Open
World Conference of Workers
In Defense of Trade Union Independence & Democratic Rights
Appeal of Teachers and Teacher Trade Union Members In Support of the Berlin Conference
We the undersigned, teachers and trade union members, have learned of the International Conference Against Deregulation and Privatisation and for Labour Rights for All, being held in Berlin (Germany) in February 2002.
As teachers we know all too well that the policies of deregulation being enforced internationally have dreadful consequences for young people:
Over 115 million children between the ages of 6 and 12 do not go to school, and a large number of those that do leave school before completing primary education;
250 million children between the ages of 6 and 14 are forced to work for a living;
882 million people are illiterate;
Over two thirds of the national governments worldwide allocate less than 6% of GDP to education;
In 1990, an international conference in Jomtien (Thailand) organised jointly by UNESCO, UNICEF and the World Bank declared the right to education for all to be a basic principle and pledged to adopt a series of measures to enforce this principle.
In 1995, the World Bank encouraged developing countries to privatise higher education under the pretext that it would help to free up public funds to finance primary education.
In April 2000, the fourth world meeting of the International Consultative Forum on Education For All held in Dakar (Senegal) concluded that the objective of establishing universal primary education by the year 2000 had not been reached. A new deadline was setŠ2015!
This led Katarina
Tomasevski, United Nations Special Reporter on Education Rights, to write:
"It has not been possible to take any action in response to this betrayal because no mechanism had been provided to hold to account those who had formulated this pledge to deliver. There was no substantial improvement in 2000. The final document adopted in Dakar once again set noble objectives but avoided mentioning the means necessary to achieve them as well as the mechanisms necessary to address their non-achievement.
"The Jomtien Conference was convened in response to the reduction in access to primary education, particularly in Africa, where the proportion of children regularly attending primary school fell by 10% in the 1980s. A similar regressive process was also noted in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
"The causes are the same everywhere: the reduction in the capacity of nation states to generate revenues and to fund free primary education for all, access to primary education thus depending on the purchasing power of families, communities and countries, whereas education is universally recognised as an individual right." (translated from French)
In every country, whether industrialised or "developing," we are all faced with an unprecedented range of attacks against public education systems. These attacks are the direct result of the disengagement by nation states which increasingly transfer their educational responsibilities and prerogatives to the private sector or to NGOs.
Now, the WTO -- despite the denials of its representatives -- is planning to put education, health, and social services on the agenda of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), which opens the door to the commercialisation of education services.
As teachers and trade unionists we are well placed to know that reassuring statements will not hide what is in progress.
After meeting with the WTO's Director General, the General Secretary of the International of Education (IE), an international body representing 309 national teaching unions from 150 countries, declared that the IE still had misgivings: "In order to fall outside of the scope of the GATS, a national education system must be fully funded and regulated by the State and must have no commercial objectives. In fact, very few educational systems meet these criteria. The vast majority of countries have a mixed system where the private sector plays some part."
The fact is that nowadays big international corporations want their share of the world "market" in education, which in 1999 was estimated to be worth 2,200 billion dollars.
A few years ago, the ERT (European Round Table of Industrialists) stated in a report:
"Industrial and technical developments by European companies clearly demand an accelerated renovation of educational systems and curriculums." According to the same report, teachers have "insufficient understanding of the economic environment, of business, of the notion of profit" and «"o not understand the needs of industry."
Their aim is to transform education into just another commodity, into some kind of industry selling its products (courses) to "customers" (pupils and students) in a market ruled by the law of supply and demand.
The economic war being waged internationally is a threat to all the ILO Conventions and especially to ILO Convention 138, which bans child labour under school-leaving age.
It is clear that the big corporations and financiers are listened to carefully by governments of different political
colours, all of which are tending more and more toward dismantling the public education service in each of their countries. Those corporations and financiers have undertaken a huge project which aims to replace "formal education" (school) with what they call "non-formal education" (the workplace) and "informal education" (everyday life).
This logic would lead to the replacement of qualified teachers with volunteers, social workers or street vendors.
For example, as far as training is concerned, in a Memorandum on education and life-long training, the European Union recommends that "relevant NGOs" should play "just as important a role as official authorities and education professionals."
It promotes the idea of organising training at a local level because "it is at the local level that most civil society organisations and associations have the strongest presence."
As trade unionists, we know that the process of deregulating education is linked to the deregulation offensive being undertaken in every country against social gains and collective rights.
As trade unionists, we also know that every effort is being made to associate our trade unions with the implementation of this deregulation offensive.
At a time when, following the murderous attacks in the USA, measures are being taken which aim to drag the whole world into a state of war, we teachers and trade unionists consider it our duty to recall that threats of war are first and foremost threats against working people and the peoples of the world, and that, every time, the first victims have always been young people and children.
These threats strengthen our determination to act firmly in defence of the independence of the organised labour movement.
It is on this basis that we support and will participate in the Berlin Conference Against Deregulation, Privatisation and for Labour Rights for All.
Please endorse this letter and return endorsements to Jean-Pierre Barrois at
barrois@univ-paris12.fr
(send copy to ilcinfo@earthlink.net
)
First endorsers
Brazil: Julio
Tura, Burundi:Eulalie Nbizi, Paul Nkunzimana, Cameroon: Jongwane
Dipoko, Congo:Edouard Nzino, France: François Chaintron, Marie-Edmonde Brunet, Paul
Barbier, Jean-Marc Bouchet, Great Britain:Stefan Cholewka, Helen Peters, Mexico:Luis Vasquez Villalobos, Roberto Alcavaz Lopez, Humberto Martinez
Brisuela, Gemma Lopez, Peru: Erwin Salazar, Rwanda: Faustin Kanamugire