The right to education and freedom of expression is under attack, says a new report from an EU thinktank.

Homophobia, biphobia and transphobia are making schools a more difficult place to work for LGBTI students and teachers.

The report was released by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), and comes only a month before leaders in education are to meet at the UNESCO summit.

It looked at 19 EU member states – including countries with progressive anti-discrimination policies like France, Denmark and the UK – but found in all countries studied, bullying remains a huge problem.

The FRA says teachers feel helpless before bullied children because of lack of knowledge about LGBT issues and because they haven’t been trained to.

None of the over 1000 teachers and officials interviewed had any training on LGBT issues as part of their training.

One said: ‘I’ve had literally no training at all about how to deal with it, so, no: I would not feel comfortable dealing with [bullying].’

Another, from Denmark, feels impotent about the issue. ‘What should I do if I think a student is [gay]? Should I interfere or not?

‘I think we are in a standstill in relation to this. We don’t know enough.’

In most countries, there is little help from external organizations, either; though, were they were present, there provided teachers with much needed information.

Interviewees expressed a demand for better anti-discrimination legislation in the union, so protect students can be protected.