世貿週期間, 代表著2千9百萬教育工作人員的 Education International曾發表聲明, 要求世貿把教育從服務業(GATS)清單中剔除.
開放教育服務, 會令到教育服務出現貧富懸殊的情況, 而政府亦會削減公營教育開支. 雖然香港政府暫時答應不會開放教育事業的清單, 但只要教育服務還在(GATS)之中, 香港政府就會不斷的收到開放這服務的要求, 又會以世貿責任為借口, 開放教育市場. 不過香港教協, 似乎對這個危機沒有多大反應.
以下是 EI 的聲明:
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In a statement released today to delegations to the 6th WTO
Ministerial Conference, the global union representing more than 29
million teachers and education workers is calling on member countries
to remove education services from the General Agreement on Trade in
Services (GATS).
"Because there are so many unanswered
questions about the impact of GATS on education, and because there is
so much at stake, we believe all members must adopt a precautionary
approach. They must neither make nor seek any commitments that
constrain the rights of government to regulate education as they see
fit, including research, audio-visual services, and libraries," stated
Thulas Nxesi, president of Education International (EI).
The
statement, adopted by participants to EI's higher education and
research meeting last week in Melbourne, Australia, also recommends
that countries make no commitments on private education services.
"As
the boundary between public and private education becomes increasingly
blurred in many countries, the danger is that commitments taken in
private education could easily expose the public system," explained
Nxesi.
Education International is also concerned about
proposals for compulsory benchmarking and plurilateral approaches to
the services negotiations. According to Nxesi, such changes would put
undue pressure on developing countries and coerce them into making more
extensive commitments in sensitive areas like education and other
public services.
In addition, Thulas Nxesi says teachers are
deeply disturbed by the recent New Zealand-led establishment of a
'friends of education exports' group that is specifically targeting
education services.
'We believe strongly that, at its root,
GATS is in conflict with educational values. The GATS is a commercial
agreement designed to expand business opportunities for investors.
Education, by contrast, is a human right that serves the public
interest and must not be treated as a commodity subject to commercial
trade rules," said Nxesi.