Delivering lifelong learning for knowledge, creativity and innovation - implementation of the "Education & Training 2010 work programme" 

The Committee on Culture and Education adopted the own-initiative report drafted by Ljudmila NOVAK (EPP-ED, SL) on delivering lifelong learning for knowledge, creativity and innovation - implementation of the 'Education & Training 2010 work programme'.

The committee notes that action in the field of education and training should be consistently supported with complementary measures of a socio-economic nature to improve the overall standard of living of European citizens. The crucial role which families play, in this context, is emphasised by the MEPs and they stress that education is essential for the social and personal development of both women and men and a way of promoting equality.

On the other hand, the committee deplores the fact that educational systems discourage women from entering traditionally male-dominated fields of employment and vocational training. Member States are called upon to launch programmes aimed at giving women the most diversified professional guidance possible and subsequent assistance in the employment market. It also highlights that the existing inequality of opportunity between women and men as regards high quality lifelong teaching and education are all the more marked in island regions and geographically and socially disadvantaged regions. Therefore, it calls for greater promotion of educational initiatives in the framework of regional policy.

On the issue of migrants and minorities (especially Roma people), MEPs stress the need to integrate these groups, as well as those with special needs (primarily women and disabled and elderly people), at all levels and in all areas of education. They consider that additional support should be provided to migrants, whilst ethnic minorities and Roma people should be assisted by trained staff who belong to the same minority or at least speak their native language.

The report states that students with interrupted study patterns, especially young mothers, can suffer discrimination, and it calls for the adoption of more flexible approaches in order to facilitate the resumption of studies or training after the birth of a child and the combining of studies with professional and family life.

MEPs observe that the quality of curricula and teaching must be improved across the board and that teachers’ social security must be improved as well as their training and mobility. They emphasise that media literacy and ICT knowledge should be strongly promoted and recommends both that media education should form an integral part of the curriculum at all levels of schooling.

The importance of sport at all levels of education is highlighted in the report and MEPs call for at least three teaching periods per week to be set aside for sport in the curriculum and for support to be made available for schools to go beyond this prescribed minimum where possible.

The Council is urged to monitor the practical implementation of European education and learning policies by every Member State. MEPs considers that national governments should set national goals in this field in a transparent manner, and should introduce appropriate legislation and relevant measures to ensure the achievement of European standards, and, in particular, to ensure that tools adopted at EU level, such as the recommendation on key competences for lifelong learning, the European Qualifications Framework and Europass, are implemented.

Pre-primary education: MEPs call on all Member States to make pre-primary education compulsory. They stress the need for increased resources for improving material and space conditions and for ongoing staff training to raise the quality of pre-primary education and provide increased resources for investment. Universal access to high-quality pre-primary education is an effective way to open up access to lifelong learning for all children, but particularly children from deprived backgrounds and ethnic minorities. They insist on the importance of children's developing basic skills, learning their mother tongue or the language of their country of residence, and acquiring reading and writing skills as early as possible. Learning of a second language should begin at this early stage.

Primary and secondary education: MEPs stress that primary and secondary education should equip children for autonomous, creative and innovative thinking and make them into media-critical and self-reflecting citizens. They emphasise the need to pay special attention to individuals who might otherwise drop out of education at a later stage.

As for the curricula, MEPs state they must be continually updated in order to remain relevant. Member States must attach greater importance to teacher training and provide more resources for it if they are to make significant progress in achieving the Lisbon Strategy targets in the work programme 'Education and training 2010' and promote lifelong learning within the European Union.

They strongly encourage the learning of foreign languages from an early age and the inclusion of foreign-language teaching in all primary school curricula.

MEPs propose that European citizenship programmes that will educate a new generation in the spirit of European values in areas such as human rights, multiculturalism, tolerance, the environment, climate change should be introduced into curricula as soon as possible.

Vocational education and training (VET): MEPs points out that VET ought to be better linked and more coherently integrated into both European and national economies in order to tailor better the educational process to the labour market. They insist that mobility (not only geographical but also mobility between VET and higher education) of students and teachers be significantly enhanced.

Higher education: the report states that university curricula should be modernised in order to meet current and future socio-economic needs. Higher education institutions should, as a matter of priority, develop interdisciplinary programmes on the borders between sciences in order to train specialists capable of solving the most complex problems facing the world today. Member States are called upon to boost partnerships between universities and businesses, and, in addition, between universities and the many other national, regional and local stakeholders. Cooperation between European higher education institutions must be significantly enhanced and that, furthermore, qualifications should be made as easily transferable as possible.

MEPs strongly recommend that Member States improve students' and teachers' mobility, including mobility between countries, programmes and disciplines. They stress, in this context, the importance of implementing the European Quality Charter for Mobility in order to create a genuine European area for lifelong education and training and promote economic, social and regional cooperation.

Lifelong learning: MEPs consider that employers should be encouraged consistently to arrange education and training for their employees, as well as being provided with incentives to enable low-skilled workers to take part in lifelong learning programmes. Long-term unemployed people from a disadvantaged social background, people with special needs, young people who have been in re-education institutions and former prisoners should especially be taken into consideration.

MEPs consider that more funding for measures to promote mobility should be provided by both European and national authorities at all stages of lifelong learning.

MEPs call for the advantages of the European Quality Charter for Mobility to be recognised and exploited and for them to be put into practice by the Member States, and for the Commission to carry out a review of implementation in the Member States.

Lastly, they stress that lifelong learning programmes must support entrepreneurship, enabling citizens to establish SMEs and to meet the needs of both society and the economy.