John Bangs
John Bangs is Chair of the OECD's Trade Union Advisory Committee's Working Group on Education, Training and Employment Policy and is also Senior Consultant to Education International for work in the OECD.
Until 1990 he was a teacher for twenty years in a school for children with special educational needs in London's East End and then joined the National Union of Teachers as its Head of Education and Equality before retiring in 2010 to work with EI and Cambridge University.
Reflections on the International Summit on the Teaching Profession 2013
The first two Summits in New York were always going to be a tough act to follow. They were the brainchild of the two US teacher unions, the NEA and the AFT and the US Education Secretary. The third ISTP hosted by the Netherlands with its EI affiliates had to demonstrate that the initial Summits were not just events unique to the US but could be part of a continuing commitment by OECD member countries. Did it achieve this goal? ...
World Teachers' Day reflection
I’ve just come back from a speaking at a panel at UNESCO’s World Teachers’ Day celebration. Chaired by EI’s Deputy General Secretary David Edwards, its speakers ranged from Ron Thorpe, Chair of the US’ National Board for Professional Teaching Standards through to Sofialaetica Morales, Senior adviser on the Millenium Development Goals, and Aniceto Sobrepena, President of the MetroBank Foundation in the Philippines. The messages from the panel were very clear- nothing matters more than developing the teaching profession –in partnership ...
Opportunities for growth: Inclusive education for the future
Suddenly the majority of countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development are talking about growth. The words on the lips of everybody who attended the OECD’s Forum last week went further. ‘Inclusive growth’ are the watchwords. The OECD’s homepage makes it clear that the financial crisis is hitting the poorest the hardest and that social inclusion must be the objective of countries’ growth policies. This stark, and I have to say welcome, assessment of the threat facing societies, either ...