EU
Culture, education, media and sport must fight structural racism, say MEPs. Racism and discrimination have been a structural problem in Europe and is still a worrying factor in culture, education, media and sports. According to the 2019 Eurobarometer, more than fifty per cent of European citizens state that racial discrimination is widespread in their country. As a result, the Commission and the Member States are urged to take measures to increase their effort to effectively tackle this problem. In the case of education specifically, curricula should be revised and include more educational material that contributes to eradicating racism and discrimination.
European Parliament, 08/02/2022
Quality investment in education and training: Commission published first findings of expert groups. With the interim report on quality investment and training, the European Commission is emphasizing the importance of education and the need for efficient spending in order to boost educational outcomes. The final report, which is due in September 2022 will also include an analysis of public spending in vocational education and training and adult education, among others.
European Commission, 19/01/2022
CEDEFOP’s recommendations for apprentice mobility. According to the European Centre for Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP), the apprentice mobility within the EU lags behind, especially in-company training experiences abroad. One of the main reasons for this is because of challenges linked to national policy, funding, cross-country cooperation, and networking. CEDEFOP’s executive director Jürgen Siebel recommends, among other things, to engage and enable vocational and educational training (VET) providers and intermediary organisations and to encourage them to work in cross-border networks.
CEDEFOP News, 20/01/2022
France
Ministries
Extraordinary board of directors of RENATER. On Thursday 03/02/ 2022, at 1 pm, an extraordinary meeting of the board of directors of the public interest group “National Telecommunications Network for Technology, Education and Research” (GIP RENATER) was held at the request of its members.
Ministère de l’Éducation nationale, de la Jeunesse et des Sports
European Union, let’s bet on youth mobility! Under the French presidency of the Council of the European Union, Jean-Michel Blanquer, Minister of National Education, Youth and Sports, opened a conference devoted to the mobility of young people in Europe, organised for the 35th anniversary of Erasmus+.
Ministère de l’Éducation nationale, de la Jeunesse et des Sports, 19/01/2022
Installation of the Superior Council of Languages. Jean-Michel Blanquer, Minister of National Education, Youth and Sports, participated in the installation of the Higher Council of Languages (CSL), by videoconference, with representatives from learning living foreign languages (LVE), regional languages (LVR) and languages and cultures of antiquity (LCA).
Ministère de l’Éducation nationale, de la Jeunesse et des Sports, 24/01/2022
The Ministry of National Education, Youth and Sports, the Wallonia-Brussels Federation and Pix join forces to assess, develop and certify the digital skills of French speakers. The mastery of digital tools has become essential for communication, information or even carrying out administrative procedures in the context of one’s personal, professional, and civic life. Therefore, it is crucial to support citizens from an early age in learning and develop these skills.
Ministère de l’Éducation nationale, de la Jeunesse et des Sports, 01/2022
Informal meeting of Ministers of Education and Youth: Highlight of the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union (PFUE). The informal meeting of European education and youth ministers, held on 27/01/2022 in Strasbourg, brought together ministers and young European delegates for the first time to discuss best practices in terms of sustainable development, whether within the framework of the school or through the commitment of young people. These debates are intended to feed into the European strategy and inform the Council of Ministers of Education and Youth meeting on 05/04/2022.
Ministère de l’Éducation nationale, de la Jeunesse et des Sports, 28/01/2022
Conference “Investing in Education” at Lab 110 bis. As part of the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union 2022, the conference “Investing in education” will be held on Tuesday, 15/02/2022, at Lab 110 bis. It aims to show the essential role of education as an investment in the future, a necessary condition for economic prosperity and social well-being.
Ministère de l’Éducation nationale, de la Jeunesse et des Sports, 02/2022
Educating students in sustainable development through literature: the Ministry of National Education, Youth and Sports, and the House of Writers and Literature are mobilising. The first national project linking education for sustainable development and literature, jointly developed between the House of Writers and Literature and the Ministry of National Education, Youth and Sports was launched on 03/02/2022.
Ministère de l’Éducation nationale, de la Jeunesse et des Sports, 02/2022
Informal meeting of European ministers of higher education, research, and innovation. On 24/ and 25/01/2022, the Ministers of Higher Education, Research and Innovation of the European Union met in Paris as part of the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, 25/01/2022
Frédérique Vidal welcomes the European Commission to talk about the European strategy for universities.
Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, 18/01/2022
Press
Commentary by Isabelle Barth (Associate Professor, University of Strasbourg, Former Director of EM Strasbourg, University and INSEEC Business School, Private)
Higher education: “To pay or not to pay to study?” Higher education slowly becomes a political topic in the presidential campaign. First, the French president caused controversy by questioning free education, followed by a request from the Conference of Directors for French Schools of Management (CDEFM) to provide tax exemption for tuition fees for private students. Barth examines the question of what it means to pay for your studies in France.
Le Monde, 31/01/2022, paywall
The National Agency for the Fight against Illiteracy excludes foreigners who have never attended school in France. Two million foreign people are excluded from the action taken by National Agency for the Fight against Illiteracy. This is what the Court of Auditors points out in a summary made public on 04/02/2022. Foreign aid associations point to the State’s deficit to provide opportunities for language learners.
Mediapart, 09/02/2022, paywall
Commentary by Roger-François Gauthier (Comparative education specialist)
What if the ministry was (really) in charge of national education? Gauthier discusses the role of schools. He highlights the conflict between those who argue schools should only focus on teaching knowledge or those that claim that education should also teach “republican values”, such as “respect for others”.
Le Monde, 09/02/2022, paywall
Two years of the Covid19 pandemic has changed teaching. The gaps between teaching methods have increased, in particular with the emergence of digital technology. Luc Ria, director of the French Institute of Education, conducted a survey on teachers teaching practices and received nearly 5,000 responses. Responses on challenges and new opportunities are divided. Some teachers found themselves in complete disarray and hindered in their teaching capability. One third looked into new forms of teaching and built new educational resources.
