tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40542745323289937812024-03-05T21:15:59.688+01:00European ParentsInteresting articles, best practices, programmes on parental involvement in schools and many more things for parents all over EuropeUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger337125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4054274532328993781.post-78146023061831753682018-04-22T20:23:00.001+02:002018-04-25T19:46:16.397+02:00Playful solutions to tackle the global learning crisis<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_Q-446hcHln2nBHR8HAbHSv_t2YKn_xuQY299YBywmBJCl78M5P-O2Uar_-ULFInEBo8vEGOMzrBszoC65XoPBX4luGss_7iyhUTMFzL0P_VmcUXfrkbHUTEguhnGl_i_fjg1KHLKNL0/s1600/playfutures_444x140.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="140" data-original-width="444" height="100" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_Q-446hcHln2nBHR8HAbHSv_t2YKn_xuQY299YBywmBJCl78M5P-O2Uar_-ULFInEBo8vEGOMzrBszoC65XoPBX4luGss_7iyhUTMFzL0P_VmcUXfrkbHUTEguhnGl_i_fjg1KHLKNL0/s320/playfutures_444x140.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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Both the World Economic Forum and the World Bank have warned
us of a major ’learning crisis’. It effects a large number of children who are
not in school, but also those who do attend it. The <a href="https://legoideaconference.com/">LEGO Idea Conference 2018</a> (10-11
April, Billund) tried to offer solutions for it on several levels: the breadth
of skills an individual child needs to develop, attitudes and behaviour of
adults around them, the collective impact of their community and the social norms
and requirements of society. Experts, researchers and practitioners discussed
their ideas and practice, ones that all have a certain playful element.<br />
<a name='more'></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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The 2018 edition of the Davos <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/archive/education/">World Economic Forum</a>
discussed the main issues around education and learning today. They highlighted
the he gap between skills developed by schools and those necessary for the
labour market today and tomorrow. Education systems are not responsive to
changes in society, and evaluation of the necessary breadth of skills is missing
from most systems. As a result children lose the feeling of engagement with
their schooling. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/education">World Bank</a>
findings underline these statements also by highlighting that 44% of children
do not even attain basic level in reading and 53% in maths globally. The head
of education at the World Bank, former Minister of Education of Peru, Jaime
Saavedra compared education to a car the 4 wheels of are 1. curriculum,
instruction and assessment, 2. teachers’ careers, 3. management and 4. infrastructure.
The 4 need to change together to move the vehicle forward. The necessary reform
takes time.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Rebecca Winthrop of <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/center/center-for-universal-education/">Brookings
Institute</a> introduced the notion of leapfrogging highlighting the fact that
reforms that need a lot of time will not help today’s children who only have
this one childhood. The goal of leapfrogging in education should be to use
pedagogical innovation to harness a combination of basic skills and 21<sup>st</sup>
century skills for all children, including those coming from low socio-economic
status families. There is a need for action as 75% or countries are committed
to developing the necessary breadth of skills while only 13% has plans in place
to do so. The goal of leapfrogging would be to overcome skills inequalities and
skills uncertainty together. She also emphasised that whole school development
doesn’t necessarily mean a need for all children to be in school – and this
increases the need for empowering parents and other members of local
communities. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Later she also mentioned that it is the nonprofit sector
that is leading pedagogical innovation, especially since formal education is
resistant to change. The question is when the ‘Wikipedia moment’ of schools
will happen (similarly to that of lexicon publishers).Currently 70% successful
innovative initiatives have a playful learning methodology (eg. Duolingo, LIMA,
BRAC) and only 20% of them are aiming at teacher training.<o:p></o:p></div>
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During the event there was an opportunity to witness,
try and evaluate several innovative education initiatives and think about ways
of scaling them in different environments. An important issue mentioned in
connection to this was the fact that ‘marketing’ is not the job of the
practitioner, otherwise what happens in the classroom, stays there and others
have no opportunity to learn about it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The IDEA Prize 2018 was awarded to Sir Fazle Abed, founder
of <a href="http://www.brac.net/">BRAC</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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In the concluding remarks John Goodwin, Director of LEGO
Foundation reinforced their commitment to changing education and highlighted <a href="https://www.playfutures.net/public/home?showLogin=true&redirectTo=%2F">Playfutures</a>
as an important platform for policy, research and practice to meet. It should
be a vehicle for integration, a place to share examples for shifting mindsets,
facilitate leapfrogging by introducing innovations from approaches to scaling,
an advocacy tool around the breadth of skills by promoting learning through
play. Come and do join us there.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4054274532328993781.post-85408259311616537532018-04-03T12:05:00.000+02:002018-04-03T12:05:36.685+02:00Building bridges between all forms and sectors of education is the future of learning in Europe<h4 style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">LLLP Response to Future of Learning Package </span></span></h4>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Lifelong Learning Platform welcomes the prominence given to education and training at the EU level in recent months. At the Gothenburg Social Summit on 17 November, EU leaders had an informal lunch </span><a href="http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2017/11/17/donald-tusk-presented-the-results-of-the-informal-meeting-in-the-margins-of-the-social-summit/" style="text-align: justify; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">debate</span></a><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> on education and culture for the first time. In the run-up to this debate, the European Commission set out a vision for a European Education Area by 2025 in the </span><a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/sites/beta-political/files/communication-strengthening-european-identity-education-culture_en.pdf" style="text-align: justify; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Communication</span></a><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> “Strengthening European Identity through Education and Culture”. The Commission followed this with the launch of a new </span><a href="http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-18-102_en.htm" style="text-align: justify; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Future of Learning package</span></a><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in January this year and the same month the first ever European Education Summit took place in Brussels, gathering over 20 national Ministers for Education to discuss equity and diversity in education. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Lifelong Learning Platform views these developments as a positive step forward for EU-level cooperation in the field of education and training. This momentum should continue with a clear commitment from Member States and a concrete follow-up to the ambitious discussions at the Education Summit. We wish to stress, however, that the follow-up steps taken by the European Commission and Member States should be rooted in a holistic vision of education, which means</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> looking at education in its universal scope and not exclusively at one specific sector (e.g. schools) or at the sole purpose of labour market demand</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">s. This is why we call for a </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">European Lifelong Learning Area</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> which encompasses all levels, sectors and forms of learning - formal, non-formal and informal - in order to truly be of benefit to all EU citizens. After all, not all young people are students and not all students are young people - we need education policies that match this 21st century reality.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In such a reality we must remember that personal and professional development, soft and technical skills, are equally important for the society of today and tomorrow and require a social and humanistic approach that not only focuses on STEM disciplines, digital skills and entrepreneurship. In a fast changing society, learning fundamental skills for developing independent critical thinking, becoming responsible, active citizens and the capacity to navigate across cultures and political orientations is of paramount importance.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> We strongly encourage the Council to rectify and review the focus of skills and competences including political, social and humanistic skills into the revised key competences framework and overall approach to building a European Lifelong Learning Area. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-weight: 700; text-align: justify; white-space: pre-wrap;">Key competences, digital skills and the European dimension of education</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It goes without saying that</span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> realising</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the vision for a European Education/Lifelong Learning Area will require robust investment</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> The need for such investment is all the more pressing given the role of education, training and skills in helping to implement various EU initiatives such as the Paris-Declaration, New Skills Agenda, Digital Single Market, European Citizens’ Initiative, European Pillar of Social Rights as well as the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Therefore, LLLP asks Member States to commit sufficient resources to make inclusive and high quality education, training and lifelong learning a reality for everyone. This should include an ambitious budget for these priorities in the next EU Multiannual Financial Framework through such instruments as the Erasmus+ programme and European Social Fund in order to support more peer learning and exchanges between Member States. This is a much needed step to help Europe’s education and training systems, and its citizens, achieve their full potential. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Lifelong Learning Platform welcomes the timely initiatives included in the Future of Learning package and believe that they have many promising elements, although they fall short in a number of aspects that we would like to see strengthened. