EPA had the
opportunity to participate at this important high-level event representing one
of the main stakeholder groups of education. The event was preceded by the kick-off
event of our Year of Equitable Access to Education to help highlight
parents’ wishes for the European Education Area planned to be created by 2025. The
summit was hosted by Tibor Navracsics, EU Commissioner for Education, Culture,
Youth and Sport, and took place on 25 January 2018, in Brussels. It invited EU education ministers (22 of them actually were
present), education practitioners, stakeholders and business leaders to
explore: how better to address inequality in education systems, how citizens
can benefit from a future European Education Area, how education can help
transmit our common values and what competences will be needed for the decades
to come.
After the
welcoming words of Commissioner Navracsics dedicated to the creation of value-based,
innovative inclusive education in Europe, Samantha Cristoforetti, a true
European and experienced astronaut took the stage for an inspirational speech.
She talked about the importance to find the right balance of STEM and
humanities without any gender-bias. She also talked about the need to get rid
of useless elements in curricula and to focus on collaborative skills that are necessary
to ‘navigate this spaceship called Earth that we are astronauts of’. She clearly
made the link between her life success and the support he got from her family
especially in the form of a family ethos that fostered her learning.
Audrey
Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO invited Europe to join their efforts to
find global solutions, to put a strong emphasis on ethical issues and to
provide quality education. She called for innovation that is sustainable and
innovative, to focus on vocational education and skills for employability as
well as building tolerance to fight the current trneds of increasing racism and
xenophobia. She applauded a focus on lifelong learning and also the validation
of skills that are not documented. Her most important message was to understand
that Europe can only thrive if we build relations and collaborate with other regions
of the world.
The high-level
panels as well as parallel sessions highlighted certain elements of the four
main topics. The speakers included Ministers and Members of the European
Parliament as well as successful practitioners from various areas –
entrepreneurs, intellectuals, professional educators, theatre directors. The concluding
sentence of one of the parallel sessions was that if you want to provide the
best life chances for your children, establish your own school or move to
Finland. The Summit raised hopes that there is a shared wish of most European
countries to change this, and to provide equity, namely an education for a
bright future for all children.
Martine
Reicherts, Director General of Education, Youth, Sports and Culture stated in
her concluding statement that education is back on track in the EU after 60
years, and now it is up to us to deliver. She highlighted the need to set the
right goals, to think outside the box, and to create an area where learning is
not hampered by borders geographical or other. They promised a 2nd
Education Summit to be held in the Autumn of 2019 and to work on the necessary
steps towards the European Education Area. Ms. Reicherts is retiring at the end
of January 2018, her drive and vision will be missed, but hopefully delivery on
the goals will still be a reality.
More information
on the Summit can be found on the EC website: https://ec.europa.eu/education/event/first-european-education-summit_en
EPA's position on the European Education Area can be found here:
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