In a joint statement today, the Presidents of the four Irish teacher unions state that investment in education is critical to sustainable economic recovery.

In their statement, they say: “The message is clear. Compromise education and you not only compromise the future life chances of an entire generation, you put economic recovery in jeopardy.”

The Joint Statement from the Teacher Unions is available here.

The IFUT Press Release is available here.

Mr Robinson warned that the drift in western countries towards commercialised universities and dubious quality providers must be resisted if universities are to preserve their function as reservoirs of research and innovation.

Danish speaker, Jens Vraa-Jensen, of Education International (EI), warned that universities cannot be managed according to market principles and at the same time fulfil their basic mission.

Mr Vraa-Jensen said: “The basic raison d’être for any private enterprise is to create profit for its owners. The purpose of a university is not profit but to spend money in the most appropriate way on teaching students and conducting research to develop the intellectual capacity of future generations and provide the society with new knowledge for future development and welfare”.

Mike Jennings, IFUT General Secretary, said: “Irish universities must not become the pawns of market forces and private speculators, who view education as just another source of profit and their students like customers in a supermarket”.

The IFUT Press Release is available in full here.

Biographical notes of the speakers and outlines of the themes of their talks are available on our seminar page.

The Toolkit is an important new initiative of ILO Sectoral Activities and is strongly supported by Education International. The Toolkit is expected to be published early in 2010 for use by Education Ministries and other public employers of teachers, as well as private employers, and by education unions around the world.

The seminar will hear keynote contributions from David Robinson and Jens Vraa-Jensen, two of the foremost world authorities on the topic of the threat posed to universities and academic freedom by marketisation, commercialisation and privatisation.

The seminar will start at 14:30. The full schedule and biographical notes of the speakers and outlines of the themes of their talks are available on our seminar page.

This year, Education International (EI), the International Labour Organisation (ILO), UNESCO, UNDP and UNICEF have issued a joint statement calling upon governments, communities, national and international institutions everywhere to act decisively to achieve Education for All. In addition, they are seeking mechanisms that protect teachers and ensure that education investments match demand at all levels of education.

“There is an acute shortage of qualified and trained teachers, especially in the developing world where enrolments at all levels are increasing. It is estimated that 2.4 million teachers (1.2 million new teacher posts) will be needed between 2007 and 2015 in sub-Saharan Africa alone to achieve Universal Primary Education. Lack of training, professional development and growing recruitment on a contract basis weaken education quality. But the profession is also gravely affected by poverty, the HIV and AIDS pandemic, natural disasters, conflict and violence against teachers in school”, according to the statement.

The Education International Press Release is available here. The UNESCO Press Release is available here.

The Joint Statement is available here.

The Press Release and Joint Statement are available in other languages on the EI Website, the UNESCO World Teachers’ Day Webpage, the World Teachers’ Day Website and the IFUT World Teachers’ Day 2009 page.

International Women’s Day is an occasion to review the ongoing struggle for women’s rights and gender equality. It is an opportunity to celebrate the progress made, as well as condemn the ongoing difficulties many women and girls face in their efforts to assert their rights to equality and justice. 8 March is also an opportunity to renew our commitment to the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination (CEDAW) which, if implemented, would help to ensure that women and girls were guaranteed access to education and lives free from violence.

The complete e-mail from Education International is available here.