education and learning
News and articles about work, policy and workers' and students' struggles in education around the world.
France: Solidarity strike for arrested teacher
French teaching unions have called for a one-day strike this Friday in parisian primary schools in support of an arrested teacher.
Valérie Boukobza, the headmistress of a school in the north of Paris, was arrested on the 20th of March after intervening to try to prevent the arrrest of a chinese illegal immigrant who was collecting his two grand-daughters from her school.
Teachers on strike at independent school
Fifty staff at the Newcastle-under-Lyme school in Staffordshire have gone on strike in what may be the first ever industrial action at an independent school.
The strike was in response to the sacking of the school's Head of English, apparently due to poor exam results. Although the strike by fifty staff successfully closed the school, around forty teachers still went into work. A meeting was due to be held this afternoon between the two unions involved, the NASUWT and the ATL.
Fiji: Military regime facing growing revolt from workers
Fiji's military regime is facing a growing revolt by the country's unions, with thousands more workers voting to support a strike in defiance of warnings they will be sacked.
The Public Employees Union (PEU), representing almost 5,000 blue collar public servants, has voted to back a strike planned by the country's largest union, the Public Service Association (PSA). The PSA voted overwhelmingly on Friday to strike after the military government slashed civil servants' wages under a plan to save the nation's economy from collapse.
Nurses & teachers ballot
University of Manchester to axe 400 staff
Four hundred jobs are to go at the University of Manchester to clear a £30m debt, it has emerged.
The university admitted that it is looking to make voluntary redundancies to offset the debt, which was created by the merger between the Victoria Manchester University and the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (Umist) in 2004.
There are no plans for compulsory job cuts.
Iran: 1,000 teachers arrested
Around 1,000 teachers have been arrested in Iran following strikes and protests last week.
Iran has clamped down on teachers following strikes of 100,000 last week and a 10,000 strong picket outside parliament. These mass arrests come after six teachers' union leaders were arrested during International Womens Day events.The teachers strike last week was the largest workers' action in recent years, and possibly since the revolution of 1979.
Teachers protest in Warsaw
Over 12,000 teachers demonstrated today in Warsaw. Among their demands were not only calls for a pay rise and retention of early retirement priveleges, but also for he dismissal of the Minister and Vice-Minister of Education.
Today over 12,000 teachers from around Poland came to Warsaw to protest the policies of the government, both in regard to its financial committment towards education workers and to the outrageous actions of the Minister and Vice-minister of Education.
Strikes across Israel
There have been strikes across Israel this week, including at Ashdod Port, the Bank of Israel and numerous schools and universities.
Workers at the Bank of Israel began an indefinite strike on Tuesday, however the strike ended at 3am this morning after a deal was struck between the Bank of Israel Governer and the Ministry of Finance Director of Wages Eli Cohen.
Greece: Violent demonstrations against privatisation of universities
There have been violent clashes between police and protesters at demonstrations calling for an end to the planned reforms of Greek universities.
On Thursday, demonstrations were held against a law privatising Greek universities, university students, university teachers, some school students and zworkers joined a demonstration of 35000 people in Athens. There were clashes in the centre of Athens, outside the parliament buildings where the law was being passed.
Iran: Teachers strike joined by factory workers
On Monday 5th March, about 100,000 teachers went on strike. On 8th March 10,000 teachers staged a picket outside the Parliament building in Tehran demanding justice and better wages.
According to the Organisation for Womens' Liberation, "all along the regime has refused to meet their demands. On 8th March (International Women's Day), many students and the women's movement showed their solidarity with the teachers. Many 8th march leaflets were distributed among the demonstrators.
Serbia: Students protest and occupy
A participant's report of new student protests against neo-liberal "reforms" of the education sector.
"Some 300 students gathered at the protest in front of Faculty of Architecture today. After blocking of the major Belgrade boulevard for some time, just few hours ago decision was made to do a sleep-over in the faculty building, which will turn into a full-time blockade of the building tomorrow morning. 400 students are currently occupying the faculty.
