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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 23, 1998

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- More than 1,100 global leaders and activists in the education field will come together here July 25-29 to renew international efforts to make free and equal education available to all of the world's children.

The occasion is the Second World Congress of Education International (EI), which will meet at the Washington Hilton and Towers. Founded in 1993 to improve school conditions and the status of education workers worldwide, EI represents 284 organizations from 150 countries and territories. It has a combined membership of 23 million. EI headquarters is in Brussels, Belgium.

Children under age 15 account for nearly 2 billion of the world's 5.9 billion population. A third of them do not complete primary school, and 130 million have no access at all to school, according to EI General Secretary Fred van Leeuwen. As many as 200 million under age 12 are exploited by industries employing child labor.

Prominent on the World Congress's agenda are resolutions and special sessions addressing education and human rights concerns.

On July 24, a pre-conference morning forum will speak to the schooling needs and rights of 250 million indigenous peoples living in some 70 countries. A full afternoon discussion conducted by EI's women's caucus will review international equity issues involving women and girl children in education.

Resolutions will be heard and decided on July 28. They include actions to promote the collective rights of indigenous peoples to self-determination and recognition of their cultural identity, including the right to learn and use their own language. The body will vote on supporting a proposal to create within the United Nations a Permanent Forum of Indigenous Peoples.

Resolutions condemning child labor and numerous countries' failures to offer adequate schooling to girl children will also be considered, as will remedial proposals.

Elections of officers will also be conducted. Mary Hatwood Futrell, who served as NEA president from 1983 to 1989, is running unopposed for re-election as EI president. Current NEA President Bob Chase is running for the EI Executive Board as an officer representing the North American-Caribbean region.

EI's two major honors for courageous action in defense of international labor and education rights will be presented at a July 28 banquet.

The Albert Shanker International Education Award will be bestowed on Dr. Shantha Sinha of the M. Venkatarangaiya Foundation in Andhra Pradesh, India, for her success in returning to school thousands of children who had been held in bonded labor.

The Education International Human and Trade Union Rights Award will be given to Ethiopian education leaders Dr. Taye Woldesmiate, presently imprisoned for his reform activism, and posthumously to Assefa Maru, a trade union organizer who was murdered by his government. The award will be accepted on their behalf by a member of the Ethiopian Teachers' Association.

In a noon ceremony on July 25, Dr. Federico Mayor, director general of UNESCO, will present his organization's Gandhi medal to MTV/Nickelodeon for its work to promote tolerance and diversity. Accepting will be MTV President Mark Rosenthal.

The National Education Association, an active member of Education International and co-host with the American Federation of Teachers of the 1998 EI World Congress, is the largest professional employee organization in the United States, with more than 2.7 million members.