European Trade Union Committee for Education

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ETUCE European Director Susan Flocken participated in the official closing event New Digital Education Action Plan (DEAP) Open Public Consultation. This public consultation, launched in June, aimed to gather the views of citizens and stakeholders in the field. The ETUCE has been an important contributor and closely follows the development of the New DEAP. 

This month, the Commission will adopt a New Digital Education Action Plan, responding to the COVID-19 crisis and contemporary stakes. Reflecting ETUCE’s role in this process, ETUCE European Director, Susan Flocken, participated in the official closing discussions on adapting to and drawing lessons from the COVID-19 crisis. She presented the ETUCE’s analyses and strategy for future recovery, “The road to recovery from the COVID-19 crisis” and emphasised the need to elaborate in close cooperation with education trade unions comprehensive policies that enable education personnel to contribute to tackling the growing digital skills gap and to ensuring that no student is left behind.

The plenary session that followed was livestreamed and can be retrieved on the European Commission website  and the social media channels of the European Commission, including Erasmus + and EUDigitalEducation.

ETUCE has been present throughout the process, presenting recommendations on building a fair, inclusive, and comprehensive digital education policy that puts teachers and education personnel front and centre in policy design and implementation. The European Parliament Committee for Education and Culture, recently published a working document in which it made recommendations in line the demands we voiced since 2018 and the adoption of the DEAP. Though some of the barriers to inclusion were still overlooked, ETUCE welcomed this positive step.