HANDS UP FOR EDUCATION!

Today EI launches the new campaign site: HANDS UP FOR EDUCATION.

The site will be a vital tool in EI’s campaign to make education part of the solution in the investment plans of governments around the world, as countries search for a way out of the global financial and economic crisis. EI advocacy at international institutions and summits has to match and to be matched by the advocacy of each national member organization. The key to success is to link our global action with our national and local action. Innovative features such as the google map showing news from individual countries will help to make that link. Often, education union leaders have said that learning about developments in other countries is one of the most valuable outcomes of attending an international meeting. The website will make it possible to get that information on an ongoing basis. Added to that will be the latest news from the international scene. That is why the site will be such an important tool.

This blog FUNDING EDUCATION: CRISIS WATCH complements the campaign site. The aim is to provide rapid updates on news and decisions affecting funding for education, as well as commentary and opinion as events unfold.

The details of funding for education – and the effects of the crisis - vary greatly among countries. In some countries there have been drastic cuts already in education budgets, staffing numbers and wages. In other countries, we wrote a week ago, the worst is yet to come, as the crisis begins to affect on government revenues. Through the website and the blog we will try to share as much of this country-specific information as possible.

In all countries, there is a powerful case to be made for the role of investment in education in developing more sustainable, fairer economies in the future. All levels of education have a role to play – from the preschool sector, through the compulsory years of primary and second education, to vocational training, and higher education and research. We make the case that investment in each of these sectors – and in the people of education, the qualified professionals and the support staff – will pay off for each society far more than sinking more billions into more financial engineering.

Yet, it is all too appealing for governments and others who make up the power structures of our societies to fall back into a ‘business as usual’ approach, and to avoid or divert the more fundamental questions posed by the crisis. Already, as the stock markets recover some of their massive losses and some corporations announce results that are not as bad as feared, there are voices minimizing the extent to which the system has been shaken to its core. This is the very time for education unions to mobilize, to demonstrate convincingly to public opinion that serious investment in education is necessary. Today’s announcement by EI is a step in that direction.