Education International
Report of the EI Taskforce on Globalization, GATS and Vocational Education
A. Introduction
Education International has long been concerned about the growing threats posed to education at all levels as a result of economic globalization and trade liberalization. EI believes that negotiations taking place under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), as well as numerous regional and bilateral treaties, could have the effect of intensifying and locking-in the pressures of commercialization and privatization. Left unabated, this could create significant challenges for students and teachers, and could potentially undermine the quality and accessibility of education.
Vocational education and training (VET) is particularly vulnerable to the pressures of globalization, commercialization and trade liberalization. Once the primary responsibility of public educational institutions in many countries, the provision of vocational education now straddles the public, private and for-profit sectors. Market-led economic globalization and labour market deregulation has intensified the commercialization of vocational education at both the national and international levels. Meanwhile, a further immediate danger is arising as vocational education services are being explicitly targeted in the current round of GATS negotiations.
In short, systems of vocational education and training are facing unprecedented challenges. The forces of economic globalization, rapid technological changes, commercialization, privatization and deregulation are radically re-shaping the vocational education and training landscape. What is taught, where it is taught how it is taught and even who is teaching it is being transformed.
On the basis of the resolution adopted at the IVth World Congress in Porto Alegre, EI established this task force to further investigate the current threats posed to vocational education from economic globalization, and to recommend ways to protect the integrity of vocational education, its students, and teachers. In undertaking this work, the task force faced one immediate challenge in coming to a common understanding of what is meant by vocational education and training. There are large differences between countries with respect to both the content and the organization of VET.[1] In many countries, vocational education and training is understood primarily as post-compulsory education and training, excluding degree and higher level programs delivered by higher education institutions, and providing students with occupational or work-related knowledge and skills. In other countries, however, VET refers to upper secondary education that leads to competence in a skilled craft or to further training as an apprentice. This report, therefore, should be read against this backcloth, with the recognition that descriptions and analyses will not always apply for all countries.
This report begins by highlighting the basic principles of VET that we believe EI needs to more fully assert in countering the market-driven logic that is predominate today. We then outline what is at stake for vocational education in the current GATS negotiations and argue that EI must continue its efforts to ensure that the outcome of the talks do not subject VET to legally-enforceable commercial rules. We conclude by summarizing a number of key recommendations for EI and its affiliates aimed at carrying forward this work.
B. General Principles
1. Education: A Universal Human Right
As stated in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has the right to education, and “[t]echnical and professional education shall be made generally available….” All individuals have the right to equal access to education at all levels and at any age without discrimination and without financial ability to pay determining the ability to pursue studies.
Access to education at all levels is critical to the self-development of all individuals and is the foundation upon which active and democratic citizenship is built. The full participation of citizens in the social, cultural, political and economic life of their communities is largely facilitated by the knowledge, understanding and skills acquired through education.
EI believes that promoting greater access to vocational education and training is particularly important because of the very crucial role it plays in providing opportunities for people from all backgrounds, including those who have been marginalised in the labour market.
2. The Goals of Vocational Education
Educational institutions at all levels must provide individuals with a range of knowledge and skills that allow them to not only pursue meaningful work, but also to participate fully in all aspects of social life. This principle is enunciated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states that “[e]ducation shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.”
As such, vocational education should never be focussed solely on the training of individuals for specific labour market tasks. It must, in addition to assisting students with the acquisition of practical skills, provide them with general knowledge and understanding. As stated in the UNESCO Convention on Technical and Vocational Education (1989):
Technical and vocational education programmes should meet the technical requirements of the occupational sectors concerned and also provide the general education necessary for the personal and cultural development of the individual and include, inter alia, social, economic and environmental concepts relevant to the occupation concerned.
This comprehensive approach to vocational education, however, is today being challenged by a number of forces. Globalization and the emergence of the so-called “knowledge-based economy” have led many governments and employers to press for the deregulation of labour markets. This in turn is leading to the introduction of reforms to vocational education and training systems. Invariably, these reforms have been dominated by narrowly prescribed economic motivations to ensure vocational education and training more directly contributes to economic competitiveness by enhancing specific skills and competencies of individuals in response to narrowly-defined industrial demands. VET must always be sensitive to labour market demands, but it should do so without sacrificing the commitment to providing students with general knowledge.
3. Education: A Public Good
Education at all levels is devoted to human development and the progress of society. As such, EI strongly believes that education — including vocational education and training — should be viewed as a public good and not a private commodity. Education should be governed by strong public service principles that emphasize accountability, quality, access and equality of opportunity.
As a public good, the transmission of knowledge and skills that enable people to play their roles as active citizens is a collective responsibility, falling primarily to states. Governments therefore have a critical role to play in funding and regulating a comprehensive and high quality vocational education system that is widely accessible.
The commercialization, individualisation and privatization of vocational education must be strongly resisted. There is ample evidence to show that the private and for-profit provision of vocational education is driven more by financial and commercial imperatives than by educational, skills formation, equity or public policy objectives. In many cases, resources are diverted from the direct delivery of education to administration and marketing, and cost-reduction is given higher priority than quality improvement. Further, the commercialization, individualization and privatization of vocational education has provided governments with an excuse to decrease the level of their funding. The ascendancy of human capital theory in vocational education and training policy in some countries has led to increasingly narrow definitions of skills, and an increased emphasis on the notion of individual benefit, as opposed to public good, in the debate about funding of the sector.