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We appreciate that the proposal for a </span><a href="https://ec.europa.eu/education/sites/education/files/recommendation-key-competences-lifelong-learning.pdf" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">revised Key Competences framework</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> takes into consideration different targets groups and forms of learning and that it establishes a clear link with the first principle of the European Pillar of Social Rights</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and the UN Sustainable Development Goal 4</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. However, experts and civil society organisations involved in previous consultations would have expected a more in-depth revision to reflect the interconnected nature of skills, current realities of the EU and 21st century education needs. The upgrade of </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">civic competence</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> as a competence in its own right is a positive development; in the current climate of populism and xenophobia, learners need to gain an understanding of democratic values and how to critically assess different attitudes, values and media in all its forms. That said, we note with concern that the previous ‘learning to learn’</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">competence has been merged with other competences in the new framework, as this could risk undermining its importance. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To ensure people’s resilience and ability to adapt to social, economic and other forms of change, they must learn how to learn - this is a prerequisite for acquiring all the other competences</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> This also requires a rethink of how the full range of key competences are assessed - standardised testing only evaluates a narrow range of competences and incentivises “teaching for the test”, thus restricting the full potential of the framework</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Further to this, the emphasis on STEM versus social and humanistic competences undermines the importance of the latter in supporting individuals’ ability to cope with complex and interrelated global developments, hence we feel that</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> STEAM</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (A for Arts) would be a more relevant approach to stress in the revised framework. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Crucially, the Lifelong Learning Platform urges the European Commission to reflect further on </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">how to promote the full implementation of these revised key competences at the national level</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and to give further support to Member States in this process. Good examples of how to operationalise the framework in different sectors of education need to be compiled and serve as a basis for building on the work carried out so far, particularly in non-formal and informal learning environments where implementation of the previous framework has not been adequately supported. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As regards the Council Recommendation on </span><a href="https://ec.europa.eu/education/sites/education/files/recommendation-common-values-inclusive-education-european-dimension-of-teaching.pdf" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">common values, inclusive education and the European dimension of teaching</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, we agree with the principles underpinning the proposal but stress that it needs to apply to education across all forms and sectors. While school education is undoubtedly important for promoting the acquisition of social and civic competences, active citizenship and respect for diversity, it would be a missed opportunity not to extend this to learners from other sectors (e.g. VET, higher education) and adults</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in particular. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While the education of children and young people can lay an solid foundation in this area, any efforts aimed at promoting common values through education should include the adults of today who serve as multipliers in their families, workplaces and communities</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Moreover, the Recommendation should encourage Member States to mainstream a “whole school approach” into their education policies, taking note of and acting on the messages from the ET2020 Working Group on Schools Policy on the value of this approach.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We continue to emphasise the importance of non-formal and informal learning in promoting common values and social inclusion among learners of all ages. We note that the emphasis on non-formal learning included in the original </span><a href="https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/initiatives/ares-2017-1378059_en" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">roadmap</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> for the Recommendation has largely disappeared; therefore, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">we urge Member States to broaden its scope to the non-formal and informal learning as providers in this area, particularly civil society organisations, are in a strategic position for reaching out to the most vulnerable and marginalised groups in society</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. In this respect, partnerships between such providers and the formal education sector should be encouraged and supported. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Teachers and professional educators have a direct impact on learners’ achievement, therefore their training and professional development is crucial. This Recommendation and indeed the overall package need to go further in addressing this with a holistic and forward-looking approach, preparing our education systems for a future where the role of teachers and professional educators will drastically change from “teacher as knowledge owner” to “teacher as facilitator”. At the same time, while professional development in the formal education sector is undoubtedly important, we insist that the package should address the equally urgent need for non-formal providers, as well as informal ones including parents, to have opportunities for skills development and should seek to empower all educators, particularly teachers and professional educators, to be able to cooperate with their counterparts in other learning sectors.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Similar arguments apply to the </span><a href="https://ec.europa.eu/education/sites/education/files/digital-education-action-plan.pdf" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Digital Education Action Plan</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. While it makes welcome and useful proposals for supporting innovation and digital infrastructure for educational establishments, we call for a greater emphasis on support for vulnerable individuals in their digital learning experience and recognition of the valuable role that providers of non-formal and informal education play in this regard. The Action Plan outlines a specific set of initiatives to be implemented by 2020 but this should not prevent Member States from considering a more long-term vision about the role of digital technology in their education, training and lifelong learning systems. Furthermore, while the Action Plan states that “Access to and the use of digital technologies can help reduce the learning gap between students from high and low socio-backgrounds”, the reality is that this does not happen automatically because </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">not all learners start from the same foundation in basic skills</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Therefore, targeted support measures, investment and a learner-centred approach are necessary to ensure that everyone, regardless of age, background or level of educational attainment, is able to keep pace with and benefit from the digital age. Robust support for teachers and educators in making effective use of digital technologies, and developing their digital competences throughout their careers, needs to be a long-term priority as well.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">An issue that spans across all three initiatives, and which the Lifelong Learning Platform considers of crucial importance, is the need for Member States to continue their efforts in adopting and implementing an effective validation system for non-formal and informal learning, as called for by the 2012 Council Recommendation.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> This Recommendation asks Member States to put in place such arrangements by no later than 2018, but implementation is severely lacking. The European Commission is encouraged to follow up on this Recommendation by providing targeted support and guidance to the Member States to help them identify and overcome, in collaboration with all relevant stakeholders, the obstacles preventing such arrangements to take shape. This is vital so that the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">skills, competences and learning experiences that the above proposals expect EU citizens to obtain can be valorised, no matter what setting they are attained in</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Upcoming package - mutual recognition, language learning and early childhood education and care </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">On 2 May, the European Commission is expected to put forward a new package of measures for achieving the European Education Area and will include proposals for three new Council recommendations on promoting mutual recognition of higher and secondary education qualifications and study periods abroad; on high quality Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) systems; and on improving language learning. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As concerns the proposal on </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">mutual recognition</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, while the Lifelong Learning Platform welcomes this as an important tool for fostering cross-border mobility, it stresses that a clear commitment from Member States will be needed in order to ensure its full implementation, as the difficulties in implementing the Bologna process have shown. We highlight the importance of organising more Peer Learning Activities, with a diverse and well-balanced participation of the various stakeholders (including learners themselves, civil society, teachers and educators, researchers), to assist Member States in their efforts in moving towards mutual recognition. This Recommendation has significant potential to support lifelong learning but to unlock this potential it should have a broad scope, encompassing all sectors of education and recognising the need to support flexible pathways, i.e. mobility between different types (academic/vocational) and levels of education, for all learners as previously highlighted in several EU documents</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Regarding </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">school study periods abroad in particular, these should be recognised on the basis of a competence-based learning agreement between the student, the sending and hosting school, and the pupil exchange organisation (if applicable). The learning agreement should take into account both the competences gained through formal education and the transversal competences developed through non-formal and informal learning.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Overall, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">recognising alternative forms of certification and the validation of competences acquired outside formal settings, again linking to the 2012 Council recommendation, should be a priority when taking this proposal forward.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In view of the upcoming package we would also like to underline the fact that the largest number of people currently affected by the lack of recognition of prior learning is migrant children, be them regular migrants, refugees or third country nationals. Thus, we would welcome a package that tackles the recognition of prior learning from early childhood onwards, making use of the Key Competences Framework. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Lifelong Learning Platform supports the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">proposal on high quality ECEC,</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> viewing it as a </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">critical foundation for lifelong learning and essential in itself for ensuring a child’s well-being and overall development. As is already well-documented, early childhood education is crucial for influencing an individual's life prospects - in other words, the earlier, the better.