Primary Education In Europe

A Brief History - Setting the Scene.

The violent turmoil of the first half of the 20th Century produced a demand for international co-operation to replace national antagonisms. The United Nations was formed to be a global ‘peace-keeper', but, additional measures were seen as necessary for Europe. A positive, mutually beneficial, trading-partnership between some of the European nations was created to eliminate some of the old rivalries. But, the question as to what extent social and political cohesion, rather than just economic co-operation should be promoted, has been contentious within the European Community.

Expansion of the European Community :-

The First European Community Education Programmes.

In order to promote equality of opportunity and transference of workforce skills across the EEC, the need for establishing comparative levels of qualifications was recognised. This created links between vocational training and Higher Education, (HE) institutions throughout Europe. Language barriers were also seen as obstacles to economic co-operation, and so programmes were developed to encourage language learning, (e.g. LINGUA). The opportunities for students to study abroad and other HE projects expanded rapidly with funding from the EEC.

Secondary school foreign language teaching and pupil-exchanges increased the demand for further EEC education programmes. The advantages of European school links became even more apparent with the expansion of telecommunication information technology. But, any development of a European strategy for schools’ education was strictly limited by resistance from some politicians who saw this as a further erosion of national sovereignty. Some projects were started, but these were relatively small-scale and for particular purposes. Any attempts to create major transnational education projects were resisted, and some were squashed through the courts.

EEC funding for education gradually increased throughout the 1980’s, though the amounts allowed were minuscule in comparison to most other budget areas. Most of the funds went to HE - and still does. Any money that was spent on the under-18’s went mainly to secondary school projects. Schools education still did not have its own separate branch within the bureaucracy of the European Commission.

The move from an economic trading-block, (EEC) to a politically integrated European Union, (EU) during the 1980’s led to a greater awareness of the need for social as well as economic links between the nations. And, if citizenship of a European Union was to be established, then a ‘European Identity’ should be formed alongside national identities. The notion of this ‘identity’ is vague, though it was recognised that schools would take a lead in promoting positive civic characteristics and equalising opportunity across the Member States.

The very idea of a European citizenship produced strong objections from nationalists and anti-Community politicians. It is not for schools to take sides in this political debate, though it may arise as a point of discussion with pupils. The civic ideals of democracy, anti-racism, equality, positive participation, etc. - are however, objectives that we should support.

The Council of Ministers, May, 1988, defined the EU’s educational objectives as being :-

In addition to the development of young citizens, a basic idea of a ‘European Dimension’ to education began to evolve :-

Despite this agreed position, the funding allowed to develop the ideas remained meagre. Some of the EC expenditure headings for 1992 give an indication of the importance placed on education :-

36,039 million ECU - Agriculture.

1,872 million ECU - Administration.

444 million ECU - Training, Youth, Culture, Information, Social. (Schools were included in this section.)

The debate about political and social Union led to a green paper by the European Commission on : ‘The European Dimension of Education’, [Com(93) 457 Final 22].

The green paper considered the legal position of the EU towards school education in Europe and proposed possible ‘actions’. It suggested there would be an ‘added-value’ arising from EU action over schools’ education - contributing to a :-

The ‘Treaty on European Union’ (the ‘Maastricht Treaty’) established citizenship of the European Union :-

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

ARTICLE 8.

1. Citizenship of the Union is hereby established. Every person holding the nationality of a Member State shall be a citizen of the Union.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This is a matter of legal fact - not politics. All schools in the EU can now legally develop education programmes which consider the principles of being a citizen of the Union.

This does not mean we must teach allegiance to the EU or to the institutions of the Union. Critical appraisal of society by citizens is a right, and a part of true education. But, criticism - positive or negative - must be based on knowledge and experience for it to be meaningful and effective in producing desirable change.

The Treaty also enacted the green paper proposals giving the EU some powers of influence, co-ordination and direct activity, covering the entire range of education and training from primary school through to ‘life-long learning’. The EU’s policy, rather than develop and implement its own education policy, is to support co-operation between Member States, and supplement their action if necessary.

