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Education support and cultural workers

Public Services International affiliates represent hundreds of thousands of educational support workers throughout the world, many of who work without job security, fair compensation and benefits, or recognition that their services are vital to ensuring high quality public education for all citizens. The jobs of support workers are on the frontlines of the privatization and casualization struggle within the education sector, and many of these workers face challenges in pursuing their basic freedom to form a union and collectively bargain their terms and conditions of service. More information

UN alert: freezing of public spending for 20 years in Brazil will violate human rights

09 December 2016

"This amendment would lock in inadequate and rapidly dwindling expenditure on health care, education and social security, thus putting an entire generation at risk of social protection standards well below those currently in place", says Philip Alston, United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights.

School support services and the World Bank’s penchant for privatization

01 December 2016

The World Bank highlights its “Economics of Education” as a responsible approach toward meeting “excess demand” for education in developing countries. This approach serves to justify the World Bank’s penchant for privatization of public education.

Privatisation in education and human rights

30 November 2016
Children at a slum school in Nairobi, Kenya

Everline Aketch, NUEI, Uganda, and a member of the PSI Education Support and Cultural Workers’ coordinating committee, represented PSI at a global meeting on privatization in education and human rights, held in Nairobi, Kenya, 5-11 September 2016.

In Ecuador, police occupy UNE offices in Quito and Guayaquil after PSI-EI-TUCA mission leaves the country

30 August 2016

In the early morning of 29 August, the police occupied the offices of the teachers’ union, UNE, in Quito and Guayaquil. On 25 August, a trade union mission visited the country to express solidarity with the union, which the Ministry of Education has threatened to dissolve.

Uganda to close commercial private schools over non-respect of basic education standards

17 August 2016

The Ugandan Minister of Education and Sports, Hon Janet Museveni, formally announced during a session of the parliament on 9 August 2016 that the Government will soon close the schools operated by the largest and most controversial chain of commercial private schools worldwide, Bridge International Academies (BIA), which runs 63 nursery and primary schools in Uganda.

UNISON urges Higher Education members to strike for better pay

08 August 2016
University lecture hall

Members of UNISON, UK, working in Higher Education are being urged to vote for industrial action over pay. In September, the union will ballot members for action after staff overwhelmingly rejected bosses’ 1.1% pay offer.

Historic UN resolution urges States to regulate education providers and support public education

12 July 2016
Photo: teacher & student. Creative Commons - Global Partnership for Education

PSI welcomes the new resolution adopted by the UN Human Rights Council urging States to regulate education providers and invest in public education - specifically to “address any negative impacts of the commercialization of education". The resolution was adopted by consensus of the 47 member States of the UNHRC, signalling the strength of the support for the resolution.

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