affirm that teachers ought to be qualified to teach, including perfect command of the language in which they are expected to teach.20 This court case illustrates the abyss between vast parts of the world where most teachers are untrained, and small parts where teachers’ qualifications are strictly controlled. South Africa’s Constitutional Court has addressed one frequent remedy for the lack of teachers, the resort to ‘contract teachers.’ Disfavouring this remedy, it has also faulted a requirement for teachers to be citizens. The Court has found that ‘non-citizens are a minority in all countries and have little political muscle,’ rejected the government’s justification for denying teaching posts to non-citizens so as to provide employment to its own citizens, and gave the highest priority to the provision of quality education.21 The teachers’ status as civil and/or public servants, which is particularly widespread for primary school teachers, often leads to the denial of their trade union freedoms as well as collective bargaining, while a definition of teaching as an essential service leads to the denial of the teachers’ right to strike. Trade union freedoms and labour rights for teachers, much as for other professions, form part of basic international labour standards, which are legally enforceable in many countries as well as internationally. Denials of the right to form trade unions, dismissals of striking teachers (or their punishment by internal exile, transfers, or reduced salaries), anti-union discrimination, harassment, arrests or murders of trade union leaders, have affected teachers in many countries. ILO Freedom of Association Committee has consistently rejected assertions that teaching is an essential service and has affirmed that teachers have the right to strike, stating that ‘the right to strike can only be restricted and even prohibited in the public service (public employees being those who act as agents of the public authority) or in the essential services in the strict sense of the term (i.e. those services whose interruption would endanger the life, personal safety or health of the whole or part of the population).22 The Committee has reaffirmed the teachers’ right to strike: ‘the right to strike [is] one of the fundamental rights of workers and their organizations; it is one of the essential means through which they may promote and defend their occupational interests.’23 Moreover, the ILO has affirmed that besides safeguarding their occupational interests, trade unions ‘should be able to have recourse to protest strikes, in particular aimed at criticising a government’s economic and social policies.’24 A complaint by two university teachers, who had been arrested for the offence of lèse-majesté (‘outrage au Chef de 20 Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission of Australia – Maria D’Souza v. Peter Geyer and Directorate of School Education, No. H94/100, 1995–1996, and T. v Department of Education of the State of Victoria, No. H96/149, 1 July 1997. 22 Freedom of Association Committee – 272nd Report, Case No. 1503 (Peru), para. 117. 23 Freedom of Association Committee – 277th Report, Case No. 1528 (Germany), para. 285. 24 Freedom of Association Committee – 304th Report, Case No. 1863 (Guinea), para. 358. 21 Constitutional Court of South Africa – Larbi-Odam v. The Member of the Executive Council for Education (North-West Province), SA 745 (CC), 1998. 24 Right to Education Primers No. 3