EU schools go back to the drawing-board

Date: 09/01/1997

By Rory Watson

FACED with the inevitable physical and financial pressures which will follow the Union's enlargement, the EU is examining the future challenges facing its unique system of official European schools.

A special working party has been appointed to investigate how the nine schools, whose primary raison d'être is to educate the children of Union officials, will cope with increased pupil numbers.

Two of the most tangible consequences of the arrival of new EU member states if the European schools keep their present form will be demands for an increase in the number of languages used in lessons, and the need for extra classrooms.

“A working group of national officials is looking at the enormous problems which could arise in the future. The question of languages, for instance, is one which the Union's own interpreting and translation system will also have to face,” explained one EU official.

Ideas which are being tentatively floated include the replacement of the unique European baccalaureate which provides pupils with entrance qualifications for universities throughout the Union by its international version; the possibility of reducing the 11 language streams to five or even three; and the feasibility of transferring more of the costs to the annual EU budget.

Those closely involved in the exercise insist that the assessment is still in its earliest stages and it will be several years before any firm conclusions are drawn. They would then have to be considered by the European schools' governing body before a final decision on any changes was taken by EU governments.

“There are no proposals on the table, only reflections on a structure which could be different from what we have now,” explained one senior official.

Although the European schools, which cater for 15,000 pupils, are scattered around the Union particularly where EU-funded research centres are to be found the pressures will inevitably be greatest in Brussels and Luxembourg. A third school is currently being built in the Belgian capital simply to reduce the overcrowding which already exists.

The debate on the schools' future is likely to be further complicated by the fact that certain member states, notably the UK, the Netherlands and Denmark, would like to shift the financial burden of running them from national exchequers to the EU budget. While the idea is attractive to some, others fear that such a move could have unexpected consequences.

They warn that changes could weaken the status of the European baccalaureate, which is now recognised by all Union governments as a valid indicator of a pupil's ability to enter third-level education in any member state.

They also predict that they could turn European schools into a political football which would be kicked about by governments and the European Parliament each year as they negotiated the EU's budget.