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Hence, we again insist on </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the fundamental value of 'learning to learn' and the fact that ECEC is of strategic importance in fostering this competence</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. When an individual learns from an early age the best way to learn for him or herself, they are better equipped to acquire new skills and adapt to change throughout life. In this respect, the proposed Recommendation should be closely linked to the implementation of the revised Key Competences framework (e.g. personal, social and learning competence). Likewise, to help build this critical foundation from a lifelong learning perspective we encourage the Member States to </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">recognise the value of and invest in non-formal and informal learning in early childhood</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, acknowledging that such provisions including learning in the family sphere are at least as desirable and beneficial as formal ECEC. Family provisions in particular, in line with the best interests of the child and WHO recommendations, should be the focus in the first life year. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To ensure high quality and inclusive ECEC, the Recommendation should place an emphasis on the integration of services (social, health, education), both in the planning and delivery stage. This is important for ECEC because it breaks down silos and promotes a holistic, and thus more effective, approach to meeting the child's diverse needs and promoting his or her well-being at all levels - physical, social, mental and emotional. This has a direct effect on learning because a </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">happy and healthy child, whose needs are met in a comprehensive manner, is better equipped to learn, whether it be in formal education or in non-formal and informal learning contexts</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Also at the strategic level, while ECEC remains the responsibility of a different Ministry depending on the country, it is advisable that Member States appoint a 'lead' Ministry or an inter-ministry coordination body responsible for overseeing all ECEC-related policy, thus contributing to a more integrated approach where experts and policymakers from the different strands communicate with and learn from each other. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In terms of the proposal on </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">language learning</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, we welcome the proposed benchmark for all school students finishing upper secondary education to have a good knowledge of two language in addition to their mother tongue. However, we should bear in mind that the latter may not always be the majority language in the learner’s country, so a multilingualism approach recognising the need for mother tongue provisions is essential. Moreover,</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">language learning opportunities should be made more readily available to learners of all ages and sectors</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, with VET and adults in particular requiring targeted support measures. We encourage Member States to adopt a lifelong learning approach when developing their language strategies; after all, learning and updating one’s linguistic competences is a truly lifelong exercise in an increasingly mobile society. The proposed Recommendation should also address </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">access to affordable and quality language learning opportunities</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, an area where Member States can be supported with peer learning activities. This access is a major concern since language learning provisions at schools are generally poor and compromised by private demand in some Member States. Obtaining a language proficiency certificate is not affordable for vulnerable groups. However, school alone cannot answer to the needs of all learners, neither are its methods always the most adequate ones. Therefore, it is important to encourage cooperation with spaces and organisations that facilitate language practice and intercultural exchanges. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Conclusion </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Lifelong Learning Platform supports the renewed attention to education at the EU level, calling on the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">European Commission to</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">provide guidance and support to the Member States to help these ambitious proposals come to fruition for the benefit of all learners, with no discrimination by age or citizenship</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> This should happen in close cooperation with all interested parties including teachers, professional educators, learners, parents, non-formal and informal education providers, civil society organisations and social partners. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4054274532328993781.post-4849588817935294032018-03-19T11:29:00.000+01:002018-03-19T11:29:29.176+01:00European Qualifications Framework - the first 10 years<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiUdAUDj8J8nAue2vJcGbJOpkJX47Xfl0qK9-I9eHPR4mzKeQkrr5rY5WHqbK5MGl-IK4WerRuoc3iaAFSAFv5ErME85h6L-AzZdDEHC4nnnB9yz5SeI9M4ArIxnnGIJ-0qhbxLQZlHUI/s1600/eqf_logo-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="185" data-original-width="511" height="115" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiUdAUDj8J8nAue2vJcGbJOpkJX47Xfl0qK9-I9eHPR4mzKeQkrr5rY5WHqbK5MGl-IK4WerRuoc3iaAFSAFv5ErME85h6L-AzZdDEHC4nnnB9yz5SeI9M4ArIxnnGIJ-0qhbxLQZlHUI/s320/eqf_logo-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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More than 300 people from employment, education and training
organisations joined "The European Qualifications Framework: supporting
learning, work and cross border mobility" conference on 15-16 March in
Brussels. LLL-P's Steering Committee members were invited to participate at the event.<br /></div>
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Participants discussed the following topics in interactive workshops on the
first day, followed up by high level panels on the second day:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<li>How has the European Qualifications Framework (EQF), and its
focus on learning outcomes, supported the modernisation of education and
training systems?</li>
<li>How has the EQF helped build trust and increase transparency and comparability
of qualifications?</li>
<li>How do qualifications frameworks facilitate validation of non-formal and
informal learning?</li>
<li>How can qualifications frameworks support the recognition of qualifications?</li>
<li>What is the role of social partners and other stakeholders in the EQF process
and what are their future expectations?</li>
<li>How have the EQF and the development of qualifications frameworks supported
international and global cooperation?</li>
</ul>
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<a name='more'></a>The issues discussed most were<o:p></o:p><br />
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<ul>
<li>the relevance and prevalence of the learning outcomes
approach of the EQF as compared or sometimes complemented by a process oriented
approach</li>
<li>he importance of soft skills and the width of skills that
are not solely technical, and their fitting into the EQF</li>
<li>how to make sure the learning outcomes standards support the
learner to reach their full potential rather than having a dumbing down effect
of meeting the minimum only</li>
<li>sector skills needs as compared to very specific needs of
certain professions in those sectors.</li>
</ul>
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Ann Branch, Acting Director of the Skills Directorate at DG
EMPL emphasised that the EQF has been the most impacting EU tool on national
education systems. Its update in 2017 was part of the EU Skills Agenda. She has
set the scene also for the next 10 years: the revision of national frameworks
is in progress, but for a full implementation there is a need for political
support, involvement of all stakeholders (including parents). For the EQF to be
seen as the road to quality qualifications there is a need to build trust.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Denitsa Sacheva, Deputy Minister for Education and Science
on behalf of the Bulgarian Presidency of the EU highlighted the role of the EQF
in enhanced worker mobility and lifelong learning. She also emphasised the
important role the EQF plays in modernising VET and also making it more
attractive – a topic very high on the EU Agenda..<o:p></o:p></div>
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Jens Bjornavold, the leading EQF expert of CEDEFOP
emphasised that the EQF is not the result of the so-called Copenhagen process
on the modernisation of vocational education, but discussions on lifelong
learning and it needs to be treated accordingly.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Alison Crabb, Head of the Skills and Qualifications Unit of
DG EMPL made the link between EQF and the modernisation Europass. This link
needs to be made as the EQF is not a tool for the assessment of individual
skills, while the Europass is, but they are very closely linked, especially
since both primarily cater for labour market needs.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Grant Klinkum from the New Zealand Qualifications Framework
was a keynote speaker playing the role of a critical friend. He summarised the
to-do’s for the near future and the following 10 years as follows:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<li>introduce more flexibility into the EQF</li>
<li>don’t waste time on useless or repeated trainings</li>
<li>it needs to be taken into consideration that various
learning pathways may lead to micro-credentials that are part of
macro-qualifications – they need to be validated and utilised</li>
<li>it needs to be understood that NQFs, based on the EQF are a
political tool and deal with them accordingly</li>
<li>the value of transversal/soft skills should be signalled by
qualification frameworks</li>
<li>there is a need to make an alignment with new forms of work</li>
<li>a shift from learning outcomes to credentials is desirable.</li>
</ul>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4054274532328993781.post-13491116924705466832018-03-15T21:41:00.003+01:002018-03-15T21:41:44.177+01:00Culture and Education for All: Building the Skills for More Resilient Societies<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR6NDobXdjq5KH2zQFMKDQT1kP9lzqbkik2Fsw__uLsaCF80YaRGTyRnRWy-XiKI65aOU5IQKSwDoisAI7RW5eKgzY0uyktfCI8xkeahh5r5gPN9zrqTQfaccPUZWC7-xBjn7YhuZayv4/s1600/art%2526edu.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="1200" height="103" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR6NDobXdjq5KH2zQFMKDQT1kP9lzqbkik2Fsw__uLsaCF80YaRGTyRnRWy-XiKI65aOU5IQKSwDoisAI7RW5eKgzY0uyktfCI8xkeahh5r5gPN9zrqTQfaccPUZWC7-xBjn7YhuZayv4/s200/art%2526edu.png" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Joining forces, several civil society organisations</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> invited European and international institutions and various stakeholders to debate a common approach to addressing the links between education and culture. The purpose of coming together for this event was to discuss possible synergies in light of the 2018 European Year of Cultural Heritage and the European Commission’s 2017 Communication on “Strengthening European Identity through Education and Culture”, as well as to react to the proposed revision of the key competences and to the future of learning package. To this extent, recent policy developments prompted the organisers to acknowledge the need to </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">rebuild on </span><a href="http://lllplatform.eu/lll/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/EUCIS-LLL_ATC_CAE-Position-paper_Building-synergies-between-education-and-culture.pdf" style="font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">past common positions</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, widen their scope, and formulate new recommendations to policy-makers. </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">EPA's President, Vice President of Lifelong Learning Platform, Eszter Salamon was invited to present the LLL-P position on key competences and learning environments as a speaker of the event.</span></div>
