Brussels, 08/09/2006 (Agence Europe) - On Friday, the European Commission adopted a communication recommending education and training systems that are both efficient and equitable in order to support growth, employment and social cohesion. Although the modernisation of Member State systems is largely driven by the search for greater efficiency and cost effectiveness, an aim that is essential if there are to be good results, reforms must not be carried out to the detriment of equity, the Commission stresses.
Pointing out that the will to invest more and better in human capital is at the heart of the Lisbon Strategy, the Commission considers that education and training policies should aim to strengthen knowledge, skills and competences of individuals, especially the most disadvantaged. They should thus increase efficiency by raising the average skill level in the population, and reduce inequality by improving the life opportunities of those most in need by narrowing the gap between the best and the worst qualified individuals. “These are not mutually exclusive objectives”, the Commission stresses, proposing four fields of action for Member States: 1) more pre-primary education. Results from a number of Member States show that pre-primary education yields the highest returns in terms of the achievement and social adaptation of children. It is the most effective means to establish the basis for further learning, preventing school drop-out, increasing equity of outcomes and overall skill levels. 2) no separation of pupils into educational “tracks” at too early an age: . This practice has been found to exacerbate the effect of socio-economic background on educational attainment and does not raise efficiency in the long run. 3) Contrary to what is often assumed, entirely state-funded “free” systems of higher education do not guarantee equitable access and participation. Those systems entirely funded by the State may bring about a reverse distribution from the poor to the rich, since all taxpayers, including those who have not benefited from higher education, bear the cost of the system. The Commission underlines the importance of generating higher investment for higher education from public and private sources, including through tuition fees, combined with support targeted at socially disadvantaged students. 4) Member States need to develop a “culture of evaluation”. When deciding on their investment priorities, Member States must first understand what is happening in their education and training systems. Since the results of investment in education and training only build up over time, they will need a statistical infrastructure capable of collecting appropriate data, and mechanisms to assess progress and measure success. ”The inequities in education and training have huge hidden costs which are rarely shown in public accounting systems. If we forget the social dimension of education and training, we risk incurring huge corrective costs later on”, Jan Figel, European Commissioner for Education, warned. The Commissioner also announced that a conference would be held on this in Helsinki during September under Finnish Presidency.