Education | WPN World People News

Greek delegate Themistoklis Kotsifakis of the Federation of Secondary School Teachers (OLME) outlined the devastating impact austerity has had on the education sector in Greece in the recent past: a 35 per cent cut in the education budget, a 28 per cent cut in the number of teachers, a reduction of 45 per cent in teachers’ salaries, a national unemployment rate of 60 per cent. Austerity policies had led to “a humanitarian crisis in Greece”, he said, whilst proposing Resolution 7.3 Stop Austerity Policies in Greece.

Speaking to the fourth plenary of Education International’s 7th World Congress in Ottawa, Canada, the Chief Executive Officer of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) said that “We have to make quality education available, usual, and unremarkable,” adding that the Sustainable Development Goals showed the world was “waking up to the dire state of education in developing countries”.

Kibae Park

Fred Van Leeuwen, General Secretary of EI

Education International’s 7th World Congress in Ottawa, Canada, was officially opened on 21 July by the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, the Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell.

The first of the intermediate level trade union workshops for trade union leaders of the Kazakhstan Trade Union of Education and Science Workers (KTUESW) was held in Shymkent, from 1-3 July, and the second one in Khezkazgan, from 4-6 July.