Brussels, 16/07/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday, the European Commission launched a public consultation exercise entitled “Schools for the 21st Century” to seek views about the development and modernisation of school education in the member states. The aim is to identify those areas where joint action at the European Union level could effectively support the member states in their own school modernisation efforts. The Commission already promotes policy cooperation and facilitates the exchange of information, data and best practices. The focus of this policy cooperation has increasingly shifted towards the issue of school education in recent years, as Europe faces a number of challenges: young people leaving school prematurely, deficiencies in reading skills, continuing gender disparities in the study of some subjects, such as Maths and Science. The public consultation document outlines eight different fields in which there is significant room for improvement, and on which some form of joint action could be beneficial: the curriculum, lifelong learning, the economy, equity, inclusion, citizenship and democracy, teachers and management. The consultation exercise will run until 15 October 2007. The questionnaire will be available in all official languages and is open to stakeholders and the general public (http: //ec.europa.eu/dgs/education_culture/consult/index_en.html). The findings of this Europe-wide exercise will inform a formal policy statement, in the form of a communication, by the European Commission. (il)