Media Advisory - Unite for Quality Education Conference

OTTAWA, May 27, 2014

Who:	Louise Chabot, President, (CSQ) Canada
	Lise Bastien, Director, First Nations Education Council (FNEC) Canada
	Susan Hopgood, President, Education International (EI) Australia
	Fred van Leeuwen, General Secretary, Education International (EI) The Netherlands
	Randi Weingarten, President, American Federation of Teachers (AFT) USA
	Dennis Van Roekel, President, National Education Association (NEA) USA
	Pasi Sahlberg, Visiting Professor, Harvard Graduate School of Education; Director General, (CIMO) Finland
	Alice Albright, Chief Executive Officer, Global Partnership for Education (GPE) USA
What:	the Unite for Quality Education Conference will bring together global leaders in education to address, and tackle the biggest challenges facing education today. The Centrale des syndicats du Québec (CSQ) is hosting the event of Education International (EI), the voice of 30 million teachers and other education employees worldwide through its 400 affiliated organizations in more than 170 countries and territories. The Unite for Quality Education Campaign stresses a global focus on education in order to achieve: Universal and free access to quality teachers; modern teaching tools and resources; and supportive and safe environments for teaching and learning.
Where:	Hyatt Regency Montréal, 1255 Jeanne-Mance, Montreal, QC
When:	Tuesday May 27 to Friday, May 30 2014
Time:	9:00 – 18:00

A copy of the program and a background note are attached. A press room will be available for journalists for the duration of the event. Further information is available on the Conference website here.

About Education International

Education International (EI) is the world's largest federation of unions that represents organizations of teachers and other education employees across the globe.

• 30 Million education employees represented
• 401 organisations
• 171 countries and territories

Education International is the voice for education employees across the globe.

• We promote quality education
• We promote the interests of teachers and other education employees
• We promote equity in society

About the Unite Campaign

The Unite for Quality Education of Campaign of Education International (EI) demands that quality education for all remains at the top of the agenda for a sustainable, peaceful and prosperous future.

Three Pillars of Quality Education

QUALITY TEACHERS
Teachers are the most important educational resource and a critical determinant of quality
QUALITY TOOLS
Appropriate curricula and inclusive teaching and learning materials and resources, including ICT
QUALITY ENVIRONMENTS
Supportive, safe, and secure facilities enabling teachers to teach effectively

What is quality education?

• Quality education is a human right and a public good.
• Governments and other public authorities should ensure that a quality education service is available freely to all citizens from early childhood into adulthood.
• Quality education provides the foundation for equity in society.
• Quality education is one of the most basic public services. It not only enlightens but also empowers citizens and enables them to contribute to the maximum extent possible to the social and economic development of their communities.

Post-2015 global development
Since the adoption of the Millennium Development Goals and the Dakar Education for All Goals, Education International has lobbied intensively amongst the international community for full implementation of those goals by 2015. While much progress has been made, it is clear that Education for All will not be a reality for many young people by next year.

In the discussions among intergovernmental organizations on the post-2015 development objectives, education is not receiving the priority status it requires, and that its importance to personal development and to the development of productive citizens and just and fair democratic societies, warrants.

Education in the economic crisis
The quality of current education provision is under attack in many countries throughout the world. The effects of the economic crisis and of government policies determined by political ideologies, hostile to public provision of education, together with the increasing interest in, and pursuit of, the privatization of potentially profitable education services by free enterprise interests, have placed the public provision for education under threat.

As a result, the existing quality of education is now being undermined in many countries, where the actual public provision for education for all was at acceptable or at least sustainable levels.

Learn more at Education International's Education in Crisis website

Activating new partnerships for quality education
Unite for Quality Education seeks to involve all partners who believe that there is no success in education without the active involvement of teachers.
This includes elements of the burgeoning education technology business sector, which are invited to engage directly in working with teachers advocating for the development and deployment of tools that strengthen teaching and learning.

Facts and Figures from UNESCO's Global Monitoring Report 2013/2014

• "Education quality improves when teachers are supported – it deteriorates when they are not"
• "A closer look at the evidence on performance-related pay from around the world does not show clear-cut benefits"
• "Hiring contract teachers is unlikely to meet the long-term need to extend quality education. Countries that rely heavily on contract teachers rank at or near the bottom for education access and learning"
• "Education quality improves when teachers are supported – it deteriorates when they are not"
• "A closer look at the evidence on performance-related pay from around the world does not show clear-cut benefits"
• "Hiring contract teachers is unlikely to meet the long-term need to extend quality education. Countries that rely heavily on contract teachers rank at or near the bottom for education access and learning"
• "The finance gap to achieve good quality basic education for all by 2015 has reached USD $26 billion"
• "Education plans need to guarantee that strategies [to improve teacher quality] will be backed by sufficient resources"
• "Post-2015 framework must include explicit financing targets related to government spending on education."
• "Between 2008 and 2011, only 2% of the global education aid budget was spent on pre-service and in-service teacher training programme, the largest recipients of this aid being richer middle income countries such as Brazil, China and Indonesia"

SOURCE: Canadian Teachers' Federation

Media contacts for further information about the Unite for Quality Education Conference: Andrew King, IE : [email protected] ou [phone] (portable); Helena Schulz, IE : [email protected] ou [phone] (portable); Charlie Lennon, IE : [email protected] ou +353 87 (portable); Christine Marceau, CSQ: [email protected] ou + 1 514 235 5082 (portable); Francine Filion, CTF : [email protected] ou + 1 613-899-4247