Agreeing to differ in EU classrooms

Date: 20/02/1997

Simon Coss reports on the diversity of systems governing education and vocational training in Europe and efforts being made to increase mutual recognition between member states.

THERE are over 4 million teachers in the European Union - more than the entire population of Norway.

They are responsible for educating the estimated 71 million school children and university students currently studying in 307,000 schools and 5,000 institutions of higher education across the continent.

In addition to this, millions more Europeans are currently taking part in countless non-academic vocational training schemes, learning new skills or retraining following first-hand experience of 'corporate downsizing' or 'restructuring' - business speak for being fired.

But the educational sector is also one of the areas where national approaches vary most widely between the Union's 15 member states.

The 117 million under-25-year-olds currently being trained to compete on Europe's level single market playing-field are being taught 15 different sets of rules.

The upshot of all this is that Europeans who wish to work or study in a member state other than their own often find the qualifications they have laboured long and hard for are not worth the paper they are printed on elsewhere.

This problem was highlighted in a recent report by the European Trade Union Committee for Education (ETUCE) which stated: “The recognition of qualifications and diplomas is a crucial element in the promotion of mobility within Europe.”

Practically everyone involved in the European education sector agrees that it would be pointless to try to come up with a set of standard 'Euro-qualifications'.

Individual member states have each developed distinctive education systems based on their own historical and cultural experiences which, to a greater or lesser extent, are tailored to the needs of their different populations.

As far as the European Commission is concerned, this diversity of approaches is not, in itself, a problem.

The institution's two main programmes aimed at promoting educational cooperation - Socrates for school and university teaching and Leonardo da Vinci, which tackles the issue of vocational training - both use the variety of systems as a positive selling point.

“We are not aiming at a uniform approach. The programme is designed to get the maximum benefit from the different education systems in the member states,” said one official involved in the Socrates programme.

The real problem at the moment is not so much that members states have different systems, but that they are not always prepared to recognise the validity of alternative ways of doing things.

In a bid to tackle this situation and in particular to address the problems faced by students and teachers who wish to study or work abroad, the Commission launched a Green Paper late last year on Eliminating obstacles to transnational mobility.

“Despite repeated calls from the Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers, and despite the fact that free movement of persons is one of the cornerstones of the European Union, transnational mobility of students, teachers, researchers and training workers is still pie in the sky,” said a document released by the Directorate- General for education and training (DGXXII) at the same time as the Green Paper.

Experts point to dozens of small but annoying problems which all too often hinder educational cooperation between member states.

“Anyone who is unemployed and wishing to train in another member state, for example, loses the right to unemployment benefit and social security if the training exceeds three months,” said one DGXXII official. “In some states, they cannot even leave the country without losing their rights.”

Teachers' groups recognise the need for members of their profession to be able to move and work freely within the EU, but stress that any system should be based on mutual recognition of qualifications.

“The Commission could usefully clarify the status of different levels of qualifications of teachers and other professional workers by providing guidance to the national systems,” said an ETUCE official, adding: “There might possibly be financial inducements from the European institutions to facilitate this process.”

The organisation says the ultimate goal of this approach should be to build what it calls a 'European area of qualifications' where the relevant authorities in one member state would agree to recognise diplomas issued by the other 14.

“Given their particular importance within the education, training and labour market systems of Europe, particular emphasis should be placed on achieving a European area of qualifications for teachers,” the organisation said in a recent report.

Article 126 of the Maastricht Treaty gives the Commission some, albeit restricted, competence to promote educational cooperation within the European Union. “The Community shall contribute to the development of quality education by encouraging cooperation between member states and, if necessary, by supporting and supplementing their action,” it states.

In addition to the various policy documents it has issued since the treaty came into force, the Commission appointed a group of 25 experts to advise it on educational matters in September 1995.

As well as leading figures from the academic world, the panel also includes representatives from industry, regional authorities and former advisers to national politicians.

The group produced its first report at the end of last year and the picture it painted of the current level of cooperation between member states and the European institutions was far from glossy.

“Article 126 limits the European Union's avenues of action as regards education and training systems which clearly fall within national competence. The study group takes the view that this is an advantage, given the desirability of having a number of pathways to achieving similar ends,” said the panel.

But it added: “On the other hand, no interpretation of the concept of subsidiarity should be so restrictive that it prevents the European institutions following discussion among the member states and declaring in collaboration with them what the common aims of education and training systems are to be.”

Within its limited remit, the Commission has tried to give a serious push to education-based programmes in recent years.

When Socrates was launched in 1995, it grouped together a series of previously disparate programmes into a more user-friendly 'one-stop' system.

Perhaps the most well known of the Socrates sub-programmes is the Erasmus university exchange scheme. Along with the Lingua project, which is aimed specifically at language learning, Erasmus has enabled nearly half a million students to complete a part of their studies in another member state since 1987.

Leonardo da Vinci takes a similar exchange-driven approach to 'on-the-job' and vocational training.

But the fact remains that any truly European strategy on education policy must come from the member states.

The Commission can coordinate exchange programmes, set up groups of experts and publish any number of Green Papers, but unless the 15 national governments agree to cooperate more closely, the institution's efforts will ultimately come to nothing.

Recent meetings of Union education ministers have revealed a growing willingness to talk about these issues at great length, but not a huge commitment to actually do very much about tackling them.

Representatives from the 15 member states will meet again at the beginning of March for an informal session in Amsterdam, during which they will agree once again, no doubt, just how important education is.

However, with thousands of teachers and students still facing unnecessary bureaucratic difficulties while trying to teach or study abroad, the verdict on education ministers' performance to date can only be a disappointing 'could do better'.