International Freedom in Education Day (IFED)

Journée Internationale Pour la Liberté de l’Instruction (JIPLI)

Dear Home-educating Friends and Supporters of Freedom in Education,

The 3rd International Freedom in Education Day  (IFED) will take place on the 15 September in Europe. Activities will focus on  Tuesday, September 15th, 2009. Other events will happen throughout that week in many countries all over the world.

The aim of IFED is to promote the importance of free choice concerning the type of education that your family chooses and to spread information about alternative ways of learning that are available or are being fought for in various countries.

Free choice in education is important in all learning situations and we welcome and invite alternative movements in education, learning organisations, schools and, of course, parents and children, to take part in this global event.

On this website we will publish all the information and/or links to events on or around the 15th of September (conferences, gatherings, education fairs, etc.), where ever they may take place and in any language. So please send us your projected events.

A few examples of past events are local picnics and information tables, discussions in philosophy cafés in France, a demonstration on freedom in education in Sweden, a home education conference in Scotland, a home educators’ outing in California, and an evening conference and discussion on freedom in education in Austria .

IFED was originally initiated by home educators, which itself includes a wide variety of choices in education and methods. This choice is often legally possible but not well-known in most countries, and constantly under attack by those who think that the state alone should decide where and what children should learn. At the moment the governments of Sweden and England are planning to impose severe restrictions on home education.

We will also post links to other websites and announcements in other countries. If your native language is not English, French, German, Italian or Spanish, please send us a short English description and in your native language, of your event that you would like placed on the website.

So please tell us about your planned events, no matter how small it may seem! We’ll be great in numbers!

Contact JIPLI

Please do not hesitate to spread the information about the IFED as far as possible. We want to reach all corners of the earth!

P. S.:
Please tell us how you call “Freedom in Education Day” in your native language! We will add on our website all the translations that you send to us.