Education International Africa

#16Days | Using technology to foster meaningful conversations on gender-based violence

Aayushi Aggarwal

Over the past two years, the world has undergone massive changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These abrupt and unpredictable changes have required adjustments to how we work and have challenged us to re-think, re-assess and re-formulate our approaches and engagements. Gender at Work’s engagement with Education International on capacity...

Ahead of COP 27, global leaders are still not making the grade on climate change education

Christina Kwauk

As attention focuses on Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt for the 27th UN Climate Change Conference (or COP27), climate change education advocates have their work cut out for them.

Cameroon: the urgent need for trade union renewal in a time of severe restrictions on freedoms

Roger Kaffo Fokou

The struggle for freedom is common to women and men throughout the world and throughout time. Like Sisyphus' rock, we never finish trying to get to the top of the mountain. But the context is never the same and, at the same time as each struggle is individual to one...

Teachers are the beating heart of education

David Edwards

This is a crucial moment. COVID-19 has had an enormous impact on education. At the height of the pandemic, 1.6 billion students were out of school. Millions are still not in their classrooms, others are struggling with trauma and loss. As the economic crisis, the climate emergency, and wars intensify...

Teachers are ready to transform education — it’s time for governments to step up

David Edwards

Despite the global crises facing the world, the power and optimism inherent in education will always provide hope for our future. To move forward from this pandemic, and the deepening inequities it exposed, we need to transform education by fully funding public education systems and investing in, supporting, and respecting...

Labels belong on bottles - not people

Charles Adams

NAPTOSA is the second largest teachers’ union in South Africa serving education through its legacy organisations since 1904. The NAPTOSA leadership and membership represent the racial diversity of the country and are inclusive of the LGBTQI+ community.

Economically disadvantaged Malawi teachers bear the brunt of IMF wage bill policies

Dr. Limbani Eliya Nsapato

Malawi has a long-term relationship with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which drives the country’s macroeconomic policies, often to the detriment of progress in targeted sectors such as education and health. Malawi became a member of the IMF on 19 July 1965 and has had at least 16 arrangements (loans)...

The impact of IMF policies on the public service wage bill in Zambia

Gideon Bulwani

There is sufficient evidence to suggest that the International Monetary Fund austerity measures have the potential to negatively affect Zambian ability to attain SDG 4. It is a paradox that the global system encourages investment in access to quality education for all, while putting obstacles along the path to the...

Education – a crucial piece of the climate justice and gender equality puzzle

Susan Hopgood

For decades we have mobilised across the world and have worked towards gender equality, and increasingly over the last few years to address climate injustice. However, both fights have often been waged separately with far too little attention given to the critical areas where they overlap.

Challenging global tech giants: the critical role of Global labour

Carmen Ludwig Edward Webster

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.

Expanding Vaccines Beyond Our Borders

Randi Weingarten Mugwena Maluleke

If there is one thing we never see again, let it be a crematorium waiting list. Let temporary morgue tents be just that—temporary. We have the capacity to make that happen—to prepare for the next global public health crisis, so we never see this level of chaos and destruction again,...

UNATU’s experience supporting teachers in refugee areas

Baguma Filbert Bates

Uganda is considered the top refugee-hosting country in Africa and one of the top five hosting countries in the world. Statistics reveal that close to 1.5 million refugees live in Uganda.

UNICEF’s Innocenti Report on teacher absenteeism in Africa: The wrong approach at the worst time

Dennis Sinyolo

This year, as the education community around the world gathered to mark World Teachers’ Day (5th October) and celebrate teachers for their dedication to duty and contribution to quality education for all, Twitter users were greeted by a message from UNICEF’s Office of Research-Innocenti, sharing their recent report on teacher...

Financing quality education for all requires investment and taxes.

Dennis Sinyolo

It is time to talk taxes. If more domestic revenue is not found, the Sustainable Development Goals, especially SDG 4 on quality education, will simply become one more set of international unmet promises.

No emergence of Africa without substantial public funding for education at the national level.

Marième Sakho Dansokho

As with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and regardless of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular, SDG4 aiming to provide everyone with quality education, are not likely to be achieved by 2030.

An online union academy made in the Democratic Republic of Congo

By Jacques Taty Mwakupemba and Augustin Tumba Nzuji.

Jacques Taty Mwakupemba Augustin Tumba Nzuji

The Online Union Academy [Académie Syndicale en Ligne, ASL] project set up by the Congo National Federation of Teachers and Social Educators (FENECO/UNTC) is part of the capacity-building activities of unions working in the education sector in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Primary, Secondary and Technical Education; Higher and University...

#16dayscampaign | “When teachers’ unions take action, schools become safer for everyone”, by madeleine kennedy-macfoy (EI) and Rex Fyles (Gender at Work).

Rex Fyles madeleine kennedy macfoy

Gender-based violence in and around schools poses big challenges to education unions and their members. Because everyone in and around schools – teachers, students, education support personnel - can be both perpetrator and victim of such violence, school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV) is a violation of both the right to quality...

#16dayscampaign | “Mobilising the community to prevent school dropout among girls following COVID-19 school closures”, by Joan Aja (UNATU, Uganda).

Joan Aja

Uganda National Teachers’ Union (UNATU) is implementing a girl child education project called Simameni Project supported by the Canadian Teachers’ Federation and funded by Global Affairs Canada. The five-year project is intended to increase girls’ access to secondary school education, and to ensure retention and completion. The project has a...