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Friday, 29.03.2024, 00:07
Creating European Education Area: challenges for the Baltic States
In March 2017, the EU member states adopted a Rome
declaration aimed at creating a "Union where young people receive the
best education and training and can study and find jobs across the continent."
The declaration asserts that education and culture can be an important
“instrument” in tackling the challenges of an ageing workforce, continued
digitalisation, future needs for skills, the need to promote critical thinking
and media literacy at a time when “alternative facts” and disinformation are
often proliferating online.
Thus the Rome declaration is aimed at creating a new EU “educational
union”, where young people would receive
best education and training with open possibilities to study across Europe.
The declaration confirmed the states’ four commitments in
their educational policies towards closer connections with modern European and
global challenges: a) safe and secure Europe; b) prosperous and sustainable growth;
c) “social Europe”, i.e. a union based on economic and social progress with
adequate cohesion and convergence; and d) stronger Europe on the global scene.
About Rome
Declaration: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_STATEMENT-17-767_en.htm
According to Rome-2017 declaration, the European Area of Education, EAE
shall include the following 11 elements (seen as a cooperative task of the
EU and the member states):
- Making students mobility a reality for
all, by building on the positive experiences of the Erasmus+ programme
and the European Solidarity Corps; and by creating an EU
Student Card to offer a new user-friendly way to store
information on a person's academic records;
- Mutual recognition of diplomas by
initiating a new “Sorbonne process”, building
on the "Bologna process", to prepare the ground for the mutual
recognition of higher education and school leaving diplomas;
- Greater cooperation on curricula
development by making recommendations to ensure that education programs
and systems include all knowledge, skills and competences needed both for
the states’ structural reforms and modern global employment trends;
- Improving language learning by
setting a new benchmark for
all young Europeans finishing upper secondary education to have a good
knowledge of two languages in
addition to their mother tongue(s) by 2025;
- Promoting lifelong learning by
seeking convergence and increasing the share of people engaging in
learning throughout their lives with the aim of reaching 25% by 2025;
- Mainstreaming innovation and digital
skills in education by promoting innovative and digital training and
preparing for a new Digital Education Action Plan;
- Supporting teachers by multiplying
the number of teachers participating in the Erasmus+ programme and
eTwinning network and offering policy guidance on the professional
development of teachers and school leaders;
- Creating a network of European
universities so that best European universities can work together
with others, as well as supporting the establishment of a School of European and Transnational
Governance;
- Investing in education by using the
European Semester to support structural reforms to improve education
policy, by using EU funding and EU
investment instruments to fund education and setting a benchmark
for EU states to invest 5% of
GDP in education.
- Preserving cultural heritage and fostering a sense of European
identity and culture by developing a European Agenda for
Culture (using the momentum of the 2018 European
Year of Cultural Heritage) and preparing a Council Recommendation on common values,
inclusive education and the European dimension of teaching.
- Strengthening
the European dimension of Euronews (created in 1993 by a number of
European public broadcasters), with the ambition of having a European
channel offering access to independent, high quality information with a
pan-European perspective.
More information in:
- A series of Factsheets on strengthening European Identity through Education and Culture; - Strategic note by the European Political Strategy Centre (EPSC) on the 10 trends transforming education as we know it;
-Commission's
Education and Training Monitor 2017: key figures on where the education and
training stand in the EU. Source: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-17-4521_en.htm
LV version: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-17-4521_lv.htm
Ordination in the common education area
According to the EU
treaties, education (as well as culture, sport, tourism and even industrial
development, to name a few) is a supplementary and coordinating activity of the
Union’s institutions. The legal presumption that the EU can only “coordinate”
education process in the member states seems inefficient, i.e. additional
measures are needed. The main reason is digitalisation, quick changing in
needed people skills and new professions, as well as finding additional financial
support. Besides, common “European education area” (EEA) is urgently needed to
tackle such issues as mutual recognition of diplomas, additional language
learning, a quality framework for early childhood education and care, a
European “agenda for culture”, and a new EU “youth strategy”.
European societies and economies are experiencing
significant digital and technological innovations as well as labour market and
demographic changes. Many of today's jobs did not exist a decade ago and many
new forms of employment will be created in the future. In the “White Paper on
the Future of Europe”, the Commission highlighted “it is likely that most
children entering primary school today will end up working in new job types
that do not yet exist” and that coping with this “will require a massive
investment in skills and a major rethink of education and lifelong learning
systems” .
