European Trade Union Committee for Education

Equality experts from ETUCE Member Organisation’s from 27 countries met in Brussels on 19-20 February 2018 for this year’s Standing Committee for Equality, under the theme of “Looking forward: Education and equality”. The Committee for Equality acts as an advisory body for the ETUCE Committee and meets once a year to exchange ideas and experiences on promotion of equal opportunities in education. This year, the meeting also served as an opportunity to prepare a Resolution on Setting the priorities to develop the ETUCE Action Plan for Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion which is to be presented to the ETUCE Committee for its approval to be submitted to the upcoming ETUCE Special Conference in November.

The meeting also focused on the assessment of the implementation of previous recommendations of the Standing Committee for Equality with the aim to identify successes and challenges for education trade unions regarding the promotion of equality. Following up on recent activities and initiatives concerning equal opportunities at EU level and ETUCE’s and EI’s work in progress on equal opportunities, the meeting included two thematic discussions, “Education and Gender Equality” and “Education and migration”.

ETUCE European Director Susan Flocken stated: “The engagement of ETUCE member organisations in the Standing Committee for Equality is crucial for building comprehensive and sustainable strategies for equality based on concrete actions, as well as for providing inspirations for the education trade unions’ work at national level to promote equality in and through education”.

Rossella Benedetti (UIL Scuola-Italy), Chair of Standing Committee for Equality, was pleased to note that in recent years, the number of male members of the Standing Committee for Equality has increased.

A range of guest speakers actively contributed to the debate. This included Denitsa Sacheva (Bulgarian Deputy Minister for Education and Science), Maurizio Mosca (Stakeholder Relations Officer, EIGE), Barbara Helfferich (Policy Officer on Gender Equality, EPSU), Dianne Woloschuk (Chair of EI Status of Women Committee), and Eva Sobotka (Head of Sector Cooperation & Consultation, FRA).

Please find the pictures from the meeting here.