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">All organisers call upon the European institutions to enhance synergies as much as possible, starting with a deeper collaboration between education and culture policymakers within the institutions themselves. Recent policy reforms at EU level on validation should pave the way for a greater involvement of cultural actors and creative competences in validation mechanisms. To this extent, </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">more skills call for more learning opportunities of all types</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, an ideal horizon which can only become reality with investment and a genuinely collaborative and cross-sectoral approach. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The day opened with an intervention by Ms Erna Hennicot-Schoepges, former Minister of Education, Culture and Research of Luxembourg, who recalled that true partnership is possible with common goals and intent within the European arena. In her keynote speech, she addressed the pressing need to boost national investments in education and refocus educational curricula on individual capacity-building from an early age, acknowledging the vital contribution that music, arts and culture can make in this regard. She called for </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">education and culture to become a truly common EU strategy</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Mr Yasen Gyurov, Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU, stressed the importance of </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">inclusion through access to quality education</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and making the best use of digital technology in education to both prepare people for the jobs of the future and support their own personal development. Mr Jens Nymand-Christensen, Deputy Director General of DG EAC, pointed out that </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">we all should embrace cultural diversity as a way of enhancing people’s resilience and immunity to extremist voices</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Paolo Fontani, Director of UNESCO Liaison Office in Brussels, emphasised the need for a profound rethinking of what education is for, and of </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">bringing together the culture and education spheres in school programming and curricula development</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, while bearing in mind that learning not only happens at school. David Lopez, President of the Lifelong Learning Platform, elaborated on this recalling that a lifelong learning approach - linking together formal, non-formal and informal learning - should be promoted and for that adequate investment, as well as </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">genuine dialogue between institutions and civil society actors</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in the education and cultural fields, are essential. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> The meeting was highly valuable in contributing to the definition of a new position for civil society organisations and stakeholders </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">vis-à-vis</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> the benefits of more robust synergies between education and culture. The need for a substantiated step forward led the participants to identify common issues and shared solutions in order to render all learners visible. We should all envision mutual forms of communication, and develop a new language that would eventually inform the partnership. The </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">role of teachers</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - and of teaching in general - was immensely valued during informal talks, with the argument that the notion of ‘teacher’ should be widened to educators of all forms, including actors in the culture sector. A great role in the definition of new competences shall be played by the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">digital revolution</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, which encompasses all aspects of life, (including museums and libraries) and greatly promotes culture and learning opportunities. Culture and education join forces in that they push forward new examples of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">learning mobility</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: cultural awareness and appreciation of cultural diversity are learning schemes that Europe cannot afford to overlook.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4054274532328993781.post-38772027698671510362018-03-07T13:32:00.001+01:002018-03-14T18:52:29.537+01:00The 9th FEAD Network Meeting Highlights<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The 9th FEAD Network
meeting took place on 01 March in Brussels and discussed issues related to “The
role of volunteers in FEAD delivery”. EPA was represented by EPA Ambassador Herminio Correa. During the meeting an i</span></span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="line-height: 17.12px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">nteractive workshop on initiating and running a volunteer programme was organised. The suggested programmes took part in a competition and again the EPA representative was on the winning team. You can see the idea described at the end of the article. It will hopefully inspire people to implement it in reality.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; line-height: 107%; text-align: justify;">Volunteering plays a
crucial role in strengthening fundamental European values such as solidarity
and community building. About a fifth of European citizens are currently
involved in voluntary work, amounting to between 92 and 94 million people aged
over 15. Because of diverse traditions and levels of development of voluntary sectors
however, the volunteering landscape varies significantly across Europe.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; line-height: 107%; text-align: justify;">Member States such as
the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Austria, Luxembourg and Germany consistently
report high or very high levels of participation, with up to 57% of their population
being involved in voluntary activities. In contrast, Member States such as
Poland, Portugal, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece and Spain report low or relatively
low levels of participation in volunteering, at between 9% and 15% of their
population.</span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The estimated economic
and social contribution of volunteering also varies greatly across Europe.
According to GHK,3 volunteering accounts for between 3 and 5% of the GDP in
Austria, the Netherlands and Sweden. In contrast, it accounts for less than
0.1% in Slovakia, Poland and Greece. Regardless of its economic benefits, it is
undoubted that volunteering delivers broader social impacts. It reinforces
social inclusion and employment, education and training, and fosters civil
society and democracy. Through volunteering, citizens contribute to local
development, and become active and empowered citizens. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">While
the level of volunteering has increased across Europe over the past few years,
engaging volunteers has become more challenging. Volunteers seem less willing
to commit to one organisation for prolonged periods of time and take on
decision-making responsibilities. Their aspirations, as part of the new
generations of volunteers, tend to mismatch the needs of organisations; it is
difficult to match them with adequate organisations, and they tend to spread
across an increasingly large number of organisations. Another challenge is the
professionalisation of the voluntary sector, whereby volunteers need to perform
increasingly demanding tasks requiring higher skill levels, while remaining
willing to do so in an unpaid fashion. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The event, attended by 86 delegates
from 22 European Union countries, included updates on the 2018 activities and on
the results of the mid-term evaluation of the FEAD Network, a panel discussion,
a case study marketplace and an interactive workshop.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The panel discussion was attended by Gabriella
Civico from the European Volunteer Centre and Vasiliki Papachristou from
Hellenic Red Cross who shared with everyone their perspective on volunteering, along
with a sharing her on-the-ground experience.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In the marketplace, 5 very
interesting case studies from 5 different countries were simultaneously
presented:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">1ºThe “Frisk” project: building sustainable
partnerships between volunteers and organizations – Doctors of the World –
Sweden<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">2º Effectively meeting volunteers’ training needs –
Italian Red Cross<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">3º Innovative methods for recruiting volunteers –
Polish Committee of Social Welfare<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">4º Successfully recruiting new volunteers for FEAD
activities – French Federation of Food Banks<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">5º Including end recipients as volunteers – Zadar
Archdiocesan Caritas – Croatia<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">At the end of this session, all participants were asked
to create and develop a volunteer training campaign.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In 2018 FEAD Network will hold 5 annual meetings, two
of which will be devoted to visits to local projects in Denmark/Sweden and
Malta.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<b><span style="line-height: 17.12px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Interactive workshop: initiating and running a volunteer programme</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Through this interactive activity,
participants were given the opportunity to work together in groups to create a
volunteer programme. The aim was to allow participants to share their own
experiences in successful recruitment and engagement strategies, as well as to
derive inspiration from the experience of others.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Participants were split into seven
groups, and each team could either choose from two hypothetical FEAD projects
or come up with a FEAD project of their own inspiration, based on which they
were invited to draw up a volunteer programme. When developing their programme,
participants were encouraged to consider a series of non-exhaustive guiding
questions under five main dimensions: <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Mobilisation and recruitment: <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Training: <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Management and retention: <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Resources: <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Once
again, EPA was part of one of the winning groups with the following project:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Project:
“Kitchen rendez-vous”<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Many FEAD end recipients do not know
how to cook, which can prevent them from making the most of items on offer. The
idea behind Kitchen rendez-vous is to recruit volunteer students from
vocational schools to organise and lead cooking classes for FEAD recipients.