Le Monde, 09/02/2022, paywall
Commentary by Syrian Canet (School director)After the Covid19 pandemic, a reconstruction phase is essential. Canet stresses the difficulties pupils might face after Covid19 restrictions are abolished, questing closures, and arguing for “overstaffing”.
Le Monde, 01/02/2022, paywall
Jean-Michel Blanquer wants to add mathematics to the common core in high school. Since the 2019 high school reforms, mathematics is no longer compulsory. As a result, there has been a drop in young people taking mathematics lessons, particularly amongst girls. Balquer wants to re-emphasise mathematics in the national curriculum.
Le Monde, 07/02/2022
The decline of mathematics in high school. Two months before the general election, mathematics became a political subject. There is a worrying inequality between the choices of high school students. Pupils who keep maths in first and last year are primarily boys (58%) and with a very privileged social background (46 %). The track was designed to train real “mathematicians” for scientific studies. However, only 37% of students continue in the special track.
Le Monde, 09/02/2022, paywall
Precarious children: a plan to catch up with the “dropouts” of national education. LREM deputy for Haute-Garonne Sandrine Mörch presented a report which proposes a series of measures, including the need for better collaboration between social workers, associations, and state services. Amongst the recommendations are the strengthening of UPE2A (classes dedicated explicitly to allophone children).
Libération, 17/01/2022
Germany
Ministries
Sattelberger appointed Commissioner for Transfer and Spin-offs at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Federal Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger today appointed Parliamentary State Secretary Dr. h. c. Thomas Sattelberger as the new Commissioner for Transfer and Spin-offs from Science in the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Sattelberger is taking on the newly created position in addition to his previous duties.
Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, 28/01/2022
Debate in the Parliament: “We need breakthroughs, big leaps, real innovation”. Enabling excellent research, bringing innovation quickly into practice and creating life chances for all with the best education: This is what Federal Minister Bettina-Stark Watzinger wants to achieve. “The federal government is ready,” she says in the Bundestag.
Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, 13/01/2022
Press
Teachers’ association demands IT assistants for Hessian schools. In order to relieve teachers, the Hessian Philologists’ Association (hphv) has demanded that schools in the state hire IT assistants. The support and maintenance of computers, electronic blackboards and tablets is an additional burden for teachers, and the actual teaching suffers as a result, the association announced in Wiesbaden on Wednesday.
Welt, 09/02/2022
Why Germany’s highly praised training system is weakening by Susan Seeber (Professor of Business Education and Human Resource Development, Georg-August University Göttingen)
Companies are desperately looking for qualified skilled workers, the shortage of nursing staff is painfully penetrating the public consciousness in the midst of the pandemic, for years there has been a lack of teachers in the industrial-technical schools as well as in the field of health. And in a society that is becoming increasingly academicised, public esteem for manual and nursing professions is declining.
Conclusion: In order to make vocational training more attractive, it is not only necessary to improve vocational orientation at school. Reliable and demand-oriented offers are also needed. To this end, companies must also approach people who are willing to undergo vocational training and whom they have previously rejected as “not capable of training”.
Die Zeit Campus, 02/02/2022
Private schools opt for playful coding lessons. IT experts are in demand like never before, but the necessary basics are not taught enough in class. Private schools, parent initiatives and companies are filling the gap. At the Kämmer International Bilingual School (KIBS) in Hanover, even first graders are introduced to programming without spending hours in front of a computer.
Handelsblatt, 28/01/2022
Italy
Press
The EU Commission focuses on Agreements between Universities
European Commission recently launched their strategy of university of the future. It states that in the time period between now till 2024, in order to strengthen inter-university alliances, universities should double the number of participants to work on developments of legal statute that will allow these institutions to pool in for recourses and skills and work towards creating a common European diploma that recognized value of experiences made abroad by students. In case of Italy, it already has several Italian universities walking on similar path including Polytechnics of Milan and Turin, Federico II of Naples and Sant’Anna di Pisa all working towards the same cause.
Corriere Della Sera, 20/01/2022
Maturity 2022, the writings return to the exam: Italian and second test
Following the protest of students against the new high school exam that students have to pass to make it to the next academic year, Bianchi-Minister of Education spoke to Radio 24 on the 8th of February. His correspondence was with the Student Council members, ensuring them that the exam will be uniform on a national basis.
Global Happenings, 08/02/2022
The State Senate has decided: “Stop enrolling in Mediation for a year” The Academic Senate of State has decided on the 08th of February 2022 that for next year they will not have any enrolment for linguistic and cultural mediation programs. This decision is yet to pass through the Board of Directors.
La Repubblica, 08/02/2022
Commentary by: Gianna Fregonara (Journalist) and Orsola Riva (Journalist)
AlmaLaurea, graduates win the university battle but lose the labour war.
Most of the girls graduate earlier than men and with better grades, however they are not able to find decent salaried jobs and earn less than men. Public employment and teaching jobs are popular career choices of women. Men generally tend to work privately or set up their own business and earn higher. Although this research was conducted from the years 2015-2020 but the results remain the same today. The country must guarantee equal access of opportunities to both men and women.
Corriere Della Sera, 28/01/2022
Mattarella’s speech to the Parliament emphasizing his duty to listen to students
On the 3rd of February 2022, Mattarella, Head of the State, encouraged politicians to listen to the requests coming from students. He showed support to schools and said it is his task to make a more modern Italy by inculcating culture, values, principals in the education system and provide equal opportunities for all to achieve this goal.
Iltfatto Quotidiano, 03/02/2022