EI Conference: Education issues are global

The 10th quadrennial Education International (EI) World Congress convened in Buenos Aires in late July, and its sessions confirmed that education staff the world over share the same concerns and face similar issues.

Sessions at the huge international event addressed AI, climate change education, reclaiming professional autonomy for educators, ending violence and harassment in education, and advancing teacher wellbeing.

EI is a Global Union Federation that brings together organisations of teachers and other education employees from across the world. It covers 383 member organisations, representing more than 32 million teachers and education support personnel in 178 countries and territories.

EI is governed by its World Congress. Every four years, that event brings together delegates from all member organisations and guests from international organisations and intergovernmental agencies with whom it works. The World Congress adopts a four-year programme, budget and policy resolutions and elects EI’s Executive Board, which monitors and implements its activities.

The very first breakout session revealed very common issues to Australian IEU members: it offered ‘insights into the teacher shortage crisis’, discussing ‘developing concrete strategies to attract and retain qualified teachers through higher salaries and better working conditions’. The session aimed to ‘strengthen our collective commitment to a well-paid, respected, and professionally secure teaching workforce’.

The session on professional autonomy aimed to ‘put the teacher back in teaching’. Familiar catchphrases about the profession were heard: ‘Overworked, underpaid but not alone!’ ‘Teachers are burning out, so students are missing out.’

The session on ending violence and harassment in education promoted the ratification of International Labour Organisation’s 2019 Violence and Harassment Convention No. 190, already adopted by 39 countries.

‘In 2019, the global community made it clear that violence and harassment in the world of work will not be tolerated and must end… With this Convention, the trade union movement has a new tool to use in our fight against violence in the world of work,’ EI stated.

That session explored ‘the pivotal role of education unions in fostering safe and inclusive workplaces’.

Laura Frigenti, Chief Executive Officer of the Global Partnership for Education, struck a nerve by saying, ‘Education is not a cost, it is an investment’. She encouraged governments around the world to rethink how they resource the important work of educators.

Readers of The Point will notice how big an issue OHS has been in recent editions. The EI World Congress featured these topics with the session Being well, doing well: Advancing teacher wellbeing. That session insisted that teacher wellbeing is fundamental to attracting and retaining highly qualified teachers, and guaranteeing safety and health must be key priorities.

‘The global teacher shortage and the rapid changes brought about by the increasing use of education technologies have a dramatic impact on teachers’ mental health and wellbeing,’ EI stated. ‘Much remains to be done to advance teacher wellbeing as a central policy issue’.

The political realities affecting education and individual rights the world over were highlighted by the session Mobilising for rights and gender equality in the face of farright nationalism and authoritarianism.

‘After a period of relative expansion of human rights particularly for women, members of the LGBTI+ communities, and marginalised groups (people of colour, religious minorities, migrant communities), we are facing a strong pushback against these rights via right-wing populism,’ EI stated, vowing to contest this ‘anti-rights, anti-gender agenda’.

The Congress session on Artificial Intelligence and education called for a ‘human-centered and teacher-led approach to integrating AI in education’.

Participants felt the conference was relevant and well organised and set a unified agenda for common global educational and union goals for the next four years.