Implementation of competence-based education in a school at all levels:What is the role of the school leader and stakeholders?

Nelly Guet, a former school head, advisor in the field of education and long-time EPA partner shares her presentation with our readers on this topic. (Original presentation was done at the ATEE Hungary conference in Veszprém, 27 June 2014)

Why do we need competence-based education?

Europeans should be more interested in the future of Europe if they want benefits for the youth in their own countries. Those experiencing a high rate of youth unemployment must urgently adopt different measures, otherwise violence, youth unemployment, lack of interest in school, anxiety about the future and lack of confidence will increase among youngsters.

Knowledge is not enough if we want to engage ourselves for more democracy and more equity at school and if we want to prepare our youth for lifelong learning. 

TALIS 2013 published - compare your school to country and international averages

OECD has just published the new TALIS results. Unfortunately we don't have a picture of all EPA member countries as only 19 of the 28 EU countries did the survey, but we have results for some non-EU EPA countries like Norway. From a parental point of view the most important finding is what underlines our regular arguments: teachers who engage in collaborative learning and where stakeholder involvement is present, teachers feel more satisfied and valued. Unfortunately parental involvement is not part of the survey. You can compare your own country's results to that of the average if you go to the OECD website.

Commission urges Member States to improve quality and access to early childhood education and care

Only eight European countries - Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Malta, Slovenia, Finland, Sweden and Norway - guarantee a legal right to Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) soon after a child's birth, normally after the end of paid maternity or parental leave. In all other countries, the gap between the end of maternity / parental leave and legal entitlement to ECEC is more than two years (see figure 1). This is one of the main findings of a new report published by the European Commission.

EUCIS-LLL Survey on Erasmus+

EUCIS-LLL, the European Lifelong Learning Platform is inviting everybody who submitted an application in the first round of Erasmus+ to take part in a survey on experiences.  All Erasmus+ applicants' feedback is very important to make concrete improvements to the programme. The deadline is 26th June.

Online consultation on the future of education

KeyCoNet, the Key Competence Network on School Education invited EPA to become its associate partner. In the framework of our co-operation parents are invited to take part in an online consultation on 21st century school eduaction.  Thedeadline was extended and thus the online consultation is open until 4th July in several languages.

Educating Girls - statement by important politicians as a reaction to the attack of Boko Haram

"Access to free, primary school education is a promise to children that all world leaders have made through the U.N. Millennium Development Goals and the Education For All movement. But the right to education, particularly for girls, is still too often denied – sometimes violently as the recent abduction of more than 200 school girls in Nigeria shows. This is completely unacceptable and we condemn the terrorist actions of Boko Haram in the strongest possible terms. We call on the entire international community to stand together for the right of all children – girls and boys – to education.