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Opening Addresses
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In the context of education there is a virtuous circle of investment in education, wealth generation and the creation of a surplus that allows further investment in education. It is much easier quite clearly to justify high levels of investment in education and training within that virtuous circle, and more difficult to take decisions to make investment when starting from a low base of national wealth, as in so many countries still around the world. Nevertheless the experience of one member state - you will not be surprised that it happens to be Ireland - with economic growth in recent years has confounded normal assumptions about the sustainability of economic growth over a long period. This experience suggests that the decisions taken in the '60s on education on the basis of an OECD report, then backed by political will and subsequently supported by the European Structural Funds, has been an important factor in developing the prosperity which Ireland has enjoyed recently. We should not underestimate the importance of participation in the Education, Training and Youth Programme within the European context. These programmes broaden the horizons of young people who have entered the world of work in recent years with the sense of Europe as a place in which they belong, within which it is natural to do business. Ramifications The challenge that the new prosperity brings forth is how to ensure that it is shared in a socially acceptable manner and that early education failure does not aggravate the social exclusion which we know it can cause. Lifelong learning is not a simple single concept, but is rather a number of ramifications. One is the updating of skills to maintain employability and competence. Another is ensuring that people who for any reason drop out of the learning process at any stage can find their way back into it. Another is ensuring that work is organised in a way in which it becomes a learning environment for the worker and for the organisation and that knowledge and know-how gained in practical working environments can be satisfactory accredited. Lifelong learning raises questions about the way in which we organise our time, not just on a day to day and week to week basis, but over longer periods of a life cycle, questions about the way the system has to adapt to accommodate those who want to go on learning. Last year I had the opportunity of hearing at first hand evidence of this in the class of a secondary school that has become a major community resource for adult education after normal school hours, driven by determination of just a few people who decided to take the idea about lifelong learning at face value and develop the provision of classes even where the state system was unable to provide suitable resources. The functional framework in which European co-operation in Education, Training and Youth operate has been evolving in a way that parallels the evolution of the Union itself. That is, agreement to co-operate in limited fields, building up confidence in the value of what has been achieved and creating the momentum for wider co-operation. Vocational training has been a part of the community apparatus from the start, linked to free movement of labour and promoting the competitiveness of European industry. The broadening definition of vocational training leads to the inclusion within that concept of part of the system which mainly for institutional reasons were traditionally regarded as education. Here it is worth pointing out that many of the universities which are justly proud of their millennium-old tradition started off as vocational training institutions for police, lawyers and doctors. The second source from which this co-operation drew its inspiration is a set of concepts and considerations that we now group together under the term of 'citizenship'. This is partly an echo of Citizens' Europe idea of the '80s when it was realised that the idea of Europe needed to be more tangible for the individual citizen if the political process on the way was to secure the necessary democratic support. It has a much wider connotation referring to the development of the individual in society not just as a member of a political legal system but as a person achieving development and fulfilment in the cohesive social environment. Co-operation European co-operation in these areas has been achieved by a process of facilitation - helping those who are willing to work together in the European context. If the present range of co-operation instruments in the field of Education, Training and Youth had been proposed by the Commission straight off, they would never have got beyond the drawing board. The explicit inclusion of education in the Maastricht Treaty was a very important step in the further development of European construction process. It was a step taken with a certain amount of trepidation by some member states because of the sensitivity of education and the way the school system is intricately linked to the formation and transmission of a shared sense of national identity. It was a step nevertheless which highlighted the relevance of Europe for each individual citizen as whole individuals rather than just as economic agents. For anyone familiar with the programmes, which were the forerunners of the SOCRATES and the LEONARDO programmes the two treaty articles introduced in the Maastricht Treaty are easily recognised as a consolidation of the type of activities that had already been undertaken in the previous years. Baroness Blackstone referred to the European Year of Lifelong Learning and here I would like to salute especially the enthusiasm and the quality of the UK projects that were organised during that European year. They represented in our view an attempt to bridge the gap between education for personal development and vocational training as well as greater awareness of informal and adult education. The original idea for the year was put forward in the Commission's White Paper on Growth, Competitiveness and Employment, the so called the Delors White Paper. It is striking to see - so soon after the ratification of the Maastricht Treaty, how quickly the debate has moved