Beyond the pedagogical and social dimension of the cooking classes, sessions
would foster cultural exchange, as the recipes taught would be inspired from
the culinary traditions of recipients’ home countries. Students would be
recruited directly through cookery schools, who would be in charge of selecting
them, and agreements would be made with students, schools and professors.
Volunteers would receive training on hygiene, safety and pedagogy, but also on
intercultural communication, conflict management and psychology. They would
have regular briefings and debriefs, during which they could highlight what
works well and areas where they might need support. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="PT" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The team:</span></span></div>
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<span lang="PT" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Gerd Walter – Institut SOSTRA GmbH<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="PT" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Magali Desautez – Les Restaurants du Coeur<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="PT" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Angela Frigo – Fondazione Banco Alimentare Onlus<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Kart Mere – EAPN Estonia NGO<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Liga Logina – The Society Integration
Foundation<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="PT" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Hermínio Corrêa – European Parents Association</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4054274532328993781.post-35517698384774977972018-02-18T15:37:00.002+01:002018-02-18T15:37:39.562+01:00Investing in People – The Way Forward<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHB1Sn4zf5Y1AynOxgEeith_dFmXroLsiAcZMriGc9D6SpRSy9jEaXW5yz7GXccCQC5xhn2hrT5TIuIkufXcNiW0VSj9Vb6ceXqnJ5Vk0tjo3g8GNKzBMlK8K_Jd7Cbs-EQFZp0cVR6fQ/s1600/ESF+60+logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="135" data-original-width="374" height="71" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHB1Sn4zf5Y1AynOxgEeith_dFmXroLsiAcZMriGc9D6SpRSy9jEaXW5yz7GXccCQC5xhn2hrT5TIuIkufXcNiW0VSj9Vb6ceXqnJ5Vk0tjo3g8GNKzBMlK8K_Jd7Cbs-EQFZp0cVR6fQ/s200/ESF+60+logo.png" width="200" /></a></div>
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The European Commission and the Bulgarian Presidency of the
European Union marked the 60th Anniversary of the European Social Fund (ESF) by
a major conference held in Sofia on 15/16 February 2018. As the title suggests
it was a forward-looking event where participants had an opportunity to discuss
priorities for the post-2020 MFF in the field of inclusion and social
protection. The area defined as most important for further improvement towards
cohesion of Europe is education.</div>
<a name='more'></a><o:p></o:p><br />
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In his opening speech, Tomislav Donchev, Deputy Prime
Minister of Bulgaria emphasised that the EU has indeed been a social project
and thus set the tone of the conference. The event was declared to be a key
milestone in the consultation process on strategic and programme aspects of
future EU investment in people and was planned to offer a platform for
expressing positions and ideas on the topic, as well as identifying main trends
for the future investment in human capital. While there was little criticism of
the Pillar of Social Rights, workshop sessions offered possibilities for
raising concerns around inclusion and lifelong learning. The workshop on
work-life balance was totally overtaken by stakeholder groups that are fully
supportive the EC’s <a href="http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52017PC0253">current
proposal</a> that would seriously violate both the rights of parents and
children. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC3zBVMGOYogcpQqYqWornIAdd_ahs9dVjj4sBViPuKd_EOV7bAUvfQWH0lb2mK6hDbOC8z-aRwmPH6sJb6RaLi0esdFm5ZPTy2WmmiQgf7MMvB0sRaVbNbzt90CpH-BUZDA0xnHdT-xI/s1600/EC_logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC3zBVMGOYogcpQqYqWornIAdd_ahs9dVjj4sBViPuKd_EOV7bAUvfQWH0lb2mK6hDbOC8z-aRwmPH6sJb6RaLi0esdFm5ZPTy2WmmiQgf7MMvB0sRaVbNbzt90CpH-BUZDA0xnHdT-xI/s200/EC_logo.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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Michel Servoz, Director General of DG Employment and Social
Affairs drew a clear agenda for the post-2020 period. He emphasised that
skills, competences, education and employability will clearly be future
priorities of the EU. There is a need to find synergies of different programmes
for investing in people more than in previous periods. The EU needs to trust
those using funding opportunities and simplify funding processes. The Social
Pillar will provide the basis for a policy framework, but there is a need to link
it more strongly to the European Semester process. Policy recommendations
should guide the use of ESF in a contractual way. He also called for
flexibility within the new MFF as there is a need for re-programming in case of
a major change, like it happened with the migrant crisis during the current
MFF.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcx8__3TRl9dDI03AguLjvJqbSick3pgQfqeRmxxNwltrh-cLm_yjEZ1onAwakB0gcv7SA31Z4ndJbEicsMN2aZCxvp4ALx_XfJZG1Gav87wvB8aP_3EqxrnooUz8_BwW7_uwLLrLOPTk/s1600/bulgarian+presidency+logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="204" data-original-width="720" height="56" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcx8__3TRl9dDI03AguLjvJqbSick3pgQfqeRmxxNwltrh-cLm_yjEZ1onAwakB0gcv7SA31Z4ndJbEicsMN2aZCxvp4ALx_XfJZG1Gav87wvB8aP_3EqxrnooUz8_BwW7_uwLLrLOPTk/s200/bulgarian+presidency+logo.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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On behalf of the Bulgarian Presidency, Zornitsa Roussinova
reinforced the need for a social focus of the next MFF and the importance of
solidarity as a guiding principle. She emphasised the need for ESF to keep its
cohesion element.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu2FHgtY9HORpNsDosE7H-lQsE4mZ8ijEukZWhxNjxzE4MKYOz6ZHJ_nkCxoymCv-Vls_9HqQLkFI-lbcJA0FsV8n-unL8Do71fHtQQLu36Rrg-dkiv1utwBHOO9pYbfvx2I7bHd62-jk/s1600/ETUC.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="74" data-original-width="151" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu2FHgtY9HORpNsDosE7H-lQsE4mZ8ijEukZWhxNjxzE4MKYOz6ZHJ_nkCxoymCv-Vls_9HqQLkFI-lbcJA0FsV8n-unL8Do71fHtQQLu36Rrg-dkiv1utwBHOO9pYbfvx2I7bHd62-jk/s1600/ETUC.png" /></a>Thiébaut Weber, representative of ETUC, made reference to
and voiced strong criticism about the <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/sites/beta-political/files/communication-new-modern-multiannual-financial-framework_en.pdf">Communication</a>
of the EC on the new modern MFF published the day before the conference. He
recalled that while on the level of rhetoric social inclusion is a focus, the
Communication shows a focus of the MFF on borders and defence, there is no
clear commitment to the implementation of the Social Pillar and social cohesion
funds are planned to be decreased. He emphasised the need to find solutions to
eliminate inequalities, especially the wage differences in different countries.
