EDUCATIONAL PROVISION

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Educational Provision in an International Setting With UK Provision



Educational Provision in an International Setting With UK Provision

Introduction

The quality of education and training is considered in all Member States to be a concern of the highest political priority. High levels of knowledge, competencies and skills are considered to be the very basic conditions for active citizenship, employment and social cohesion. Lifelong learning is an important means of shaping one's future on a professional and personal level, and high-quality education is essential in the light of labour market policies, and the free movement of workers within the European Union.

It is stated in Article 149 of the EC Treaty that 'the Community shall contribute to the development of quality education by encouraging cooperation between Member States and, if necessary, by supporting and supplementing their actions while fully respecting the responsibility of the Member States for the content of teaching and the organisation of educational systems and their cultural and linguistic diversity'. The Education Council has debated this subject on numerous occasions. A number of conclusions and resolutions have been adopted, inviting Member States and the Commission to initiate cooperation in the field. In the Council resolution of 26 November 1999, Ministers of Education identified the quality of education as one of the priority issues for consideration under the new cooperation model of the 'Rolling agenda'.

Under the Community action programme Socrates, quality of education is the key objective of the programme actions. Quality of education has thus been a priority issue for analysis, and a number of studies and research projects have been launched with a view to strengthening cooperation at European level in the field. These initiatives have paved the way for the pilot project on quality evaluation in school education which was implemented in 101 secondary schools across Europe in 1997/98. Based on the results of the pilot scheme, the Commission adopted in January 2000 a proposal for a recommendation of the European Parliament and the Council on 'European cooperation in quality evaluation in school education', based on Article 149 and 150 of the Treaty.

The need for cooperation in the field of quality evaluation was equally underlined at the conference, held in Prague in June 1998, of the Education Ministers of the European Union and of the 11 acceding countries as well the Education Ministers from the three non-associated countries of central and eastern Europe participating as observers. The Education Ministers from the 26 participating countries invited the Commission to establish a working committee of national experts designated by the Ministers with a view to agreeing a 'limited number of indicators or benchmarks for school standards to assist national evaluation of systems'. A working group consisting of experts of 26 European countries was subsequently set up in February 1999.

Two progress reports were prepared by the Commission.

The first report, containing the basic criteria for the selection of indicators, was presented to the European Ministers of Education, in Budapest, in June 1999. The second report, setting out a preliminary outline of the ...