Brussels, 16/02/2009 (Agence Europe) - Education ministers met up on Monday 16 February in Brussels, under the chairmanship of Czech minister, Ondrej Liska. Ministers said that it was currently unrealistic to establish new reference criteria in the strategic framework for European cooperation in the area of education and training. During the day, member states also adopted key messages in education and training, which will be sent to heads of state and governments during the Spring Summit.
The current economic slowdown is underlining the need to step up efforts in education and update existing competencies and acquire new ones in an attempt to relaunch the economy. Member states' key messages underlined that this is why long term investment in knowledge and qualifications are essential and have to continue today more than ever. The Council insisted that, “it is precisely why the economy is going badly that we must relentlessly highlight the fact that it is very important strategically to maintain open, efficient and high quality education and training systems because they help in the long term to enhance competitiveness as well as social cohesion and active citizenship”. It is therefore asking for more attention to be paid to the strategic framework for European cooperation in the area of education and training, which is currently being elaborated ahead of developments involving the Lisbon process. In this connection, ministers held a debate on what reference criteria to maintain and those that should be added post-2010 (see below). The Council explains that it is an absolute imperative that in an effort to meet the continuously renewed demands in the labour market, cooperation and partnerships between education and training institutions on the one hand and employers on the other are encouraged to help improve citizens' long term employability. Mobility and learning abroad must also become the norm and not the exception. The spirit of enterprise, creativity and linguistic competency also have to developed further.
The exchange of views on implementation of a new framework for cooperation in education and training (which should lead to a political agreement at the Council's next Council in May) very clearly demonstrated consensus between member states on not establishing new reference criteria, which they regard as unrealistic at the current time. Member states stated that instead of scattering their efforts by adding new criteria, they should focus on objectives already established and which had not yet produced the results expected. They were in unanimous agreement with the Commission on maintaining the four reference criteria that have so far not been successful and which should be transposed in a way that is more adapted to the economic situation. They also promised to pursue cooperation in this area. The European Commission effectively proposed to increase efforts in: 1) reducing early drop out rates in schools; 2) increasing secondary school completion rates; 3) increasing rates of participation in adult education and life long learning; 4) mastering basic skills. Delegations generally agreed with the European Commission's new criteria proposed on fostering mobility and pre-primary teaching and helping to ensure that the latter becomes more accessible to children from deprived backgrounds (the Eurydice network has just published an analysis of the situation in Europe: Ed - see other article). Member states, however, are requesting that the exact parameters are clarified in this area. Delegations were much less enthusiastic about criteria on language learning, which they believe is an integral part of national education systems and should not be subject to uniform criteria (the Commission is proposing that two other languages are learned in addition to the mother tongue). Employability criteria (which measures the extent someone corresponds to labour market criteria) and “creativity and innovation” (teaching systems must develop these qualities among citizens) suggested by the Commission were not to the satisfaction of member states either. They considered that at this stage they were insufficiently developed and unrealistic. Finally, although the target on investment in higher education was deemed useful, several delegations regretted that the Commission's proposal was based on input (3% investment of GDP) and not on future results. Commissioner Jan Figel affirmed that, “there is already consensus on the five reference criteria…we are not ready on the three new criteria”. The Commissioner stated that they should be examined because in areas of creativity, innovation, mobility and multilingualism, “the countries moving forward will be the winners”. (I.L./trans/rh)