He underlined that simply doubling Erasmus+ will not solve anything, and called
for policy makers to shift focus of education funds to clearly prioritise local
access to lifelong learning everywhere in Europe. He also called for
politicians not to only make efforts to repair damages, but anticipate future
challenges and address them in time. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCKwjcsW2OlotWqZY6wQnubpHxQx9PIMPyvvp0XduzLbmc2hzWq-DqFTV8tTMOe5aVq9U5258j5nlG1Nc6Kozli3XhYOxNYp6ADKmrROExWjrk2ooizWdrvoVrmKWv4ymzaGAn3xpYN74/s1600/lumos+logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="510" data-original-width="900" height="113" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCKwjcsW2OlotWqZY6wQnubpHxQx9PIMPyvvp0XduzLbmc2hzWq-DqFTV8tTMOe5aVq9U5258j5nlG1Nc6Kozli3XhYOxNYp6ADKmrROExWjrk2ooizWdrvoVrmKWv4ymzaGAn3xpYN74/s200/lumos+logo.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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Alex Christopoulos from LUMOS Foundation outlined a clear
agenda for inspiration for the next MFF that any parent in Europe can subscribe
to: invest in the family, in parents to really ensure child rights and the best
interest of each child regardless the country they were born in. In the coming
months we will see whether policy makers will listen to this.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Find out more about the event on the <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?langId=en&catId=325&eventsId=1287&furtherEvents=yes">EC
website</a><o:p></o:p></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4054274532328993781.post-83979085991259994252018-02-09T13:25:00.001+01:002018-02-09T15:45:17.210+01:00Mutual recognition of qualifications and study periods abroad - EU public consultation until 19 February <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC3zBVMGOYogcpQqYqWornIAdd_ahs9dVjj4sBViPuKd_EOV7bAUvfQWH0lb2mK6hDbOC8z-aRwmPH6sJb6RaLi0esdFm5ZPTy2WmmiQgf7MMvB0sRaVbNbzt90CpH-BUZDA0xnHdT-xI/s1600/EC_logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC3zBVMGOYogcpQqYqWornIAdd_ahs9dVjj4sBViPuKd_EOV7bAUvfQWH0lb2mK6hDbOC8z-aRwmPH6sJb6RaLi0esdFm5ZPTy2WmmiQgf7MMvB0sRaVbNbzt90CpH-BUZDA0xnHdT-xI/s1600/EC_logo.jpg" /></a></div>
Parents in Europe have fought for a long time for a smooth transition of their children from one European school system to the other, so that they are not restrained from accepting labour challenges that would need them to exercise their right to mobility as EU citizens by the high probability of their children's schooling being interrupted or hindered. Those parents who have older children have also experienced that exchange programmes, even EU financed Erasmus mobility means that the student's achievements are likely not to be recognised, so it results in extra exams or repeating a year. The EU is planning to make a first step by promoting a certain level of mutual recognition, that would also help parents in their own labour mobility and formal further education. You have the opportunity to contribute to the public consultation on the initiative by 19 February, so it is rather short notice.<br />
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<a name='more'></a> <span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; text-indent: -7px;">In its</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; text-indent: -7px;"> </span><a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/sites/beta-political/files/communication-strengthening-european-identity-education-culture_en.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #337ab7; text-decoration-line: none; text-indent: -7px;" target="_blank">Communication on Strengthening European Identity through Education and Culture</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; text-indent: -7px;">, the European Commission proposes the creation of a European Education Area, in which people can move freely to study and carry out research and which will contribute both to improved opportunities for individuals, as well as an improved capacity to meet skills and competences needs. One of the actions proposed as a means of achieving this is a proposal for a Council Recommendation on promoting the mutual recognition of higher education (all levels) and upper secondary education qualifications/diplomas and study periods abroad.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This proposal was endorsed by European heads of state and government at their meeting in December.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The objective of the proposed Council Recommendation is to support Member States in meeting the commitments they have made through both the Lisbon Recognition Convention and the Bologna Process, by inviting Member States and European Commission to take concrete steps that will result in improved mobility at all levels of education and training by promoting mutual recognition of diplomas and study periods abroad.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">As part of the consultation process in developing this Council Recommendation, the European Commission is inviting stakeholders to complete the below questionnaire, which will be of great assistance in developing the proposal.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Replies should be submitted by Monday, 19 February following </span><a href="https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/RecognitionOfDiplomas2018" style="font-family: inherit;">this link</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Source: European Commission</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4054274532328993781.post-43449151059685528822018-02-09T13:15:00.000+01:002018-02-09T13:15:42.345+01:00Join the little dragon<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivAmFuvshuxiXLYFOiCZzUuq7T2x2YKk5rIi98-h_pFzX9m6VC4MhpUtsjmOxtHtO6e3jNq1XRwDGqF65z4cJflBCTWzmrcFn25oA9C643nNcDUqD6HBmJ7yU-skoyotKK0flwlVdOzY0/s1600/bookgivingday2018_banner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="315" data-original-width="828" height="121" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivAmFuvshuxiXLYFOiCZzUuq7T2x2YKk5rIi98-h_pFzX9m6VC4MhpUtsjmOxtHtO6e3jNq1XRwDGqF65z4cJflBCTWzmrcFn25oA9C643nNcDUqD6HBmJ7yU-skoyotKK0flwlVdOzY0/s320/bookgivingday2018_banner.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
International Book Giving Day is - as every year - an alternative to Valentine Day celebration on 14 February. The initiative is calling all adults, especially parents to think if little ones they love and help them on their journey to become lifelong readers by giving them a book. EPA joined the initiative of spreading the love of books on this day years ago. What you are invited to do? Read on to see the organisers' announcement:<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We invite individuals to</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">1) gift a book to a friend or family member,</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.429em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">2) leave a book in a waiting room for children to read</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.429em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">3) donate a gently used book to a local library, hospital or shelter or to an organization that distributes used books to children in need internationally.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD09vMXAHZHMdCsMbTFoKPdPPgArk_er_Z9NR1bMeNjyxwANP2dTCdGnZvcKWeuZr51NPhTnmNtrKSM3uGktZhPvcR9rXgotI4ZcAXcRfmAbCUoFlsdpGmWWAcAKx6v4EcyEm3WvlfnwA/s1600/bookgivingday2018.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="744" data-original-width="264" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD09vMXAHZHMdCsMbTFoKPdPPgArk_er_Z9NR1bMeNjyxwANP2dTCdGnZvcKWeuZr51NPhTnmNtrKSM3uGktZhPvcR9rXgotI4ZcAXcRfmAbCUoFlsdpGmWWAcAKx6v4EcyEm3WvlfnwA/s640/bookgivingday2018.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In addition, we encourage people to support the work of nonprofit organizations (i.e. charities) that work year round to give books to children, such as <a href="http://www.roomtoread.org/" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="Room to Read">Room to Read</a> (international), <a href="http://www.booksforafrica.org/" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="Books for Africa">Books for Africa</a> (international), <a href="http://www.bookaid.org/" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="Book Aid International">Book Aid International</a> (international), <a href="http://www.thebookbus.org/" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="The Book Bus">The Book Bus</a> (international), <a href="http://www.firstbook.org/" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="First Book">First Book</a> (U.S.), <a href="http://www.rif.org/" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="Reading is Fundamental">Reading is Fundamental</a> (U.S.), <a href="http://www.reachoutandread.org/" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="Reach Out and Read">Reach Out and Read</a> (U.S.), <a href="http://prathambooks.org/" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="Pratham Books">Pratham Books</a> (India), <a href="http://www.indigenousliteracyfoundation.org.au/" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="Indigenous Literacy Foundation">Indigenous Literacy Foundation</a> (Australia), <a href="http://footpathlibrary.org/" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="The Footpath Library">The Footpath Library</a> (Australia), <a href="http://nalibali.org/" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="Nal'ibali">Nal’ibali</a> (South Africa) and <a href="http://www.booksinhomes.org.nz/Home.aspx" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="Duffy Books in Homes">Duffy Books in Homes</a> (New Zealand).</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.429em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">International Book Giving Day has continued to grow & grow. In 2014, International Book Giving Day was celebrated by people in Australia, Canada, South Africa, France, India, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, the Philippines, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, Nigeria, Nicaragua, Brazil, Egypt, Poland, Greece, Portugal, Mexico, Macedonia, Malawi, Hungary, Malaysia, Israel, Denmark, Thailand, Indonesia, Jordan, China, Puerto Rico and Bulgaria. We hope that people around the world will think about the best ways to help children in need in their communities.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.429em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-weight: 700;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">6 Ways You Can Get Involved in International Book Giving Day!</span></span></div>
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<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Subscribe to our website, join over 11,000 already committed to #bookgivingday.</span></li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Leave a book for a child to discover, donate to a local charity. <a href="https://bookgivingday.com/stories/" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Click here for plenty of inspiration</a>!</span></li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Connect with others celebrating International Book Giving Day via <a href="http://www.facebook.com/BookGivingDay" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" title="International Book Giving Day | Facebook"><span style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Facebook</span></a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/bookgivingday" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" title="International Book Giving Day | Twitter"><span style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Twitter</span></a>. #bookgivingday</span></li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Download and print an<a href="https://bookgivingday.com/bookplates/" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" title="International Book Giving Day bookplates"><span style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> International Book Giving Day bookplate</span></a> to attach to a book you give to a kid. They’re free!</span></li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Share a photo</span> of yourself celebrating International Book Giving Day, use #bookgivingday on social media so we can find you.</span></li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Invite your community to celebrate International Book Giving Day. Proudly display the #bookgivingday <a href="https://bookgivingday.com/2017/01/11/2017-poster-reveal/" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">poster</a>.</span></li>
</ol>
<div>
This year's artwork, the cute dragon is the work of Elys Dolan.</div>
<div>
Source: https://bookgivingday.com/</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4054274532328993781.post-69956371727994731802018-02-06T11:30:00.000+01:002018-02-06T12:33:04.045+01:00Safer Internet Day 2018 – Better internet starts with empowerment<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCVhMxwX9Va97-wcfDvdvUitw9dObNgBIBj7ZhzmFpWiuJOEsJxV1trHma6b9_TbYiMugGxNvEskbjhbwfQiIhPzsDBM5Rq1k0Plc4EMSsWOnPVsMlG1VNq-Vkuagz9dIZ-0ZVDYduGbA/s1600/safer+internet+2018.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="215" data-original-width="710" height="95" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCVhMxwX9Va97-wcfDvdvUitw9dObNgBIBj7ZhzmFpWiuJOEsJxV1trHma6b9_TbYiMugGxNvEskbjhbwfQiIhPzsDBM5Rq1k0Plc4EMSsWOnPVsMlG1VNq-Vkuagz9dIZ-0ZVDYduGbA/s320/safer+internet+2018.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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6 February
marks <a href="https://www.saferinternetday.org/web/sid/home">Safer Internet Day</a>.
