Council of Pacific Education

The Council of Pacific Education (COPE) is a regional organisation of education unions from the South Pacific Region. COPE is a sub-branch of Education International's (EI) Asia and Pacific regional division. The COPE office is based in Suva, Fiji. The current Secretary General is Neselinda Meta.

Affiliates
Australia

National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU)

Independent Education Union of Australia (IEU)

Australian Education Union (AEU)

Cook Islands

Cook Island Teachers' Institute (CITI)

Fiji

Fijian Teachers' Association (FTA)

Fiji Teachers Union (FTU)

Association of the University of South Pacific Staff (AUSPS)

Kiribati

Kiribati Nation Union of Teachers (KNUT)

New Zealand

New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI)

Post Primary Teachers' Association (PPTA)

Independent Schools Education Association of New Zealand (ISEA)

ASTE & AUS amalgamated to become Tertiary Education Union (TEU) effective 1 January 2009

Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea Teachers' Association (PNGTA)

Samoa

Samoa National Teachers' Association (SNTA)

Solomon Islands

Solomon Island National Teachers' Association (SINTA)

Tonga

Friendly Islands Teachers' Association (FITA)

Tuvalu

Tuvalu Teachers' Association (TTA)

Vanuatu

Vanuatu Teachers' Union (VTU)

Wallis and Futuna

FORCE Ouvriere Enseignement

Activities
COPE provides advice and assistance on professional, industrial, legal and human rights issues for teachers, support staff and their representative union affiliates in the region. It also acts as a clearing house for information to both its affiliates and to other organisations across the Pacific and to Education International.

COPE hosts biennial conferences to address issues facing education in the South Pacific. In August, 2008 the Roundtable and 18th Biennial Conference was held in Nadi, Fiji, together with UNESCO and UNICEF, on "Improving the Status of Teachers as per International Labour Organization (ILO)-UNESCO's 1966 Recommendation and promoting Children's Rights to Quality Education".

The topics of discussion ranged from key issues and challenges in the pacific region concerning the status of teachers, to school leadership and obstacles to children's right to education specific to the region.