Citation and references from: European Commission’s “White
Paper on the Future of Europe” (2017) in: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/white-paper-future-europereflections-and-scenarios
European economies rely heavily on highly educated and competent people. Skills such as creativity, critical thinking, taking initiative and problem solving play an important role in coping with complexity and change in a modern society.
Commission “Reflection Paper on Harnessing
Globalisation” recognises that new ways of learning, as well as more flexible
training and educational models, are needed for a society which is becoming
increasingly mobile and digital.
Reference: European Commission’s “Reflection Paper on
Harnessing Globalisation”, (2017) in: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/publications/reflection-paper-harnessing-globalisation_en
Besides, the Commission reflection on “European social dimension”
emphasises the importance of acquiring the right set of skills and competences
to sustain living standards in Europe and competitive advantages in the world. Commission
communication on strengthening European identity through education and culture,
has set its vision to create a European Education Area by 2025. However, the member
states in December 2017 expressed their quite modest intention “to do more in
the area of education”.
The EU Commissioner
for education and culture’s issues (Tibor Navracsics) argued that although education had been the responsibility
of the states, the EU works to “step up union’s cooperation”. Modern
education potentials shall be used in building resilient societies, creating a
sense of belonging and enabling people to experience numerous variations in the
European identity. Hence, the idea of a “true European education area” has
appeared, which, among other things, would be boosting language
learning, ensuing that diplomas are recognised in all Union states, that
European universities maximise their cooperation, and that studying in another
EU country becomes easier than ever before. Thus, very concrete steps
are needed in the member states towards making EEA a reality.
See more in: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-18-388_en.htm
Lessons from the past: more inclusive and resilient societies needed
Education in the member states is already on top of the
political agenda. After years of crisis, the member states are making efforts
to create resilient societies equipped with necessary skills to withstand future
economic and societal challenges. In the “new world” with the harnessing
globalisation it is important both to consolidate social cohesion and eliminate
inequalities as the biggest obstacles to education quality.
The member states have to recognise that long-term
challenges are not less important than short-term ones. In the past few years,
education has been somehow absent from the political scene. However, the power
of education and culture plays important part in fostering cohesion.
During last couple of years, the EU was facing the most
serious crisis of legitimacy since its foundation, when millions of citizens
were doubting the EU's raison d'être; though the states generally recognised the resounding success of
the Erasmus programme. This shows the tangible impact and clear added value
European education policy brings to millions of citizens.
It is obvious that modern societies have become less
cohesive, and they will take time to fully recover; even Commission’s people
argue that the EU is now less equal than before.
Therefore, the EU’s duty is two-fold: to re-engage with
those who feel left behind, and to build more inclusive and resilient societies.
Most important, the states should be building modern societies on a solid basis
of common values and sense of belonging.
It is time to rediscover the value of national and European values
and address upfront the role of education in promoting them. The supporting
task of the EU is to lay the foundations for a solid European Education Area
and to build it on the basis of a clear vision for achievements by 2025.
Creating a more solid EEA’s foundations, more excellence and
innovation, more equity and inclusion and more exchanges among pupils, students
and teachers is needed.
The states will share their knowledge and experience
bringing fresh perspectives and ideas to this process from all walks of life: people
with disabilities, experts bringing excellence and a sense of belonging to the
most deprived areas; people who are using culture as an incredibly effective
vector of integration; dreamers who are testing new approaches in their own
schools as well as teaching disciplines that are wrongly perceived as being
difficult.
Besides, representatives of the private sector shall be
encluded, i.e. people who are enabling young people to develop entrepreneurial
mind-sets, and others who are committed to equipping them with robust digital
skills to turn them into active users and responsible citizens of the digital
world.
Efficiency issues in education policy
First European Education Summit (January 25, 2018) was acting
as a catalyst for greater political ambition. Commissioner Navracsics expressed
hope that every second year, member states’ leaders and all interested parties would
meet to discuss the state of education in the EU.
Jonathan Swift once said: “Vision is the art of seeing
invisible things”; present
EU actions would make sure that modern steps towards adequate education
policies produce tangible results.