There is no better occasion to call the attention of parents, policy makers,
providers and other actors working for internet safety that parents are key to educate
their children to become responsible digital citizens, they need empowerment
and education for that, and that safety will not be achieved by restrictive
legislative measures instead.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">This year’s
topic "Create, connect and share respect: A better internet starts with
you" is a great starting point for awareness raising. In Europe there is a
loud group of stakeholders that are trying to lull parents into a false feeling
of safety stating that it is possible to create a special safe internet highway
for children by restrictive measures.</span></div>
<a name='more'></a><o:p></o:p><br />
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<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">We must be
aware that it is not possible, and making parents think this endangers children
more. Parents need to be aware that compulsory parental consent – apart from
being a severe violation of parents’ rights – will not make internet any safer
for our children, but may restrict their rights to education, to play and
participate in artistic activities, to be connected to their relatives, to
peaceful assembly and to freedom of assembly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">What we need
instead is investment in parental empowerment. Parents need to be aware that
the best way to internet safety is a combination of them increasing their
knowledge about all aspects of their children’s lives including online presence
and building a trustful relationship with their children so that they learn about
even the smallest harm be it online or offline.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1H7HTv7VmZA9nPRlBMIXMAe7oxjLkCxXR27QmbDBCsQp_inbOOh2irJxx3RLwaCFJO9Epceng65Omlx_M2GAtt1jRk5qdb_PuAeD_JRzVELhuPXzrh95Wb5J4ddWXC2j__G-gG37Hz-U/s1600/gdprhaveyoursay.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="476" data-original-width="476" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1H7HTv7VmZA9nPRlBMIXMAe7oxjLkCxXR27QmbDBCsQp_inbOOh2irJxx3RLwaCFJO9Epceng65Omlx_M2GAtt1jRk5qdb_PuAeD_JRzVELhuPXzrh95Wb5J4ddWXC2j__G-gG37Hz-U/s200/gdprhaveyoursay.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The GDPR is
likely to enter into force in less than half a year in the EU. Article 8 contains
measures on compulsory parental consent leaving the threshold age to be between
13 and 16 to Member States, letting providers go off the hook being responsible
for children’s safety. Even these age differences raise questions: what happens
if the threshold is different in the country where the provider resides and the
one the user is. Action groups around Europe are still trying to prevent the
introduction of these measures, parents support these, this is why EPA joined
the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/GDPRhaveyoursay/">#GDPRHaveYourSay</a>
action group after a very positive discussion at the Pafos EPA Conference in April 2017. Parents are represented in the GDPR Expert Group set up by the
European Commission and keep raising concerns, but we don’t have high hopes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Regardless
the success of these motions we must keep working for the best interest of
children and this means working for empowering parents. Organised parents in
Europe and beyond have worked in the spirit of the EPA <a href="http://euparents.eu/position-paper-on-cyberbullying-and-social-networks-2/">policy
paper</a> on Cyberbullying and Social Networks published in 2015: “The aim of
parental presence on the internet and in social networks should not be the
control of our children, the intention to violate their freedom or invade their
privacy.” We need the support of service providers to make it possible for parents
to understand how their services work, and also policy makers who understand
the legal implications of their actions and who are in a position to
incentivise investment in parents’ empowerment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_aFbCtaam3oAlEIUWJV_D7jFZVQ29fee2WzykvOFKY_5z3pmepZvq3SPE9dnm5XGWH2uyQD6oyOFcklI0fT8s131MlZBQ3URjol3o2M0TpvDDWED0WbXVEDuqkAFKM2s7fADjCyNMyus/s1600/digital+citizenship.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="974" data-original-width="1427" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_aFbCtaam3oAlEIUWJV_D7jFZVQ29fee2WzykvOFKY_5z3pmepZvq3SPE9dnm5XGWH2uyQD6oyOFcklI0fT8s131MlZBQ3URjol3o2M0TpvDDWED0WbXVEDuqkAFKM2s7fADjCyNMyus/s320/digital+citizenship.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Parents are
in line with the effort of the Council of Europe on fostering responsible
digital citizenship from an early age, and it requires the possibility of
online presence. There is a need to stop implementing COPPA* in Europe as it
also violates child rights and leave the decision on starting age of using
online services to children properly guided by their empowered parents.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Safer
Internet Day is a good opportunity to raise these concerns again and call for
action by stakeholders, especially policy makers, online service providers and supporters
of Safer Internet Day.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: x-small;">*COPPA: Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of the USA</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4054274532328993781.post-70699781464429212482018-02-04T15:24:00.000+01:002018-02-04T15:24:24.319+01:00Conference of INGOs of the Council of Europe - Winter session (22-26 January 2018) report<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi10SnXRE10TCda2M7krRi0JfmwYxa8Ae1g4BLhTYNrafXbMyZN0_tbSKSpHCyph51jZ2-dHGm1loTKuaZ-aFA-1kwEvgdmLHaNK-Pjjjoa8e_djUktSyCfpM1fleM4b3NkX76RvwcKnWo/s1600/INGO+logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="74" data-original-width="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi10SnXRE10TCda2M7krRi0JfmwYxa8Ae1g4BLhTYNrafXbMyZN0_tbSKSpHCyph51jZ2-dHGm1loTKuaZ-aFA-1kwEvgdmLHaNK-Pjjjoa8e_djUktSyCfpM1fleM4b3NkX76RvwcKnWo/s1600/INGO+logo.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Winter Session of the INGOs Conference was marked by
several thematic debates, the election of the new Board members, and the
creation of the working groups of the various committees. <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; text-align: justify;">EPA was represented by its current representative Hermínio Corrêa.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Among the several
debates organised during the week, some of the highlights were the following:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span></div>
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -14.2pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #333333;">·<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent;">A side event “Human Rights Defenders in the Council of
Europe area: current challenges and new responses “sponsored by Egidijus
Vareikis, MP (LT, EPP) Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders in
the Council of Europe, with the participation of several CoE organizations.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A side event “LGBTI in Europe, Think Together” organized by
Anne Nègre, Gender Expert of the Conference with the participation of the
Parliamentary Assembly General Rapporteur on LGBTI and several NGO’s.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
An Intergenerational Forum/Market Place “Digital Society”-
Together Let’s Inspire the Image of Tomorrow<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The situation analysis of NGO’s in member States with
reports from the visits led by the President of the Conference to Estonia and
Serbia, with the presence of the respective ambassadors in Coe and
representatives of local NGOs.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Conference adopted a recommendation relating to the
proclamation of the European Pillar of Social Rights, already adopted by the
European Parliament the Council of Europe and the European Commission,
concerned by the fact that this text is a political document unaccompanied of a
clear implementation plan.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Conference adopted a recommendation to the Council of
Europe, for the French expression "Droits de l’Homme" to be
systematically replaced by "Droits Humain" within the
Council of Europe, it’s institutions including the European Court of Human
Rights that its texts be revised accordingly, that the translations be in
conformity with a non-discriminatory expression towards women in all the
languages used and particularly in one of the two official languages of the
Council of Europe , French<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Conference also adopted two legal opinion by Expert
Council on NGO Law of the Conference about the situation of NGO’s in Romania
and Turkey.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At the closing session we had the presence of the recently
appointed Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatović, who told us about
her career at CoE so far and explain us the work of the Commission.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In this session the following Board members were elected for
