Consultation on options for developing the European Schools system
The European Parliament adopted a resolution based on the own-initiative report by Mary HONEYBALL (PES, UK) welcoming the Commission's launch of a consultative exercise about the future development of the system of European Schools, taking into account the enlargement of the EU, the interests of the new Member States, the creation of additional EU agencies outside Brussels and Luxembourg and the urgent need to revise and evaluate and reform a system which was established 50 years ago and which originally catered for only four languages.
The decentralised agencies and the new Member States:Member States hosting one of the new decentralised agencies must take greater financial responsibility for the education of the children of staff, and appropriate solutions must be found for each of the new places of work. Parliament felt that in these cases, cooperation between the European Schools and regional or local schools able to deliver the curriculum leading to the European Baccalaureate is an option. Such cooperation should aim to promote high-quality education and European integration, maintain linguistic diversity and facilitate labour mobility.
Language sections for the languages of the new Member States should be established as a matter of urgency and all pupils should be receiving mother-tongue teaching. Parliament also called on the Commission to examine the possibility of establishing European schools in the new Member States.
The future financing of the European Schools system, Category III pupils and the smaller schools: Parliament believed that the balancing contribution from the Communities must not develop into an open-ended commitment. It endorsed the view that the annual projected budget allocation for each school should take account of the size and needs of the individual schools and of evidence of efforts to spend the budget allocation as effectively as possible. However, it rejected the imposition by the Commission of a ceiling on the Communities' contribution to the European Schools budget before the Board of Governors has presented its estimate of the revenue and expenditure of the Schools for the following financial year. Furthermore, the current arrangement, whereby Member States' contributions are directly linked to the number of teachers they second to the European Schools and to the premises they provide for the European Schools, is not equitable and alternative systems of financing should be explored. Nevertheless the present system, whereby teachers are appointed and paid their national salaries by Member States, ensures access for the European Schools to the teaching expertise of these States and is the means by which the financial contribution of the Member States is secured.
Parliament went on to note that the level of fees payable by the parents of Category III pupils has risen substantially in real terms since 2002 and that this has resulted in increased revenue for the Schools and a smaller increase in the contribution from the Communities' budget than would otherwise have been the case. Such fees do not meet the full cost of educating these pupils. However, that the parents of Category III pupils should not face excessive fee increases during the remainder of their education in the European Schools system. The Commission, through its representative on the Board of Governors, must press for the publication of clear criteria for the admission of Category III pupils. Parliament also repeated its call for the Board of Governors to revise the criteria it has adopted for maintaining individual language sections in individual schools so as to rule out any discrimination against an official language of the EU.
Better governance and administration: Given the growth in the number of European Schools and in the number of pupils they teach, the tasks of the Board of Governors should essentially be those of setting strategic goals, of oversight and of review. Parliament felt that detailed management questions specific to individual schools should, in the first instance, be addressed by the Administrative Boards of the individual schools, and that each school should be considered an autonomous entity as regards operational and financial matters. The Administrative Boards of the individual schools should be given control over the financial and operational aspects of the individual schools within the strategic goals laid down by the Board of Governors.
Parliament noted that the Community currently pays a balancing contribution equivalent to some 57% of the annual cost of the European Schools system, whereas the Member States contribute 22%. It believed, therefore, that the Commission, as representative of the Communities, should have voting rights on the Board of Governors more in line with the Communities' contribution to the budget, and that the Commission must report to the European Parliament following each meeting of the Board of Governors.
With regard to the Commission's suggestion that two new bodies might be established, Parliament felt that a single governing body, with the authority to take decisions affecting the Schools system as a whole and willing to accept responsibility for balancing sometimes conflicting financial and educational imperatives, must be maintained.
Curriculum and educational issues: Parliament called for the following:
-nursery, primary and secondary school classes, taught by a single qualified teacher, should not be larger than 30 pupil equivalents;
-from 2008 there should be a progressive introduction of a maximum class size in nursery and primary classes of no more than 25 pupil equivalents;
-the Commission must encourage the development of coefficients in respect of children with certified special educational needs and of pupils whose mother tongue is different from the language in which they receive most of their instruction (Language I), and ensure that these coefficients are applied when class sizes are calculated;
-the Commission, working together with the Member States concerned, to find solutions as a matter of urgency in order to deal with the excessively high pupil numbers at some Schools, which are undermining teaching standards.
Special Educational Needs provision: Parliament called on the Commission to produce reliable statistics about the extent of the requirements for special needs provision in all the European Schools and further urged the Board of Governors to carry out a survey of provision at each of the European Schools for pupils with special educational needs (SEN), including children with physical and/or intellectual disabilities. The Board of Governors is asked to draw up a set of minimum standards relating to educational provision, to undertake an accessibility audit of the European Schools so as to ensure that the buildings are accessible for children with physical disabilities and to take any other steps deemed necessary in order to support all pupils with special educational needs. There must be an allocation of resources in terms of finance, staff and expertise with a view to providing first-class education for SEN children and to fully promote the concept of inclusive education, as is the case in other schools across Europe. Parliament called on the Board of Governors to examine constructive alternatives for those children who are unable to cope with integration in mainstream classes.
If SEN pupils are to benefit from their education at the European Schools, specialist multidisciplinary teams (such as educational psychologists and speech and language therapists) must be set up in Schools to provide support and advice for the teachers, pupils and parents concerned. Parliament called for one of the larger European Schools to launch a pilot project for an SEN resource centre, comprising qualified personnel with relevant experience and appropriate teaching materials (books, computer software), the role of which would be to provide expert advice and materials for teachers involved in the education of SEN children in the school. Financing should be set aside for this project in the 2006 budget.
The European Baccalaureate: Parliament asked the Commission to do all in its power to ensure that the Board introduces, by the beginning of the school year 2007-2008, an alternative leaving certificate in parallel with the European Baccalaureate, for pupils who choose to follow a more vocational education. It went on to state that the high intrinsic value of the European Baccalaureate justifies its wider spread and its full recognition without discrimination by universities in Member States and in third countries. Parliament invited the responsible authorities in the Member States to consider the merits of making the European Baccalaureate more widely available as a school-leaving certificate outside the European Schools.