HIGH-LEVEL EDUCATION FORUM ON EDUCATION SYSTEMS IN EUROPE IN THE 21 ST CENTURY

Transcription

1 20 September 2011 HIGH-LEVEL EDUCATION FORUM ON EDUCATION SYSTEMS IN EUROPE IN THE 21 ST CENTURY Speech by Ms Ólöf Ólafsdóttir Director of Education and Languages Council of Europe

2 Ministers, ladies and gentlemen, It is with great pleasure that I greet you today on behalf of the Council of Europe. The Secretary General, Mr. Thorbjørn Jagland, as well as our Director General for Education, Culture and Heritage, Youth and Sport, Ms Gabriella Battaini-Dragoni, regret that other commitments prevent them from being with us, but they are both convinced of the importance of what we will discuss during these two days. They appreciate as do my colleagues in the Directorate of Education and Languages that Ukraine has dedicated one of the key events of its Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers to education. I would like to add my personal thanks to the Minister and Deputy Ministers of Education of Ukraine and to all the colleagues in the Ministry who have worked so hard to enable us to meet here in Kyiv to explore the role of education in shaping 21 st century Europe. No modern society can long stand if its education systems and its education institutions fall. We received a reminder of this last summer, in particular through three events that we witnessed between mid-july and early August. One was the financial crisis. You may well argue that the crisis was nothing new, that it did not start this summer and that it did not end this summer. You would be right, but for our purposes, what is important is that the financial crisis is not only about currencies and stocks. It is also about education or rather the lack of it, or at least about education failure. It would be difficult to argue that there are no problems with the technical training of those who run our financial markets into the ground. More importantly, however, the financial crisis betrays deep problems with our education the education not only of those who run and sometimes ruin - the markets, but also with those who set public policy and with those who elect the policy makers in a word, with the education of all of us. That education is or at least should be about much more than the technicalities of the stock market or currency policies. Education should be about how we do things, but equally about why we do things. It may well be that our education systems in general provide insufficient competence in economics. Our specialised programmes in economics are certainly deficient in ethics, in civics, in providing the competences needed to assess risks and to weigh long-term consequences against immediate gain. The second event was the urban riots that hit the United Kingdom - but they could probably have hit a number of other European countries. When riots occur, dialogue breaks down together with the ability and will to communicate. Dialogue implies a will and an ability to recognise that because we are members of the same society, each one of us endowed with our human dignity, we need to solve our differences by speaking to each other and by listening to each other rather than by hitting each other. The ability to speak and to listen was certainly lacking in those who instigated the riots or who took 2

3 advantage of them, but the ability to speak and listen is also required of the parts of society toward which the anger behind the riots were directed and by public authorities. In the medium and longer term, education must be a key part of the answer to the riots that happened this summer and to similar events of this kind. That education must qualify for the labour market, but it must equally fulfill the other main missions of education as defined by the Council of Europe: Preparation for life as active citizens in democratic society; Personal development The development and maintenance of a broad and advanced knowledge base. The importance of education in the true sense of the term is also demonstrated by the third event: the bomb that devastated the government offices in Oslo and the shootings at the youth camp at Utøya. My point here is not that any education system in the world could have prevented these attacks. My point lies in the public reaction to them. Faced with the most dramatic attack on Norwegian society since the end of World War II, both the political authorities and the public at large came together to answer terror with the assertion that it would not put their commitment to an open and democratic society in danger. That reaction has rightly been admired and it could not have come about without an education system based on core values and longer-term priorities. Another important point is that the attacks in Oslo and at Utøya were carried out by someone with links to the extreme right. He may have been alone in carrying out the attacks and he may not have been a part of an organisation that perhaps remains to be seen but he was a part of a loosely organised fringe community that thrives in the anonymity of the internet. The resurgence of the extreme right is of great concern. In a broader sense, the resurgence of populism is of great concern. This is because populism does not provide deeper answers to the very real challenges that face our societies. Populism only seemingly provides easy solutions to complex problems that far too often turn out to be no solution at all. Populism is good at finding scapegoats but not at finding solutions. Populism is about everything that education is not: superficiality, ignorance, the lack of will to go deeper than the most superficial and the belief that those who are not exactly like ourselves cannot possibly be as good as we are or have the same rights we do. A society founded on populism cannot but divide where an education based on true European values would bring together and heal. Populism cannot rise to the challenges of the climate change, of the fundamental problems of our economy and of making our societies more cohesive. Education can, education should, and education must. It is therefore very fitting that our discussions here in Kyiv will focus on how education can build a culture of living together, to look at competences for life in democratic societies and to consider how schools and universities can share a common educational goal across borders. In addition, a special regional meeting of Ministers of Education will explore the implementation of the European Higher Education Area. 3

4 When we think of education, the images conjured up in our minds are inevitably those of schools and universities, of students and teachers. They are the life and blood that make up our education systems. Yet the emphasis of this conference is on the systems. Why is that, when people and institutions are what makes education come alive? You represent public authorities and the Council of Europe is an intergovernmental organisation. Public authorities formulate policies and set priorities for the development of the education their country offers through the education system for which they are responsible. They do this through legislation, regulation, incentives, policy initiatives and other means. It is also the education system that determines the kinds of qualifications that schools and universities will offer, that provides for quality assurance and makes arrangements for how qualifications will be recognised. Not least, it is public authorities that determine which institutions belong to their national education system and which do not. The education system, then, sets the framework within which institutions operate and students and teachers work. There is of course room for variation and creativity within an education system, but the education system sets the parameters. Education systems are national, but they also have an important European dimension. In an age of increased mobility and close co-operation between countries, no education system can be an island unto itself, as illustrated through the European Higher Education Area. The need for close European co-operation among education systems, however, extends to all levels and all kinds of education. It is of fundamental importance that students can move easily within as well as between education systems. It is essential that students whose interests and commitments evolve can change track without having to start all over again. It is, in short, essential that our education systems be of high quality. The quality discussion often focuses on specific institutions and sometimes one gets the impression that the more applicants an institution turns down, the higher its quality. I am not sure this is good institutional quality but I am adamant that a good system cannot provide high-level education only for a few and third rate education for the rest. An education system marked by excellence must stimulate all students to develop their abilities and meet their aspirations to the full. That is why the Council of Europe is now undertaking work on the right to quality education and why this work will focus on the responsibility of public authorities, and hence on the role of education systems. I am looking forward to seeing this work develop further. The development of education systems, then, is a public responsibility, incumbent upon public authorities. It is, however, also a responsibility that cannot be exercised by public authorities alone. The participation and contribution of civil society is an essential part of democracy, and the contributions of students, staff, institutional leaders, employers, NGOs and other members of civil society are vital to the development of education in Europe in the 21st century. Living and working together through dialogue is key. It is an ability that should be developed through education and that will benefit education as well as other parts of our societies. I am very pleased 4

5 that representatives of civil society and not least of students will participate fully in this conference. I would like to close by once again thanking the Ukrainian authorities for making it possible for so many high-level European policy makers to gather here in Kyiv over these two days. I wish us all an excellent conference, with stimulating discussion, an opportunity to network and, above all, with results that contribute to developing the education systems in Europe in the 21 st century. 5