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International

The Commonwealth: Ending the exploitation of migrant teachers

Education experts from across the Commonwealth gathered at Stoke Rochford Hall, the NUT’s national training centre, in June for the first meeting of an advisory council set up to raise awareness of the Commonwealth Teacher Recruitment Protocol.

The protocol, established in 2004, sets out minimum standards that anyone recruiting teachers overseas should meet, such as providing clear employment terms and conditions. It sets out rights and responsibilities for recruited teachers, destination countries and source countries, and says recruitment should be “free from unfair discrimination and from any dishonest or misleading information”.

But expert witnesses from countries including South Africa, New Zealand and Barbados told the council that many recruitment agencies, teachers and even government officials are unaware of the protocol. Private agencies were accused of adopting exploitative working practices, and the meeting heard that some profit-driven recruiters are taking advantage of migrant teachers because of a “vacuum” in regulation.

NUT General Secretary Christine Blower said the new council, had a “critical role” in improving understanding of the protocol. She called for an awareness-raising campaign, and said it was the “shared responsibility” of governments and recruiters to prevent exploitation.

The council asked the Commonwealth Secretariat to promote use of the protocol, with member countries regulating agencies, improving data collection on teacher migration and sharing examples of best practice and model legislation.

• Download the protocol from www.thecommonwealth.org. Search for ‘teacher recruitment’.

Millennium Goal: 9,000 schools say ‘Send my friend’ an education!

An amazing 9,000 schools across the UK signed up to the ActionAid Global Campaign for Education Send My Friend to School – 1 Goal campaign.

The campaign, supported by the NUT, aims to provide every child throughout the world with a quality primary education by 2015, as promised by world leaders.

One million children took part across the UK, and internationally 14 million 1 Goal supporters signed up, with the top ten countries being: Nigeria, USA, UK, Brazil, South Africa, Spain, India, France, Greece and Germany.

Colombia: Join the fight for human rights

Colombia is an extremely dangerous place for teacher trade unionists. Many activists have been killed or falsely imprisoned. The Colombian government is about to change, but Justice for Colombia (JfC) fears the situation on human rights abuses will not.

NUT General Secretary Christine Blower joined a recent delegation of MPs, MEPs, UK union general secretaries and international trade unionists to Colombia. They heard testimonies from mothers whose sons had been killed, from Colombians who came great distances to testify that family members had been ‘disappeared’ or murdered, and of the assassination of many trade union leaders and activists.

The delegation visited the site of mass graves, which the Colombian authorities have been pressed into investigating, thanks to the work of JfC.

There is international consensus that routine and systematic breaches of human rights, including the right to life, are so serious in the country that more pressure must be brought to bear on the new Government to respect human and trade union rights and its own constitution.

In its campaign against detention without trial, JfC is working with NUT partner union UCU for the release of Dr Beltran. The Colombian academic was unlawfully removed from Mexico, where he was working, and imprisoned in Bogota on a spurious charge of rebellion.

• Join Justice for Colombia at www.justiceforcolombia.org.

• For more details of NUT international activity visit www.teachers.org.uk and click on International.