Multicultural education embraces EU diversity

Date: 16/05/1996

A UNIQUE educational experiment is taking place in a handful of special schools scattered around the Union, where more than 15,000 pupils of many different nationalities are taught side by side and rub shoulders in the playgrounds.

The nine official European Schools do not see themselves as melting pots and do not attempt to neutralise individual national identities by pouring them into a European mould. Indeed, the early stages of a child's education pay close attention to the pupil's own cultural identity.

“You cannot be European unless you first and foremost have solid roots in a national identity. You do have to feel secure,” explains John Marshall, who has been headmaster of the European School in the Brussels suburb of Uccle for the past seven years.

But the schools soon start exposing their charges to wider European influences. Pupils must begin learning their first foreign language at the age of six and a second one at 12. Some choose a third two years later.

In secondary school, classes in art, music and sport are always made up of a mix of different nationalities, and history and geography, along with an optional course in economics, are taught in the pupil's first foreign language.

The courses lead to the European baccalaureate, which contains a group of core compulsory subjects: the pupil's mother tongue and two foreign languages, maths, a science, philosophy, sports, history and geography.

As Marshall, a former British schools inspector, explains: “All the things that tend to make Europe are embedded in the curriculum.”

If all goes well, the successful graduate of a European School will be someone who “loves their country, but is sufficiently far away to be objective because different perceptions have been fed in and they have been open to other cultures”.

The environment is obviously stimulating for a majority of pupils, and the level of academic achievement is high. Last year, 98&percent; of the 250 baccalaureate candidates at the Uccle school passed the exam and a high proportion of them went on to university.

Perhaps because of their well-developed linguistic abilities, very few opt for language degrees when they get there.

A survey of recent school graduates from Uccle reveals that of 86 who applied to enter British universities in 1994, 77 were offered places. Of those, nearly half chose to study science, maths or engineering and one-third opted for economics, politics or business studies. Only seven chose pure languages and, perhaps surprisingly, just six opted for European studies.

Equally significant is research from England which indicates that the drop-out rate at university among European School pupils is well below that of their contemporaries taught in the English educational system.

“The reason is that our children know what is required of them. The message is that if you work hard and stick at it, you will get there in the end. It has a strong effect on their motivation. Pupils who have been hand fed tend not to have that,” explains Marshall.

However, not every pupil thrives in this multinational environment where there is strong emphasis on academic achievement. Some parents complain that not enough attention is given to less-able children.

Others accuse the schools, which provide free education for the children of EU officials and offer a limited number of paying places for certain other groups, of being élitist.

The most trenchant criticism came two years ago from Dutch Christian Democrat MEP Arie Oostlander, who accused the system of promoting discrimination and attacked the use of taxpayer's money on schools which were not accountable to Euro MPs or national parliamentarians.

These allegations are rejected by the schools, which point out that there are no academic entrance requirements and that the children of top 'A' grade officials and those of their more junior 'D' grade colleagues are all treated equally.

The schools split their pupils into different linguistic streams and education is provided in the Union's official languages. But classes contain more than the EU's 15 nationalities. Uccle, the second largest of the nine European Schools, counts 55 different nationalities among its 3,470 pupils.

The development of the schools has closely mirrored the expansion of the Union itself. The first was established in Luxembourg in 1953, right at the outset of the European Coal and Steel Community, and became an official European School four years later. The success of the experiment led to similar schools being set up at other European centres of work. In addition to Brussels, which soon required a second complex to handle the growing pressure on places, they can be found in the Union's various research centres ranging from Varese in Italy to Culham in the UK.

Each of the schools subscribes to the same educational and philosophical values. Buried under their foundation stones are the words of one of the Community's founders, Jean Monnet, which encapsulate their fundamental aspirations.

“Educated side by side, untroubled from infancy by divisive prejudices, acquainted with all that is great and good in the different cultures, it will be borne in upon them as they mature that they belong together. Without ceasing to look to their own lands with love and pride, they will become in mind Europeans, schooled and ready to complete and consolidate the work of their fathers before them, to bring into being a united and thriving Europe.”

This expansion has not been without its problems, and these have been exacerbated by the continued increase in EU membership. Pressure on places is particularly acute in Brussels, where more than 20,000 Union officials are based. Each school now has to house 1,000 more pupils than originally planned.

The physical pressures have led to tense relations with the Belgian authorities which, under the schools' statute, are responsible as the host country for providing and maintaining the various buildings. The demands by the schools for more premises have come at a time when the Belgian government is keeping a tight rein on national finances and facing an upheaval in its own education system.

A lengthy stand-off between the two sides now looks set to come to an end, although the problems are far from over. Work is beginning on a third European School in the city, there is talk of a fourth being constructed and long-overdue improvements are being made to the two existing complexes.

Other tensions have emerged among teachers seconded to the European Schools as efforts are made to change their statutes and impose nine-year contracts on them. The changes are being vigorously resisted and would cause particular problems for British teachers. Unlike their continental colleagues, they enjoy no guaranteed employment if they return to the UK.

The growing list of challenges is prompting some to argue for a radical review of the schools' statute. They want to change the current intergovernmental convention under which national civil servants run the governing body which oversees all the schools.

Critics argue that the interests of the European Schools do not necessarily feature among governments' main priorities. They resent the fact that parents have no vote on the governing body, although they have to help out with routine tasks such as organising school buses and arranging extra curriculum activities.

They also criticise the imbalance between the budget contributions made by member states and those made by the Union.

“The first pay 20&percent; of the budget and call all the shots. The Union pays two-thirds and the Commission has just one vote,” complained one advocate of change.

Critics have floated the idea of an international charitable foundation of leading educationalists and retired European statesmen to govern the schools. The role of national educational ministries would be limited to technical issues, teachers would be recruited by the schools themselves, schools would be responsible for their own premises and the whole system financed from the EU budget.

Such innovations, they argue, would ensure the schools a healthy future in line with their founding vision and remove the stumbling block of national interests as effectively as it has been eradicated from their classrooms and playgrounds.