More resources for study

“It is utterly unacceptable that there are still so many young people without the basic skills to read and write. This exposes them to the risk of social exclusion, makes their search for a job more difficult and reduces the quality of their life”, says Androulla Vassiliou, EU Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, in presenting a study on basic education at the European level. At the same she describes an initiative of the Executive to allocate more funds to youth, skills, and bursaries for studying abroad.Basic education. The findings of the survey, conducted by the Eurydice network and published on 11 July, show that in Europe one fifteen-year-old out of five – not to mention numerous adults – is unable to read properly. The study covers 31 countries (EU member states plus Turkey, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) and shows that “while the majority of these nations have made progress in developing policies to promote reading and writing skills, they often fail to concentrate on the groups most at risk, such as children from disadvantaged families and migrant children”. The Ministers of Education of the 27, however, as Commissioner Vassiliou points out, “have long fixed an objective to reduce the percentage of those who can’t read from the current 20% to less than 15% by 2020”: yet so far only Belgium (Flemish community), Denmark, Estonia, Finland and Poland have reached this objective. Operational proposals. The study takes into examination four main aspects: didactic approaches, how to resolve difficulties in reading, teacher training, and the promotion of reading outside the school curriculum. Another finding of the study is that “only eight countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Malta, Norway, Sweden and the UK) provide reading specialist teachers in schools to assist teacher and students” in developing literacy. On the basis of the findings set out, Vassiliou adds: “The ability to read and write the basis of any kind of learning. That’s the reason why I recently launched a literacy campaign aimed at all age groups and in particular those coming from a disadvantaged background such as Roma children”. In early 2011 Vassiliou established a special study group whose task is to promote the literacy of all age groups and to identify the political initiatives and programmes that have been shown to be effective, so as to turn them into the common patrimony of the European nations. The group has pledged to formulate operational proposals by mid-2012. Bursaries. Again in the field of education, the European Commission intends to double the number of youth, teachers and researchers who receive bursaries funded by the EU to study and take educational courses abroad. The proposal was presented by the Commission on 11 July. At the present time some 400,000 bursaries per year are awarded by the EU through its various study programmes, and the aim is now to double this figure to 800,000. That’s why the Commission has proposed an increase of funds in the EU’s multiannual financial framework for the period 2014-2020. Androulla Vassiliou insists: “Improving education and training and helping youngsters to acquire the right qualifications is essential to respond to the future needs of the labour market and combat poverty”. “We want to encourage more people to seize the opportunity to study, work or volunteer abroad, because this experience is invaluable to develop skills and improve job prospects”. These innovations are also aimed at the Europe 2020 Strategy for competitiveness, employment and social inclusion. Programmes and funds. The Executive proposes in particular a new programme for education, training and youth, called “Creative Europe”, which would comprise the old Culture, Media and Media Mundus programmes, with an allocation of 1.6 billion euro. The overall allocation in the field of education would be 15.2 million euro (+73%) over seven years. “Apart from increasing the number of bursaries for study and training – explains the Commissioner – the programme will target support at modernizing education systems, boost cross-border cooperation between education institutions and pursue policy reforms in this field. This is the highest increase in the proposed budget, underlying the priority given to investing in knowledge for the future of Europe”. The EU will further support the European Institute of Innovation and Technology and the Marie Curie Actions, which support skills, training and career development for researchers: all this will form part of the new Horizon 2020 strategy for research and innovation, “which would receive 80 billion euro under the budget proposal” over the seven-year period.