching and learning, students’ mental health, exams and gender inequality, all arising out of school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Regional Committee of Education International Latin America (EILA) has prepared a declaration regarding the safe reopening of schools in the region.

The member organisations of Education International in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have collectively informed the public authorities of the six conditions they insist must be met before schools and teaching institutions are reopened.

The American Federation of Teachers has released a detailed road map that, in the absence of a COVID-19 vaccine, charts a path to safely and responsibly reopen school buildings and other institutions crucial to the well-being and economic vitality of our communities.