4. Pursuing Quality Vocational Education
EI believes that quality education is only possible when teachers and staff enjoy decent terms and conditions of employment. Without a dedicated and highly qualified corps of teaching and general staff, quality vocational education is simply not possible.
With the pursuit of industry-driven reforms and deregulation in many countries, however, vocational teachers see that the quality of education they can offer is being compromised. This is witnessed in the enormous growth in teachers’ workloads, the lack of support services, and the increase in precarious employment. Economic globalization seems to be accelerating these trends.
In addition, teachers are increasingly not part of curriculum development or the assessment process. Employers and certification agencies are now demanding a greater say over the curricula and are setting new skill standards and certification requirements. Traditionally, in most countries, teachers in vocational education and training worked collaboratively and in partnership with governments, industry organisations, and trade unions to develop relevant curriculum materials and appropriate mechanisms for assessment and certification. This interaction, when properly balanced, has been vital in the successful development of VET.
In many countries, however, this collaborative model is increasingly being replaced by one in which industry exclusively develops the skill needs, assessment criteria and even the certification tests which then become the standard job requirement. Trade unions are increasingly being left out of the process, and VET teachers are being relegated to mere program deliverers who are expected to teach to externally developed assessment criteria.
5. The International Dimension of Vocational Education
The sharing of knowledge and skills, and the mobility of students and teachers across borders is important to the development of education and should be encouraged. However, EI believes strongly that this international exchange must be fair and must be based on educational values, not commercial imperatives.
Today, international vocational education is dominated largely by commercial values. In particular, the number of private and for-profit on-line training programs has exploded, raising a number of concerns and challenges. E-learning and e-training initiatives, when done properly, can be useful supplements to traditional educational and training practices, and can provide for greater access for individuals not able to attend a classroom. However, from a pedagogical point of view, e-learning can never be a substitute for in-class instruction or direct contact with an instructor.
On-line learning can also lead to deskilling of teachers through the fragmentation and segmentation of tasks. Moreover, providers of dubious quality are using internet-based education and training simply to cut costs by undermining teachers’ working conditions, particularly in off-shore provision. These providers are routinely able to by-pass established quality and audit procedures.
Furthermore, an unresolved issue in this cross-border supply of vocational education is the appropriateness of transmitting curricula developed within one national framework to students in another. The danger is that local curricula needs that are often culturally and linguistically specific will be ignored, threatening and undermining aspects of cultural identity and amplifying existing inequalities.
Finally, while globalization has facilitated the international mobility of students and teachers, this has had a devastating impact on many developing countries. The “brain drain” of highly skilled individuals from the developing to the developed world threatens to further hollow out the vocational education systems of poorer countries. Moreover, demographic trends and the emergence of a skills shortage in many developed countries, threatens to exacerbate the brain drain.
C. The GATS:
What’s at Stake for Vocational Education?
At its root, the globalization of vocational education and training is being driven by interests whose aim is to create a global and commodified market. In recent years, one major way that this is being promoted is through international trade agreements, such as the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).
1. What is the GATS?
The General Agreement on Trade in Services, or GATS, is one of several agreements adopted in 1994 as part of the newly-established World Trade Organization (WTO). The GATS is a multilateral agreement that defines restrictions on a broad range of government measures that affect the trade in services. Such restrictions are legally enforceable and can be backed up by WTO-endorsed trade sanctions.
As part of a built-in work programme, members of the WTO were mandated to re-launch GATS negotiations in 2000 with the goal of further liberalizing trade in services. Negotiations to expand the scope of the original GATS began in February, 2000 and were subsequently rolled into the so-called “single-undertaking” of the Doha Development Round launched in the Qatari capital in 2001.
Talks were supposed to conclude by January, 2005 but the deadline has now been extended several times. In July 2006, negotiations were suspended but could resume again at moment.
2. Scope and Coverage of the GATS
The GATS is a comprehensive agreement that covers all government measures “affecting trade in services.” Any national and sub-national government rule or regulation that in any way affects the trade in services is subject to GATS and is open to a possible legal challenge from other WTO members.
Only government procurement is explicitly excluded from the GATS. All other laws, regulations, rules, procedures, decisions, standards, administrative actions, and guidelines are covered by the scope of the agreement. Some specific types of measures covered by the GATS include, but are not limited to the following:
· subsidies and grants;
· nationality requirements;
· residency requirements;
· performance requirements;
· local content provisions;
· licensing or training requirements;
· tax measures;
· licensing standards; and
· technology transfer requirements.
a) All modes of supply are covered
The GATS is much more than a traditional free trade agreement. Because it covers every possible way of providing a service internationally, the GATS is best seen simultaneously as a trade agreement, a multilateral investment agreement, and a labour mobility agreement.
The GATS identifies and covers the following four “modes of supply” or ways of trading services internationally:
1) Cross-border supply. This describes services supplied from the territory of one member country to another member country. It applies to all services provided through international mail, telephone, fax, teleconference, and the Internet. In the case of vocational education, an example of cross-border supply would be on-line training and certification programs offered by providers in other countries.
2) Consumption abroad. This mode of supply describes the situation when a consumer of one country travels to another country to purchase a service. For example, this would apply students attending a school or training program in another country.
3) Commercial presence. This refers to services provided by a supplier of one member who is physically present in the territory of another. This covers all foreign direct investment related to services, such as the establishment of overseas branch schools and campuses.