Education trade unions must be on board in shaping the future EU education strategy
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The Education Council of the European Union recently set out its plans for further developing the European Education Area (EEA). Meeting online due to the COVID-19 crisis, the ETUCE Bureau approved a response to the Council Resolution. We welcome the Council’s recognition the teachers must be respected and well supported if education is to help Europe meet its social goals. However, we insist that teachers and school leaders need to be well prepared for work in ever more diverse environments with an increasingly complex role in society. Moreover, education trade unions should be fully involved in planning the next steps for the EEA.
On 8 November 2019, education ministers from EU member states met at the Education Council of the European Union and adopted a Resolution on further developing the European Education Area to support future-oriented education and training systems. ETUCE experts in our Education Advisory Panel discussed the document in detail at their meeting in November 2019, developing a response to the Resolution that was adopted by the ETUCE Bureau on 30 March 2020.
This position welcomes the Council Resolution’s emphasis on the implementation of UN SDG4 and the European Pillar of Social Rights by highlighting that “The right to quality and inclusive education, training and lifelong learning should be respected at every stage of life, from early childhood to older age, and at all levels and forms of education and training, in synergy with efforts made in connection with the European Education Area.”
However, the ETUCE position also reminds the European Commission that the support of teachers is crucial for education and training systems to be of high quality, inclusive and effective. Education staff need to be highly valued within society, have decent working conditions, and receive payment equal to tertiary-level qualified professionals in other sectors. This is why the ETUCE position asks the European Commission to involve ETUCE in “taking further initiatives towards the creation of a genuine European Education Area, aiming to develop further its goals, objectives and scope and to enhance its links to the post-ET2020 strategic framework.”
Moreover, we believe that within the EEA initiative the national competence on education and training needs to be guaranteed and respected in order to enrich cultural diversity and to improve the quality and inclusiveness of schools.
ETUCE welcomes the focus of the Council resolution on the promotion of democratic citizenship, common values, sustainable development, and inclusion. At the same time we remind the Council of education ministers that teachers and school leaders need to be well prepared to work in culturally and socially diverse educational institutions and receive high quality initial and continuous professional development on teaching critical thinking, democratic values and human rights, civic engagement, and responsible and secure use of new technologies.