Source: European
Commission, speech by Commissioner Navracsics, 25.01.2018 in:
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_SPEECH-18-446_en.htm
The summit’s aim was broadly formulated in its title: “Laying the foundations of a European
Education Area: for an innovative, inclusive and values-based education”. Thus,
the Summit focused on such issues as: quality, inclusive and
values-based education to contribute to a “successful Europe”; workers’ competences
and skills needed for the decades to come (including basic, digital and
entrepreneurial skills), as well as the importance of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) in
education and the role children play in helping to transform societies.
The summit addressed decision makers in the states’ education
policy, i.e. those who would translate new ideas into policy reforms and practical
steps on the ground.
Participants expressed intentions to “advance in overcoming
well-known challenges: improving basic skills after the recent poor PISA
results and defining what skills are needed, how to equip young people with the
right attitudes, how to foster horizontal skills”.
“Common vision” of the European education Area for 2025
suggested that education policies shall be “values based, inclusive and
innovative”.
This education summit presented a first package of
initiatives to start building the European education area (EEA). Among most
important are the following measures:
- Digitalisation
on education: to ensure that young people are both digitally confident and
also digitally competent;
- Providing
for eight most important “Key Competences for every European” to learn
throughout life;
- Promoting
European common values in the European dimension of teaching: learning the
EU history (and that of Europe, in general) will encourage pupils to
embrace common values, heritage and identity and better understand European
shared roots.
- Providing
possibilities in early childhood education and care, as a prerequisite for
such issues as equality and inclusion to start in the classroom;
- Language
learning so that Europeans speak two languages in addition to their mother
tongue; and
- Mutual
recognition of university diplomas to enable more mobility.
These proposals will help shape the outline of a true
European Education Area and that the EU states will embrace them for what they
are: an ambitious attempt to set common objectives and seek convergence in full
respect of national competences.
Modern steps in the EU new “education union”
In November 2017, the Commission presented a Communication
on strengthening European identity through education and culture. In this Communication,
the Commission set out its vision for the creation of a European Education Area
by 2025 to harness the full potential of education as a driver for job
creation, economic growth, social fairness as well as a means to experience
European identity in all its diversity.
More on the issue in: Commission press release “Future of
Europe: Towards a European Education Area by 2025”, in: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-17-4521_en.htm
Following the Gothenburg summit recommendations (November 2017),
the Commission proposed new education policy’s initiatives (January 2018), intended
to reduce socio-economic inequalities and sustain competitiveness while
creating a united, stronger and more democratic European Union. These educational
initiatives include:
- Recommendation
on key competences for lifelong learning to improve the
development of key competences of people of all ages throughout their
lives and to provide guidance to the states on how to achieve this
objective. A particular focus is placed on promoting entrepreneurial drive
and innovation-oriented mind-sets in order to unlock personal potential,
creativity and self-initiative spirit among citizens.
See more on “key competences” in: the Council’s paper (Brussels,
17.1.2018), COM (2018) 24 final in: https://ec.europa.eu/education/sites/education/files/recommendation-key-competences-lifelong-learning.pdf
Digital education action plan outlining the EU measures to help people, educational institutions and training systems in the member states better adapt to life and work in an age of rapid digital changes.
- Recommendation
on common European values in education, to be included in the
member states education and teaching policies in order to help young
people understand the importance of European values in member states’
education and culture. The EU law (art. 2 TFEU) on common values is aimed at
strengthening European social cohesion while contributing to fighting
populism, xenophobia and divisive nationalism, which creates disunity.
The Commission will present further initiatives in spring
2018, which would include proposals on the mutual recognition of diplomas,
language learning, a quality framework for early childhood education and care,
a European Agenda for Culture, and a new EU Youth Strategy.
The EU member states have to make efforts towards doubling
the number of young people participating in the EU’s Erasmus+ program by 2025,
which will require a European budget of €29.4 bln for the period 2021-27.
Furthermore, the Commission will work on a network of European universities and
a new EU student card; the latter will make studying in another EU country
easier than ever before.
The EU Education Ministers decided that the second European
Education Summit will take place in autumn
2019.
More information on EU education policy in the following web sites: - European Education Summit website;
- Factsheet on the European Education Area;
- Factsheet on Key Competences for Lifelong Learning;
- Factsheet on the Digital Education Action Plan;
- Factsheet on promoting common values, inclusive education, and the European dimension of teaching;
- Communication on Strengthening European Identity through Education and Culture;
- Education
& Training Monitor 2017.
General source: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-18-388_en.htm;
Latvian version on: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-18-388_lv.htm