What’s the situation of schools?

Demographic transformations are influencing primary education; the percentage of young people attending higher schools and universities is growing; the scope for autonomy of individual schools is growing. These are some of the findings that emerge from the recent Report on education in the European Union drawn up by the Commission.Formation and social cohesion. The Report, conducted in the 27 member states of the EU plus Turkey, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, is based on 121 key indicators. In presenting the research, EU Commissioner for Education Jan Figel emphasized “the challenges we will have to tackle in the future”, including the possible reduction of the number of children of school age due to the ageing of the population and, at the same time, the predictable and “massive” pensioning off of ageing school teachers. Figel added on the other hand: “Adult education is becoming an ever more important reality and represents an essential factor of social cohesion” and an instrument geared to economic development. Less children in the classroom? The first finding that emerges from the Report, drawn up in collaboration with the Eurydice network (www.Eurydice.org), is linked to the projections of the demographic data, which “indicate a contraction of the school population” in nursery and primary schools in conjunction with a possible shortage of teachers as a result of all those due to retire in the next few years having reached pensionable age. A reflection follows from this: “Though these trends pose a challenge to educational systems, they represent at the same time an opportunity to modernize and update these systems, making them more effective and focused on the quality” of the service.Higher education is growing. The second finding is linked to “the prolongation of compulsory schooling”. This “will require an increase of classes in higher education”. Today “compulsory schooling lasts 9 or 10 years in the majority of countries”; but a child aged five today will presumably remain at school for up to 17 years. And the average trend is growing”. In some countries, stresses the Report, “reforms have been carried out that tend to reduce the rate with which children abandon school”, as in the Netherlands. In general, “the number of students in higher education has constantly grown since 1998 and now exceeds 18 million, equivalent to a growth of 25%” in recent years. This will require an upgrading of the service currently provided.Greater autonomy and higher quality. The third point to be borne in mind in the future of education in the 27 member states of the EU concerns the fact that schools are being given – albeit with considerable differences from one country to the next – growing margins of autonomy, while pari passu measures are being taken systematically to assess curricula, results and teaching staff. “It can be asserted – says the EU Report – that ever since 2000, mentalities have evolved in the field of European education as far as quality is concerned”, but “differences remain in policies and practices relating to the publication of the results of studies”. The Report makes a series of other observations on various other aspects of education: variety of the educational offer; what countries spend more per capita for schooling; how many hours of work teachers are contractually bound to perform in each nation; and what are the rates of university matriculation in each country.European Union, on-line education. “Welcome to the teachers’ corner, the portal that presents a rich sample of educational material on Europe”. On its portal europa.eu or on the website www.europa.eu/teachers-corner the EU is offering an internet space entirely dedicated to teachers in schools of every grade and kind. The educational material on offer is produced by various European institutions “to inform youth about the European Union and its policies”. Various brochures, books, maps, images and posters are made available (all downloadable free of charge); all of them explain “what the EU is and what it does: various issues and problems of contemporary society are tackled, for example what we can do to protect the environment, or how to live together in a peaceful world”. The documents are intended to help teachers prepare their lessons or to provide specific information on European history or citizenship or on other specific topics. For example, a brochure called “Unity in diversity” is available for children up to the age of 9; it presents the diversity and variety of the EU (cultures, peoples, artistic heritage, nature, currency…). The EU furnishes other sources and materials on-line in the educational field. For teachers and children the website europa.eu/europago is available. For teenagers, on the other hand, a great deal of useful information on what you need to study in another country can be found on the website europa.eu/youth. The EU programme that deals with education, from nursery schools to universities, is called Comenius. Information on European projects for education can be found on the website http://ec.europa.eu/education.