President Susan Hopgood led an EI delegation to the 60th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. The meetings, which took place in New York City from 14-24 March, addressed women’s empowerment in relation to sustainable development. The full labour delegation included 150 women union leaders from 34 countries. Susan Hopgood joined a high-level panel of experts to discuss gender, education and financing issues. And Dianne Woloschuk, EI Executive Board member and Chair of the EI Status of Women Committee, took part in a panel addressing partnerships for gender-responsive implementation of the 2030 Agenda.
EI’s response to privatisation and commercialisation was the focus of a conference of EI affiliates in OECD countries held in Rome, Italy, from 4-5 April. Some 200 participants from 28 countries took part in the event. The growing impact of the Global Education Reform Movement (GERM), the establishment of international trade agreements, and the alarming levels of tax avoidance were among the many issues addressed. In addition, the conference also discussed the role of international education corporations as well as the plans of a group of EI affiliates to hold one such corporation, Pearson, accountable for its high-stakes testing products and its support for education privatisation and commercialisation. A key plank of the affiliates’ strategy was to mobilise their members to support a shareholder resolution and action coinciding with the Pearson annual general meeting on 29 April in London. EI’s Pearson Stakeholders Report and related correspondence sent to the Pearson CEO, John Fallon, can be found here. The conference presentations can be downloaded here.
“The politics of privatisation in education: new governance, new policy networks, new knowledge brokers” was the subject of a symposium organised by New York University on 12-14 April. The event brought together key scholars who have conducted extensive research on the role of multinational corporations, privatisation initiatives, and policies that impact public education in the US and globally. A series of panels and working groups discussed cutting-edge research including the consequences of corporations and philanthropic foundations financing and promoting the privatisation of education around the world. EI was represented by Angelo Gavrielatos.
“ The World Bank’s Doublespeak on Teachers – An analysis of ten years of lending and advice”, a new EI study, was launched in Washington on 14 April at the Civil Society Policy Forum prior to the World Bank Spring meetings. The study provides in-depth insights into the World Bank’s challenge to strike a balance of institutional coherence and consistency in teacher policy recommendations and programmes over the last decade. At the World Bank Policy Forum, EI Deputy General Secretary David Edwards facilitated a discussion between the author of the study, Antoni Verger, the World Bank’s Director of Education Global Practice, Amit Dar, and the Global Partnership for Education’s Chief Technical Officer, Karen Mundy.
On 21 April, the UN assembled member states, civil society organisations, and business leaders in New York, USA, to examine the possibility of establishing partnerships to achieve the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) by 2030. “We are very much in favour of partnerships that will accelerate the achievement of SDG 4 (Quality Education),” said EI General Secretary Fred van Leeuwen at the event. “However, education is to be publicly funded and free. Education is both an individual and collective right. Rights can only be guaranteed by governments. That responsibility cannot be outsourced.” Van Leeuwen also stressed that the Global Partnership For Education, bringing all stakeholders together to collect and distribute education funds and to monitor education programmes, represents a model that may also work for other SDGs.
The opportunities and challenges of financing the new education agenda, particularly in terms of addressing the needs of the most marginalised populations, were the focus of the high-level panel organised by UNESCO and the Global Campaign for Education on 25 April in Paris, France, during Global Action Week 2016. Teopista Birungi, former EI Executive Board member and current member of the International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity, emphasised the need for governments to invest in high-quality teacher training and continuous professional development. Birungi highlighted the need to improve the status of the profession, ensuring a supportive environment and attractive conditions. She also discussed the crucial role of teacher unions in developing education policy through institutionalised dialogue with governments.