e-iEvolve

Menu

Shri Eswaran - A Force for Quality Education and Teachers

Making global difference through Education International

AIPTF is a signatory of Education International (EI), a global union federation. EI remains the voice of teachers and education workers worldwide, with 383 member organisations. EI represents more than 32.5 million teachers and education support personnel in 178 countries and territories. Shri Eswaran was an international thought leader and visionary. He had the clarity to perceive an increasingly integrating global landscape, and therefore, it was meaningful to be part of a global federation such as EI that not only be a supportive force for Indian teachers but be the loud and clear voice of over 2.2 million Indian primary school teachers in the global arena. While Shri Eswaran held his office as an elected executive board member for three terms in EI at Brussels, Belgium, he always remained steadfast in his commitment towards his mission of improving the needs of broader low and middle-income countries (LMICs) primary education quality, teacher’s rights and status. 

Shri Eswaran was far sighted about this mission he has committed to education, and primary educators. The goals had to be addressed globally from many different angles to be effective and impactful. Hence, he relentlessly developed and promoted numerous policy recommendations, regional-level professional and teachers’ association development programs, workshops, and conferences. These programs focused on nourishing the solidarity of teachers from various nations, improving the quality of primary education by implementing modern primary school teaching techniques, empowering women teachers, and addressing children-associated problems such as child labour in LMICs.

Transnational agenda with global organisations

Testimony to Shri Eswaran’s international efforts and passion for improving the quality of global primary education and its workforce is his unanimous election as an executive member and the Vice President of EI by the teachers’ union of 188 countries in December 2009. Shri Eswaran outlined three future directions for his global work in 2009: 1. Development of solidarity to make unions strong; 2. Emphasis on the environment, and raising awareness among youth, and 3. Making gender balance a reality in schools and thereby in wider society. During his global tenure, he served as an expert and task force member in the International Labour Organisation (ILO), where he actively led and contributed towards teachers’ rights, child labour, women’s protection, and education. He was serving as the Vice President of EI and many of these international and national positions until he passed away in 2014. It’s of utmost importance to note that Shri Eswaran has always dedicated success and accomplishments in all spheres of his life to his fellow teachers, educators, and unionists, whom he has always considered part of his bigger family.

Global vision of compulsory education for all

Shri Eswaran’s ambition for primary education was limitless, and he relentlessly fought, negotiated, and advocated for quality education beyond literacy and numeracy through TESTF, AIPTF, and EI. He was certain the Indian national mission of complete literacy and global vision of compulsory education for all should become a reality in his time. He continued with this mission not just to all corners of India but also all parts of the world, from Ethiopia to Sweden, Japan to Brazil, to understand the systems of primary education and the teachers’ landscape to effectively improve quality of education and educators.