Shoulder to shoulder

Seen from the outside, European Churches appear exactly like many other educational structures of the EU: lively young men and women with modern attire, divided between their studies, their friends and their social life; teachers more or less happy about their students’ performance; parents concerned about their children’s future. However, visiting one of the 14 seats is enough to discover that here Finnish, Cypriot, British, Hungarian, Lithuanian and Spanish students study, eat and play shoulder to shoulder in an unusual and stimulating “super-national” environment, where European integration seems to start exactly from the future citizens of the Union.. Registration, requests on the increase. The formula is ever-more convincing: the overall population of European schools (whose webiste is www.eursc.eu) is on the increase: in 2004 nursery to high-school students were 19.862 in all, today they amount to 21.021 divided as follows: 1.944 in nursery school, 7.837 in primary school, 11.240 in secondary school. “Registration requests are increasing still”, we were told by the general secretary in Brussels. For this reason an official “recognition” is being envisaged for those institutes who will file a request. They are however requested, in order to be granted recognition, to supply information on the compliance with the school programme and with the major principles of the European Schools. In this perspective – states the secretary general – specific conventions “have been signed in Parma and in Dunshaughlin”, while the city of Heraklion is following the same approach as relates to the “nursery and primary schools”. The opening of the European school system could soon include also Helsinki, Strasbourg and Warsaw. Mother tongue and vehicular languages. As relates to the language sections which the lessons are divided into, the majority -over 24% – are French-language speakers, also since the major common institutions, from the Parliament to the Commission, from the Council to the Court of Justice, are located in cities where French is the main spoken language. English-speaking youth rank second in the list, (21%), followed by German, and by Italian, Dutch and Spanish further down the list. The students are given lessons in the language of their Country of origin. As the age-group get older, other languages come into play such as compulsory “vehicular” languages. English is chosen by 55% of students, followed at a distance by French and German. Other languages chosen include Spanish, Italian and Dutch. Among the strong point of these schools, multi-lingual teaching is one of their most outstanding training features, highly appreciated by families who have to live on a temporary or permanent basis in another Country. Curricular subjects. As relates to the subjects studied, these are developed in the two years of nursery school, in the five years of primary school and in the 7 years of secondary school. The timetable of the lessons is divided into five days a week, Saturday excluded, from morning to afternoon, exception made for one “shorter day” ending lunchtime. During the first years of education, there is greater emphasis on teaching fundamental subjects, on the language and culture of origin, on interpersonal relations and on the student’s “creativity”. As years go by, more hours are dedicated to literary subjects, to history and geography, philosophy, maths, physics, biology and chemistry. Optional courses are those on artistic and musical education, Greek and Latin, information technology, sociology and economic and social sciences. Religion classes; role of the families. The teaching of religion is compulsory in the primary as in the secondary school. In the first eight years it’s taught two hours per week, passing to one hour in the last four years of higher education. Religion is considered a fundamental element of personal formation, typical of the history, culture and tradition of the respective countries of origin. As a matter of fact, religion lessons take place in the student’s mother tongue, unless there are only few students speaking the same language, in which case the vehicular language is employed. Futhermore, in European Schools this subject entails six options, in the respect of the different religions: there is the possibility of choosing between Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Muslim, Jewish and “lay morals”. A primary role is devoted to the family. They are represented by an association assigned with the task of running major extracurricular activities like transportation and the canteen. However, parents participate through their own representatives in the management of single educational establishments and in the Council’s decisions.