Four years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, those of us who helped to found the world’s largest federation of education unions could be forgiven our optimism. Through our 1993 lens, we saw within our grasp the achievement of democracy, human rights and quality education for all.

Now, as Education International marks its 25th anniversary, our optimism remains, even as reality intrudes in sharp focus.

Educators and their unions and associations still struggle daily to deliver quality instruction and provide it in safe environments for teaching and learning using the most modern tools available. Basics such as professional pay and training, facilities and resources are woefully inadequate in the majority of countries.

And the struggle has too often been one of life and death. Hundreds of teachers are killed in countries including Colombia, Nepal, Pakistan and Nigeria every year - some even assassinated in their classrooms - because they refused to teach lies, to close their schools or to take sides in political conflicts.

Increasingly, over this quarter-century, our work as unionists has taken on an added dimension as defenders of a subversive tendency: democracy.

The power of education as a democratising force places today’s professional teachers in ever-more vulnerable positions, squeezed as they are between political groupings and ethnic, linguistic and religious rivalries, and increasingly targeted by public authorities for spreading uncomfortable truths.

Turkey has stopped the teaching of evolution in science classes. Since the attempted coup there in 2016, tens of thousands of teachers have been dismissed, and many are detained.

Even in Europe, nations mandate curriculums glorifying despicable chapters in history. In Japan, “patriotism” re-entered mandatory school programmes, while in several US states, teaching creationism is no longer optional.

Nevertheless, the crucial role that school systems play in the ability of nations to create stable societies and successfully compete propels education to the top of the international agenda.

Challenge the myth

Teachers have always known that hungry, hurting and disadvantaged children start from far behind every day. Now United Nations goals on sustainable development, focusing on poverty, hunger, health and gender inequality, depend on education as a fulcrum for any chance of success.

Education International’s member organisations embrace the roles of defending democracy and leading the world in advocating education as a human right and public good. We challenge the myth that education can be delivered more cheaply and efficiently by private markets, which inevitably involve fewer, less qualified staff, one-size-fits-all online programmes and standardised testing. In Kenya, Uganda, the Philippines and India, we’ve fought corporations and edupreneurs working to normalise substandard education.

Today, teaching is the most highly organised profession in the world and its unions and associations are among the largest democratic member organisations in country after country. We’re moving from defence to offence on behalf of our students, communities and profession, and joining in unprecedented coalitions for change.

Now, no credible voice of education reform challenges the fundamentals of teaching as a profession, the need for teachers to be highly educated or the notion of teachers as essential to the delivery of quality education.

Yet many governments remain stuck in the belief that school systems exist first to improve national economic performance, thus neglecting the need for children to have equal access to a broad curriculum. Surgeons without scalpels in unsanitary conditions cannot operate just because they’re great surgeons. Teachers who cannot personalise, tailor and prepare lessons are just as disadvantaged.

Risk a backlash

The good news is that organisations such as the UN now realise that countries that resist high global professional teaching and learning standards risk a backlash from their people.

Education International is now the voice of the world’s teachers and educators and their unions. Daily, our website carries stories of unions fighting for their members’ rights to use their professional discretion to interrogate and reject curricular directives that defy facts, falsify history or lead to xenophobia and hate.

Teachers have a professional and ethical responsibility that may outweigh the authority of education employers, and even that of governments. This is what society expects of us and what we expect of each other.

One example illustrates this. During the 2016 International Summit on the Teaching Profession in Berlin, I visited a school hosting a large group of refugee children from Syria, and there I was given a glimpse into the soul of our profession. “How many refugee students do you have?” I asked the principal. “I have no idea,” she said, somewhat irritated. “We don’t count them.”

Educated by professionals with a mission, in a system based on the public good, with the values of equity and democracy at the forefront; this is what my profession seeks for all students, regardless of status or circumstance.

And yes, we remain optimistic. We’ve learned how possible it is for us to shape our own reality. There’s no turning back.

Fred van Leeuwen is general secretary of Education International. 

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