The role of schools and school education in maximizing public access to culture

The European Parliament adopted a resolution based on the own-initiative report drafted by Vasco GRA·A MOURA (EPP-ED, Portugal) on schools and access to culture. (Please see the summary of 18/02/04.) Parliament rregretted the fact that only 17% of 15-year-old pupils in the EU possess the basic educational skills, namely reading, writing and arithmetic, that conform to the average set by the OECD. It called on Member States, in particular those whose GDP percentage invested in education is lower than the EU average, to increase investment in human resources in the field of education. Furthermore, school education in Europe should place a greater emphasis on achieving a basic fundamental knowledge of the process of European integration. The European dimension should be present in all school disciplines and not only in those directly linked with this subject such as history, philosophy, geography, economics, literature and art. Parliament stressed the importance of Europe's cultural heritage, and felt that access to it is a fundamental precondition to the integration process and a force for the consolidation of a sense of European citizenship. It recommended that the knowledge of Europe's cultural heritage should be a natural component of the syllabus in schools throughout the EU.