Two articles in the Treaty specifically covered education. In Chapter 3 - Article 127 concerned mainly vocational training, (LEONARDO); and Article 126 concerned HE and schools’ education, (SOCRATES). It was under Article 126 that most schools made applications for funding of European dimension projects - but, it should be noted that several other Actions are also applicable to education.

The first SOCRATES programme ran from 1995 to 1999 with a total budget for this period of 850 M ECU.

Article 126

1. The community shall contribute to the development of quality education by encouraging co-operation between Member States and, if necessary, by supporting and supplementing their action, while fully respecting the responsibility of the Member States for the content of teaching and the organisation of education systems and their cultural and linguistic diversity.

2. Community action shall be aimed at :

Hdeveloping the European dimension in education, particularly through the teaching and dissemination of the languages of the Member States;

Hencouraging mobility of students and teachers, inter alia by encouraging the academic recognition of diplomas and periods of study;

Hpromoting co-operation between educational establishments;

Hdeveloping exchanges of information and experience on issues common to the education system of the Member States;

Hencouraging the development of youth exchange and of exchange of socio-educational instructors;

Hencouraging the development of distance education.

3. The Community and the Member States shall foster co-operation with third countries and the competent international organisations in the field of education, in particular the Council of Europe.

4. In order to contribute to the achievement of the objectives referred to in this article, the Council :

acting in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 189b, after consulting the Economic and Social Committee and the committee of the Regions, shall adopt incentive measures, excluding any harmonisation of the laws and regulations of the member States;

acting by a qualified majority on a proposal from the commission, shall adopt recommendations.

Following the success of SOCRATES it was decided to re-new this Community action programme in the field of education with SOCRATES Phase 2 (2000 - 2006). The Actions within SOCRATES are:

Action 1 - School education - Comenius

Action 2 - Higher education - Erasmus

Action 3 - Adult education and other pathways - Grundtvig

Action 4 - Teaching and learning of languages - Lingua

Action 5 - Open and distance learning and ICT technologies - Minerva

Action 6 - Observation and innovation

Action 7 - Joint actions

Action 8 - Accompanying measures   [EPSAWEB was established within this action]

The Commission's aim is to attain a participation rate of around 10% of schools under the Comenius Action. Special mention is given to the need to promote citizenship and to step up the fight against exclusion in all its forms. 

Now that there is greater access to, and information about, schools across the Union, we should be able to learn from each other in order to improve our own performance as teachers, and our pupils’ standards of achievement. There are many excellent primary school projects, but regional / national involvement is patchy throughout Europe. We must build on and share the strengths of good practice from wherever it comes. It just so happens that there are existing strong links in the EU to promote this interchange of ideas - and we can still recognise national and regional differences. 

Where social / cultural differences do exist, we can learn by looking at and accepting these different perspectives; they provide enriching experiences, and vive la différence, it all makes life that more interesting. Subjects such as geography, history and social studies are enhanced when they include comparisons of other people’s lifestyle, beliefs, attitudes, mores - and who better to explain these stimulating htmlects than the ‘other people’ themselves_

It is important that these opportunities for an enriched education are built-in to curriculum documents and are not seen as peripheral to the main subjects. Sadly, some country's education departments have simply produced a few outline documents and expect that this will suffice to cover the matter.

Of course, education does not end at Europe’s borders. Global issues complete the full range of perspectives : personal - local - national - continental - world-wide.

Many of these htmlects are already being taken up by primary schools. It is largely up to individual schools to participate and take advantage of the opportunities that are now arising. But, there are also issues which should be considered that would be unrealistic for individual or even groups of schools to undertake, e.g. international comparisons of method, conditions, provision for special needs, school management, resourcing..... 

We hope that the EPSA will assist primary schools to develop their roles within Europe.

Malcolm Sanders, 2002.