~ bahasa indonesia ~  deutsch ~ english ~ español ~  français ~ nederlands ~ 日本語  ~

The International Student Movement (ISM) is an independent communication platform for groups and activists around the world to exchange information, network and coordinate activities in our struggle against the increasing commercialisation of education and for free emancipatory education for all!

Consider endorsing the International Joint Statement as a group or individual and checking out the overview of activities in connection with the GLOBAL EDUCATION STRIKE.

Any questions or suggestions? Contact the ISM (global) admin collective: 

Taipei, Nov.7: Increase of tuition fees sparks more protests

Wed, 07/11/2012 - 16:28 — Mo

Taipei, Nov.7th:
Increase in Tuition Fees sparks more Protests

Now it is official: Universities in Taiwan can increase tuition fees by 5-10% per year from 2013 onwards.
To make a stand against this policy hundreds of students, workers and teachers' union activists planned to occupy the second public hearing organised by the National Academy for Educational Research (NAER) in Taipei. The first public hearing was already successfully occupied on October 30th.

Unexpectedly. the NEAR called off the public hearing a day before. In light of these developments students, labor workers and teachers rallied at the Ministry of Education and decided to protest the tuition fee policy there. According to activists on the ground police forces prevented the crowd from breaking through the gates of the ministry.
For now, the government announced that tuition fees at colleges will not rise for the next semester only.

mainstream media report: taipeitimes.com

  • Mo's blog
  • Login or register to post comments
  • Read more
  • Share this

Reports Worldwide: Global Day of Action to RECLAIM EDUCATION - Direct Democracy NOW! #1world1struggle #O18

Fri, 19/10/2012 - 13:04 — Mo

Reports Worldwide:
Global Day of Action to RECLAIM EDUCATION
- Direct Democracy NOW!

People around the world marked the Global Day of Action to RECLAIM EDUCATION -- Direct Democracy NOW! uniting in the struggle for free emancipatory education as well as to discuss and announce the GLOBAL EDUCATION STRIKE [Nov.14-22] on the local level!

Reports so far:

  • Solidarity Statement from We Are The University Auckland
  • Rally in Bangkok
  • Rally against Commercialisation of Education in Brno
  • Rally in Chicoutimi
  • Report from Humboldt State University
  • #1world1struggle Rally attacked by Riot Police in Montreal
  • Rallies and Sit-ins in Morocco
  • Rally in New Orleans
  • Speak-out at the City University of New York
  • Rally in Rimouski
  • Rally in Semarang
  • Banner Drops and Rally at the National Taiwan Normal University
  • Winnipeg: Zombie Walk at the University of Manitoba
  • Strike at Laval University Anthropology Faculty in Quebec City

overview of further activities related to the GES around the world: ism-global.net/GES_activities

For comments or any missing reports please contact ism_admin[at]lists.riseup.net.

Sri Lanka, Sept. 24-28th: Long Marches for Free Education

Thu, 04/10/2012 - 00:04 — Mo

Sri Lanka, Sept. 24-28th:
Long Marches for Free Education

For months lecturers in Sri Lanka have been on strike in the struggle for proper funding of public education. On August 29th thousands already took to the streets of Colombo and clashed with riot police. For details on the aims of the protests as well as pictures of that day check out ism-global.net.

For five days (Sept 24-28th) thousands of students, lecturers, parents and others took part in two long marches for free education. Each march covered a distance 120km. One march, which was organised by the Inter-University Student Federation (IUSF) among others, departed from city of Kandy. The other march, which was organised by the Federation of University Teachers Associations (FUTA) among others, began in Galle. Both headed to Colombo and ended in a huge rally.

Check out the video below.

Take a look at this video in english:

Indonesia, Sept.27-28th: Protests against Commercialization of Education in 15 cities

Sun, 30/09/2012 - 02:28 — Mo

Indonesia, Sept.27/28th:
Protests against new 'Higher Education Act'

On July 13 2012, the House of Representatives passed a new bill on higher education. During the plenary session, the new bill was introduced to give public universities greater autonomy in aspects of governance and seeking non-state funding, but still allows for substantially tight regulation from the government.
Activist groups across Indonesia have been protesting against the bill claiming that the provisions on 'autonomy' would pave way for the commercialization of higher education and result in increased fees. It is eminent that the privatization and liberalization of universities will turn higher education into a business commodity and this is something various activist groups are rejecting, despite what Syamsul Bachri, the head of the House working committee said; that the bill was really a “constructive effort toward managing and regulating the higher education sector to be more modern and globally competitive.”

As part of the efforts to counter this new bill students organized in the Indonesian Student Union (SMI) - which supports and prepares activities in connection with the GLOBAL EDUCATION STRIKE [Oct.18 + Nov.14-22] - organized protest actions in 15 cities on September 27/28th (see pictures below).

Here is an example (on a junction in Semarang City):

In December 2005 the government already signed the GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Services), which govern the liberalization of trade in 12 service sectors. The agreement also considers education as a public sector service that should be privatized and therefore public control to be removed. Here are some figures that might help to understand the situation better:
  • Of the 49,000 kindergartens in Indonesia, 99.35 percent are privately operated schools.
  • In contrast to the majority of privately run kindergartens, most elementary schools are government-operated public schools, accounting for nearly 93 percent of all elementary schools in Indonesia.
  • 56 percent of junior secondary and 67 percent of senior secondary schools are run privately.
  • 68 percent of all higher education students are enrolled in one of the more than 3,000 private institutions in the country. There are only about 130 public institutions.

Therefore this new bill on higher education is part of the whole process, which increases the privatization and commercialization of education even further. A process that can be observed around the world and that makes common efforts in the struggle for free emancipatory education more necessary than ever. After all education is the basis for the emancipation of the individual as well as society at large and therefore should be considered a fundamental right.

Sources: smisemarang.co.cc - en.wikipedia.org - web.worldbank.org - nytimes.com - thejakartaglobe.com

Strikes at Universities in Greece

Fri, 21/09/2012 - 21:32 — Mo

Strikes at Universities in Greece

The following email was sent to the mailing list of the Edu-Factory collective on September 21st 2012:

During the past weeks there has been a wave of faculty strikes in Greek Universities. These are the reasons for the protests:

Syndicate content