Cuba Day 1

After some delays at Heathrow and Charles de Gaulle due to fog over Paris, we set off this morning on our ten hour flight to Havana. Given the connections with Cuba's innovative literacy campaign, I thought it would be a useful opportunity to re-read Education for Critical Consciousness by Paulo Freire.

In these two essays (Education as the Practice of Freedom and Extension or Communication written in 1965 and 1968 respectively), Freire is concerned with the liberatory potential of education but also the necessity for education to be critical and democratic if it is to realise this potential.

Cuba Day 0

So, I'm sat in the hotel at heathrow airport, ready to board a flight tomorrow to Havana to find out more about education in Cuba, a country which defies all the supposed wisdom of the global education  'reform' movement. Cuba has one of the highest standards of education in the world, despite spending a fraction of the amount the UK or US do, resisting the market reform mania that has gripped the rest of the world, and still being subjet to a comprehensive economic blockade by the world's most powerful country.

What Cuba has achieved is nothing short of a miracle.

National Executive: General Secretary's Report

We are now only into the third week since conference and the union has been working at full pace to deliver material for the ballot and the wider campaign against the white paper. Christine thanked the union staff for all their work.

International Issues

At today's Executive meeting, Christine Blower reported on the excellent work done by Justice for Columbia in bringing together leaders of the FARC and the Columbian government.  JfC are looking to bring FARC leaders to South Africa, northern Ireland and Britain as part of the peace process.  The NUT will support the visa application process for FARC leaders.

The General Secretary then reported on the case of 4 teachers in Oaxaca, Mexico who have been arrested on charges relating to protests against regressive education 'reform' which could see them spend up to 40 years in prison. The Union has written a formal letter of protest to the Mexican Embassy and offered solidarity to the arrested teachers.

Finally, Christine reported that we have received a letter from Grant Shapps, Minister of State at the Department for International Development in response to our campaign against British aid money being spent on education privatisation in the global south.  In the letter, Shapps defends the use of taxpayers' money to fund private education companies who are aggressively 'opening up' education markets and threatening state education in some of the worlds poorest countries. The reply also admits that DfID is currently paying fees directly to private shool operators for some 22,000 children, amounting to a massive direct subsidy of global edu-businesses.

Conference on Privatisation in Education Globally

Today's NUT International Solidarity Committee meeting agreed a proposal to hold a conference on the privatisation of education globally.  This will be an extension of the work the Union is already doing around the Global Education Reform Movement and its impact on our children's education.

New Union Resources on Palestine for Schools

The project the Union has been involved in alongside Edukid and the General Union of Palestinian Teachers is taking shape and a number of resources are currently being produced for schools to use in raising awareness of the situation of children in Palestine.

This will consist of five films which follow the life of Palestinian children, look at the impact of the blockade, interview Palestinian teenagers, look at a project on identity and explore the role of a community centre in a refugee camp.

Visit to Srebrenica

The Union is looking to support a visit to Srebrenica, put together by the organisation 'Remembering Srebrenica'.  The purpose of the visit would be Lessons from Srebrenica.  This delegation will initially be opened to International Solidarity Officers.

If you are interested in participating in the delegation of in taking on the role of International Solidarity Officer for your Association, please get in touch.

International Matters

The NUT International Solidarity Committee met yesterday and discussed a number of issues, including taking forward our work with Edukid and the General Union of Palestinian Teachers to produce curriculum materials which explore what life is like for Palestinian children suffering poverty and occupation. Further detail on this project is available in this post.

Challenging the Global Education Reform Movement and building solidarity with Palestine

This morning's meeting of the NUT International Solidarity Committee looked at developing our international work in solidarity with Palestine, in challenging the Global Education Reform Movement (GERM) and in relation to our Annual Conference in April of next year.

Developing our International Work

The NUT International Solidarity, Peace & Disarmament Committee met today.  The committee looked at progress on the recommendations from the Union delegation to Palestine (see here).  A report of the delegation has been produced which can be downloaded here.

Some thoughts on #M26

Below are some thoughts on #M26, written the day after the strike.  They have been published on the Education for the People blog and in the Morning Star but I thought it might be useful to put them here for NUT members in my executive area to consider and respond to.  If you have any thoughts, email me at g.little@executive.nut.org.uk.

Learning from Each Other

Every day, we face more stories of Michael Gove's plans to 'reform' our education system.  Whether it is testing from age four, 10-hour school days, pay deregulation or the creation of unaccountable new schools with no responsibility to hire qualified teachers, things are certainly not improving.

Solidarity with Palestine

The NUT International Relations, Peace and Disarmament met this afternoon and approved the recommendations from the Union delegation to Palestine last year.  This includes circulating the delegation report to conference delegates, Association Secretaries and International Solidarity Officers throughout the Union and publicising findings in The Teacher.  An initial report can be found here (p18).  The report highlights the impact of the occupation on children and teachers who struggle to get to school because of checkpoints and whose school buildings face demolition or closure.

Global Education 'Reform': Resistance & Solidarity

At its meeting on 11th December, the International Sub-Committee of the NUT National Executive agreed to organise a joint conference with the Teacher Solidarity Research Collaborative on the theme of teacher resistance to the Global Education 'Reform' Movement.