on. Learning Now we take on board the notion of lifelong learning, learning as distinct from education. The degree to which people are increasingly familiar with the notion and increasing facing the challenge of lifelong learning is in my view very impressive. The wide and rapid acceptance of this more balanced view lead us, when the negotiations on the Amsterdam Treaty were beginning, to consider whether the Treaty basis for Education, Training and Youth should be re-cast to reflect the idea of lifelong learning. In the event the Commission did not propose any changes in that part of the Maastricht Treaty. However, we did support and welcome the inclusion, in the preamble of the Treaty, of the new statement of determination of the contracting partners to, and I quote, 'promote development of the highest possible level of knowledge for the people through a wide access to education and through its continuous updating'. In this way, the Treaty now recognises not only access to an initial education but also to lifelong learning opportunities as part of the birthright of the citizens of Europe. The statement may only have an inspirational value but it is a clear definition of lifelong learning as a shared objective for all European systems. Knowledge Over the last few months we and the Commissioner have been engaged in an extensive consultation process on the future of the Education and Training Programmes. This consultation is being based on a discussion document 'Towards a Europe of Knowledge' issued last November. In addition to the responses from the Community Institutions, this has been the subject of many written and oral submissions. The responses to this document have been fed into the process of drafting formal legislation and indeed the European Parliament adopted its opinion last week. In attempting to recast the programmes as an instrument for the promotion of the Europe of Knowledge we have to bear in mind the fact that they address a very wide audience. A careful balance has to be struck between innovation and continuity. We can therefore expect a measure of continuity in programme identity. Many of the reactions we received supported the continuation of the three programmes with co-ordination being achieved by means of the introduction of a framework programme. We are looking at these at the moment and the Commission will arrive at its conclusion hopefully on 27th May and will be in a position to present the outline proposals at the formal meeting of Ministers of Education and Social Affairs in Luxembourg on 4th June. Inclusive Society However the programmes may be worked out, it seems clear that the new programmes will aim at the combined objective of promoting employment, personal development and citizenship of an inclusive society. Whatever the decisions taken by the Commissioner, I think it is safe to say that mobility - student mobility, teacher mobility - will continue to be one of key types of action under the new programme. The physical mobility of individuals, which over the life of the SOCRATES programmes has been gradually drawn into a more structured form, benefits not only the individuals who take part but also the institutions they visit and their own domestic institution and more generally the education and training systems within which they operate. Virtual mobility in which we include Internet-based resource and multimedia is also clearly an area of growing importance. It is interesting to record when the SOCRATES programme was launched just in the beginning of '95, these two seemed logically to belong in the somewhat specialised field of open and distance learning. Now a few short years later they are everywhere. Many Governments have accepted the cost involved, or to put it more profitably, recognised the value of the investment in equipping schools with multimedia computers and Internet access. The challenge is now to integrate their use in an educational approach which adequately exploits their potential. The success of the programmes today was built on small voluntary co-operation of individual institutions which saw the merit in co-operating on particular topics. The increasingly spread of these activities lead to the introduction of the institution contract in the SOCRATES programme. We see great merit in developing the networking approach not only for reasons of administrative simplification and a growing community of participating countries but also as something of value in its own right as it promotes the development and dissemination of innovation and good practice. Languages The value of European co-operation in language teaching is uncontested. Associated with the language learning process itself there is much to be gained in terms of mutual understanding between people of different cultures. The experience of implementing the 5 objectives of the White Paper Teaching and Learning - Towards the Learning Society has convinced us of the value of being able to identify key issues for examination on a multi-country basis and for approaching them through innovative pilot projects. Finally, we believe in the development of information exchange. It is a very important part that we can play because the exchange of experience and expertise right across national frontiers is terribly important, not only in the learning process from the point of view of institutions and people, trainers and teachers, but also for policy makers themselves. What we are about at European level is to help the move to formal and informal national and transnational systems having a more open European area of knowledge in which individuals can move more freely and have access to the benefits brought about by a more effective system throughout Europe. This will not be achieved in our view by imposing a single organisation model, nor by undermining the rigour of admission and validation standards. It will be achieved by accepting and welcoming the diversity which exists, whilst dismantling artificial and unnecessary obstacles and creating new pathways and opportunities to a continuing process of communication, familiarisation, exchange, analysis, mutual understanding and confidence building. We see this conference as a very important part of that process.
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