ICFTU ONLINE...

Brussels, October 5 1998 (ICFTU Info): "Millions of children in the world are deprived of an education, child labour is on the increase everywhere while the education budgets of many countries are being cut". That is how Fred van Leeuwen, General Secretary of Education International (EI) summed up the situation as he presented a 300 page report(1) in Brussels on the state of human and trade union rights in the Education sector. This "Barometer", published to mark World Teachers’ Day on October 5, is also part of the EI’s contribution to the activities surrounding the 50^th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

"It is often forgotten, but Education is a fundamental human right" recalls Fred van Leeuwen. A right which in times of crisis is often considered less important. The EI’s Barometer reveals the dramatic impact of the Asian crisis on school attendance. "Many poor families could no longer afford to keep their children in school in 1998" says the document, referring to Indonesia. A country where, says the EI, more than one and a half million ‘dropped out’ of the school system in 1998.

"Girls are often the first to be taken out of school" specifies Sheena Hanley, the EI’s Assistant General Secretary. She also points out that "we can see a clear link between access to education, child labour and the respect of fundamental trade union rights". According to the EI’s Barometer, barely one child in two attends primary school in Mali, Burkina Faso, Angola, Guatemala and India.

While many children in the world are deprived of their right to education, the rights of teachers aren’t always respected either. Colombia, Nepal, Kosovo and Ethiopia "are all countries where the exercise of this profession is particularly dangerous" explains Rosselyn Noonan, author of the Barometer. Last year 40 teachers were murdered in Colombia, in Kosovo 14 teachers died in attacks by Serb forces and in Ethiopia three members of the teachers’ union have been sent to prison, where they have joined the President of the Ethiopian Teachers’ Association (ETA) Taye Woldesmiate, who has been held for more than two years now. On May 8 1997, the ETA’s assistant general secretary, Assefa Maru, was murdered in circumstances that would appear to involve the authorities.

In addition to these extreme situations, the Barometer points the finger at several countries, including the United States, which together with Somalia is the only country not to have ratified the UN Convention on the rights of the child; Russia, which owes its teachers more than one and half billion dollars in wage arrears, and Pakistan where a working group set up by the Prime Minister concluded that half the education budget had been "misappropriated".

But the EI Barometer also awards good marks. They go, for example, to Guatemala for doubling its education budget between 1995 and 1998, Malawi which has hired 20,000 new teachers since 1994 and Uruguay which is one of the few countries where education at every level, including university education, is free.

The EI sees the Barometer as a campaigning tool to "make things happen" thanks to the activists in the 284 teachers’ unions it represents around the world. The author of the report, Rosselyn Noonan, fervently hopes that the next Barometer, to be published in three years time, will be able to report on improvements. There are already hopeful signs: the EI has learnt that since the "Barometer" was published, 300 South Korean teachers, dismissed for belong to a trade union, are to be reinstated. "It just goes to show what a difference an international campaign can make" says the EI.

International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU)
Boulevard Emile Jacqmain 155, B - 1210 Brussels, Belgium. For more information
please contact: Luc Demaret on: 00 322 224 0212 - press@icftu.org

ICFTU OnLine