Priorities of the Dutch EU-presidency;Citizenship Education

ERISEE ¸5th Working Meetingof senior officials from SEE Zagreb, November 26th, 2004.

Jurgen RienksMinistry of Education,Culture and Science, The Netherlands

Structure of presentation

• Priorities in the field of Education• Citizenship on the agenda• Living together starts at school• Practitioners and experts view• Citizenship• Keeping Citizinship on the agenda

Priorities in the field of Education

Main theme: Learning from eachother

• New programmes for Education and Training• Copenhagen Process in Vocational Education:

Maastricht-conference in December• Citizenship and social cohesion.

Citizenship on the agenda 1

2000 Lisbon-agenda• greater social cohesion

2002 Barcelona, Education Council: • broader goals and responsibilities for education and

training

2003 Brussels, Education Council: • promoting the broader role of education and its cultural

aspects

Citizenship on the agenda 2

2004 Rotterdam, informal meeting of EU-Education ministers:

• Lliving together starts at school

2004 Rome, EU-summit:• European Constitutional Treaty• Shared objectives for citizenship education

2004 Education council: • report on the broader role of education and its cultural

aspects

Living together starts at school

• Member states assign key role to schools in strengthening citizenship education for social cohesion

• Separate subject / integrated approach / mixed model• Wide variety of educational practices• Numerous initiatives in context of EU and CoE

Conclusions: • Practices rich in grass-roots initiatives• Room for improvement in realising evidence based

policies and practices.

Practitioners and experts view 1

• Initiatives that respond to local needs are most viable• Consensus exists on citizenship competencies• Early start preferable • Importance of skills and attitudes require a new

pedagogical vision• Crucial how curriculum is imparted in classroom• Values taught should be reflected in organisation and

government of schools• Use the world surrounding the school

Practitioners and experts view 2

• Development of new competencies for teachers / adaptation of teacher training

• Quality assessment for enhancement of teaching• Dissemination of evaluation results and good practices• Commitment from education policy makers• Funding and accountability should be in support

Citizenship

• School citizens• Social citizens• National citizens• European citizens

– European awareness– Consciousness of shared history, values, chances

and ambitions• World citizens

Keeping Citizenship on the agenda

• The new EU Education and Training programmes• Exchange of experiences on citizenship education• Key competencies as reference point for curriculum-

development• The role of teachers and other steakholders• Measuring the effectiveness and enhancing the quality of

citizenship education• The European Year of Citizenship through Education

2005• Eurydice survey• European council?