To maintain peace among the
EU Member States, we need social justice, obviously, and that includes decent
education for all. Is it the case today? Well, some countries in Europe are
doing better than others…
Each Member State of the European
Union is responsible for the education and training of its own citizens. The
EU supports national actions and enables initiatives through a European
framework. While considerable progress has been made over the past decade, for
example in reducing school dropout rates, many challenges still remain. The
European Union must deal with the fact of an ageing population and an
increasingly digitised economy.
The differences between
Member States include the cost of higher education, the length of compulsory
schooling, and the age of entry into school. Although each country has its
own educational system, some have a common core for all pupils defined by a
continuity between primary and lower secondary education. The first
countries to adopt it were the Scandinavian countries in the 1960s. In
contrast, Germany and Lithuania provide early guidance to their pupils through
a highly developed apprenticeship system.
Half of the EU-28 sets the
end of schooling at a minimum of 16 years and the length of schooling for
pupils varies between 9 and 13 years. There is a clear divide between the
northern and eastern countries and those of southern Europe in the rate of
early school leaving, which has been declining since the 2000s. While the
northern and eastern Member States account for around 8% of early exit, the
southern States and Romania have rates twice as high, ranging from 15% to 22%.
The cost of higher education
also varies from one European country to another. Registration and
administrative costs are less than 1,000 euros for the majority of states. The
most expensive country to study in is England. The most generous countries are
the Scandinavian countries. In Denmark, grants can be up to 9,000 euros per
year. Conversely, the last countries to have entered the EU have the lowest costs.
More than a quarter of young people under 15 reach only the lowest reading
level, 11% of young people aged 18 to 24 leave school early and only 68% of
those aged 25 to 54 have completed upper secondary education.
Training, the level of
education or the cost of the courses are not harmonized within the EU. Germany
and the Netherlands are the countries that pay their teachers best.
According to the
"Programme for International Student Assessment" (PISA), in 2015,
most EU Member States had gone down in the rankings. Only Portugal continued to
progress. France remained 26th in the list of 70 PISA countries,
despite its substantial education budget. Estonia and Finland were the only EU
countries in the top ten.
So, as you can see, the
organisation of education and the results in the EU Member States is far from
good everywhere.
The EU has to respect the
cultural and linguistic diversity of the Member States, and leave the content
of education and the organization of the education system to them. However,
there is a strategic framework for European cooperation called "Education
and Training 2020" which has several aims:
- At least 95% of children
between the age of 4 and the start of compulsory primary education should
participate in preschool education;
- The average rate of
15-year-olds with reading, math and science deficits should be less than 15%;
- Average dropout rate
should be less than 10%;
- The percentage of adults
aged 30-34 with postgraduate education should be at least 40%;
- An average of around 15%
of adults (aged 25-64) are expected to participate in lifelong learning.
These are ambitious
objectives, needing money and coordinated effort.
Why are some schools
elitist? Why is education not free everywhere? Why is the status of teachers so
low in some countries? Why is funding for education so low? If we want more social
justice in Europe, these are the types of problems affecting most of the Member
States that we are going to have to solve.
I think the EU should do
much more to encourage the Member States to adopt good education practices; in
other words, to avoid the bad education practices of countries like France or
Romania and to follow the example of high-performing countries like Finland or
Estonia.
Let’s look at Estonia’s
system for a minute… Teachers there are free to teach in the way they think is
best. The education inspectors are not like policemen. The pupils can choose
most of their subjects and spend extra time on their favourite topics. There
are very few exams. Leisure activities are subsidised, varied, and are
considered as important as school activities. Estonia always scores well on
PISA tests because the pupils are motivated, they are not under constant
pressure from exams, and their teachers are well respected and competent. It is
a coherent system based on trust and the pleasure of learning.
If the Member States were to
follow Estonia’s example, perhaps the education standards would rise everywhere
in Europe, thus contributing to greater social justice and a world of hope and
continued peace?
What should the EU do to raise education standards in the member states?
RépondreSupprimerThis speech text introduces us to everything that is close to education in the EU. First of all, we learn that not all countries in the EU are moving at the same pace in terms of education. But the EU has helped to reduce the school drop-out rate, for example. The EU will also set the end of schooling at 16 years minimum for the majority of countries.
School dropout rates are much lower in northern Europe than in the south. The cost of education in the EU is also completely unequal. For education, the EU has created a European cooperation aimed at reducing the deficit in certain subjects and creating more graduates.
I think it might be a good idea to reduce inequalities between EU countries. But I also think that project has limits because of the very high price that will have to paid for it.
Mattéo Mourrat writes: This discourse discussed social justice problems in Europe. Indeed, we learn that in most European countries, there is a lack of school success, and premature drop-out rates are clearly felt in the southern states and Romania. The EU wants the countries or the school problems to be felt the most should take control and follow the example of countries with a much higher level of education to reduce this difference within the EU. I think the best thing to do would be to create a unique curriculum for all member countries and set year-of-study obligation laws to raise the standards of young people and future generations.
RépondreSupprimerThe European Commission “is developing initiatives to help establish a European Education Area enabling all young people to benefit from the best education and training and to find employment across Europe”. It’s true that education is the key to peace, but is following the example of countries like Finland or Estonia a good idea? I’m not sure, because now each Member State has its own education system with good and bad points. A perfect education system doesn’t exist. Each child is different so some children are encouraged by exams and the results, but this system can frighten others. A very important thing is the access to education for everyone no matter their origin, age or sex.
RépondreSupprimerIn the years to come, the EU should become involved in education for the children of migrants. Education plays a crucial role in helping migrants and refugees settle in new countries. The European Commission facilitates the exchange of good practices on the migrants’ integration among Member States.
Elise writes: The speech tells us that there are differences between European Union countries regarding their educational systems (i.e. subjects taught, teaching/learning methods, costs, achievement levels, etc.). For there to be greater social justice, children need to have equal access to quality education. But, the school system in some countries of the EU is elitist: only wealthy families can afford a decent education for their children. So, the European Union should encourage the member states to have a fairer school system.
RépondreSupprimerThomas writes: The fact that this speech is the last one is a great thing. The speech is an answer to the question of how we delete inequality between men and women, prejudice against the members of the LGBTQ community, as well as disrespect towards regional minorites? The answer is with education, but, in the EU, education isn’t efficient yet. So Yann begins his speech by showing those imperfections and then he takes the example of the country with the best educational system for him: Estonia. And I must say that I must agree with him, this educational system, with more liberties “based on trust and the pleasure of learning” should be taken as an epitome of education in all the EU.
RépondreSupprimerNoellia writes: We can see that the subject of this discourse is the social inequalities within Europe. We can see that in Romania and the southern states, the school failure due to its abandonment and lack of success is very accentuated compared to other states of the EU but that does not mean that it is nonexistent in the other states of Europe. I think that we should establish legislation to legally define a year-of-study obligation to raise the level of academic success within the EU.
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