April 2014

Currently, countries receiving international aid to reach the UN 2015 Millennium Development Goals, are being strongly encouraged to orient education to match the needs of the private sector. Education International (EI), the world’s largest federation of unions (representing 30 million education employees in about 400 organizations in 170 countries and territories across the globe) begs to differ with this narrow view of education. The future can only be built through quality education, and quality education “promotes peace, democracy, creativity, solidarity, inclusion, a commitment to a sustainable environment, and international and intercultural understanding. It provides people with the critical knowledge,
abilities and skills that are needed to conceptualize, question and solve problems that occur both locally and globally.” The future we want will depend on providing this education to all, and not that other, market-oriented version.
This policy paper is an outcome of EI’s 6th World Congress held in Cape Town, South Africa, in July 2011.