Brussels, 27/09/2011 (Agence Europe) - On 27 September, in plenary session, the European Parliament adopted the own-initiative report by Jean-Marie Cavada (EPP, France) on the European School system. The report sets out the advantages that national educational systems would gain if they followed the methods of the European Schools. Cavada states that, with the report, European Schools are making a great step forward for the future of young Europeans, by taking strong educational values as a basis - European citizenship, development of mobility, and language learning.
Created in 1957, the European Schools were originally intended to ensure that the children of those working in the European institutions out of their own country could have access to schooling in their mother tongue, so that they might return to their country of origin at any time. This concept evolved to adjust to the new economic and social demands. The report recommends the European School model of education should be exported to national systems, not only by developing the schools to take in children whose parents do not work for the institutions and by creating new schools at the initiative of member states, but also by integrating into national schools the concepts taken from the European Schools. The report also suggests review of the financing of European Schools, in order to lighten the weight on a number of member states. The European Schools, he said, will be able to open up to all students and become a model of inspiration for national school systems in order to promote the emergence of a European identity from the earliest age, and promote the development of mobility. For this, he went on, it is necessary to call on all member states to invest in this fundamental project. In a press release, Malika Benarab-Attou, who is coordinator for the Greens/EFA for the EP committee on education and culture, welcomes the adoption of the report which urges member states to integrate into national schools the concepts used by European Schools. She deplores the lack of measures taken to date by the member states to “Europeanise” education, despite the calls made by European bodies to bring Europe closer to young people and to promote the emergence of a European awareness. (IL/transl.jl)