Australian Education Union (AEU) federal president Anglelo Gavrielatos has resigned after serving seven years in the position.
Gavrielatos will be taking up a position with the international union, Education International. He will coordinate EI’s Global Response to Education Corporations, aimed at halting and reversing the commercialisation and privatisation of education.
“The continuing push for the commodification, marketisation, commercialisation, and ultimately, the privatisation of education, is the greatest threat to high quality education for all,” he said in a statement.
“We are already seeing the effects of this agenda with the break-up of traditional school systems such as the growth in Charter Schools in the US, the Free Schools in Sweden, Academies in the UK, more recently Partnership Schools in New Zealand, and of course the Australian Government’s IPS agenda. Worse still, we are seeing the emergence and spread of government-funded, corporation-owned for-profit schools.”
Gavrielatos will vacate the position of AEU federal president on January 31, 2015.