the next 3 years:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
President: <a href="http://rm.coe.int/election-jan-2018-pres-rurkaa-presentation-en/168077aea2">Anna
Rurka</a><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Vice-Presidents: <a href="http://rm.coe.int/election-jan-2018-vp-bergougnanr-presentation-en/168077d90e">Robert
Bergougnan,</a> <a href="http://rm.coe.int/election-jan-2018-vp-krausa-presentation-en/168077dcf9">Anne
Kraus</a> and <a href="http://rm.coe.int/election-jan-2018-vp-sprengc-presentation-en/168077a4f6">Christoph
Spreng</a><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Vice-President in charge of Equality: <a href="http://rm.coe.int/election-jan-2018-vpe-negrea-presentation-en/168077d8c8">Anne
Nègre</a><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Rapporteurs: <a href="http://rm.coe.int/election-jan-2018-rapp-craiutr-presentation-en/168077aea4">Rares-Augusin
Craiut</a>, <a href="http://rm.coe.int/election-jan-2018-rapp-piroltr-presentation-en/168077aea6">Richard
Pirolt</a>, <a href="http://rm.coe.int/election-jan-2018-rapp-website-sokolowskak-presentation-en/168077c10d">Katarzyna
Sokolowka</a><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In this session, the working groups of the different
Committees were also defined, as follows:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Democracy, Social
Cohesion and Global Challenges: <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Participation in political decision<o:p></o:p></div>
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Prevention of corruption that engages the civil society<o:p></o:p></div>
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Protection of the human being and human dignity<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Education and
Culture: <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Lifelong learning<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Intercultural cities<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Europe of heritage and creation<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Human Rights:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Protection mechanisms for endangered Human rights defenders<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Grassroot monitoring toolbox<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Poverty discrimination and exclusion<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In view of the special and current importance of the topic,
it was decided to create another cross-cutting group on “<b>Digital rights and digital future</b>” that each committee will
approach according to the area of intervention of each one of them.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The EPA will be part of the Lifelong learning and Digital
rights and digital future groups<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Lisbon, 26 January 2018.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hermínio Corrêa<o:p></o:p></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4054274532328993781.post-12860736639687932742018-01-29T20:05:00.000+01:002018-01-29T20:05:01.176+01:001st European Education Summit - report<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdJxzOTJHQaDK2WZN9VOqA6IapjDI8zQP1eK-lWMXRXOtJXnP0TaspGDh0hnWZNbJgH6qfHLRhzpuv3LtxugzkNme0siNwAx7wM3x_jrNJPs_i3-tgyztow5wXZPARVyC9eFw6voUR8lc/s1600/eu+edu+summit.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="357" data-original-width="640" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdJxzOTJHQaDK2WZN9VOqA6IapjDI8zQP1eK-lWMXRXOtJXnP0TaspGDh0hnWZNbJgH6qfHLRhzpuv3LtxugzkNme0siNwAx7wM3x_jrNJPs_i3-tgyztow5wXZPARVyC9eFw6voUR8lc/s320/eu+edu+summit.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">EPA had the
opportunity to participate at this important high-level event representing one
of the main stakeholder groups of education. The event was preceded by the <a href="http://europeanparents.blogspot.hu/2018/01/playful-learning-gist-of-21st-century.html">kick-off
event</a> of our Year of Equitable Access to Education to help highlight
parents’ wishes for the European Education Area planned to be created by 2025. The
summit was hosted by Tibor Navracsics, EU Commissioner for Education, Culture,
Youth and Sport, and took place on 25 January 2018, in Brussels. It invited EU education ministers (22 of them actually were
present), education practitioners, stakeholders and business leaders to
explore: how better to address inequality in education systems, how citizens
can benefit from a future European Education Area, how education can help
transmit our common values and what competences will be needed for the decades
to come.</span></div>
<a name='more'></a><o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">After the
welcoming words of Commissioner Navracsics dedicated to the creation of value-based,
innovative inclusive education in Europe, Samantha Cristoforetti, a true
European and experienced astronaut took the stage for an inspirational speech.
She talked about the importance to find the right balance of STEM and
humanities without any gender-bias. She also talked about the need to get rid
of useless elements in curricula and to focus on collaborative skills that are necessary
to ‘navigate this spaceship called Earth that we are astronauts of’. She clearly
made the link between her life success and the support he got from her family
especially in the form of a family ethos that fostered her learning.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Audrey
Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO invited Europe to join their efforts to
find global solutions, to put a strong emphasis on ethical issues and to
provide quality education. She called for innovation that is sustainable and
innovative, to focus on vocational education and skills for employability as
well as building tolerance to fight the current trneds of increasing racism and
xenophobia. She applauded a focus on lifelong learning and also the validation
of skills that are not documented. Her most important message was to understand
that Europe can only thrive if we build relations and collaborate with other regions
of the world.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7nBpkwC6QEH5wb3FrqYn1tCJi4iwCXPQXzKNdAXGl_mbGfB-2KKyLHAAnK-x0iASCNeA6yl8uI7LGMWHYu2a76pzS4GeNYlrYicuemwzdtE1U_VXmQxdKyASn5CVK0vmuwd8pCNZDhmU/s1600/eu+edu+area.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="640" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7nBpkwC6QEH5wb3FrqYn1tCJi4iwCXPQXzKNdAXGl_mbGfB-2KKyLHAAnK-x0iASCNeA6yl8uI7LGMWHYu2a76pzS4GeNYlrYicuemwzdtE1U_VXmQxdKyASn5CVK0vmuwd8pCNZDhmU/s320/eu+edu+area.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<o:p></o:p><br />
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<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">The high-level
panels as well as parallel sessions highlighted certain elements of the four
main topics. The speakers included Ministers and Members of the European
Parliament as well as successful practitioners from various areas –
entrepreneurs, intellectuals, professional educators, theatre directors. The concluding
sentence of one of the parallel sessions was that if you want to provide the
best life chances for your children, establish your own school or move to
Finland. The Summit raised hopes that there is a shared wish of most European
countries to change this, and to provide equity, namely an education for a
bright future for all children. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">Martine
Reicherts, Director General of Education, Youth, Sports and Culture stated in
her concluding statement that education is back on track in the EU after 60
years, and now it is up to us to deliver. She highlighted the need to set the
right goals, to think outside the box, and to create an area where learning is
not hampered by borders geographical or other. They promised a 2<sup>nd</sup>
Education Summit to be held in the Autumn of 2019 and to work on the necessary
steps towards the European Education Area. Ms. Reicherts is retiring at the end
of January 2018, her drive and vision will be missed, but hopefully delivery on
the goals will still be a reality.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">More information
on the Summit can be found on the EC website: <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/education/event/first-european-education-summit_en">https://ec.europa.eu/education/event/first-european-education-summit_en</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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EPA's position on the European Education Area can be found here:</div>
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<a href="http://euparents.eu/parents-european-education-area/">http://euparents.eu/parents-european-education-area/</a></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4054274532328993781.post-85959722448516653872018-01-29T16:09:00.000+01:002018-01-29T20:34:29.766+01:00Playful learning – the gist of 21st century education for Europe<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<h4>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-GB">EPA kicked off 2018: the Year of Equitable
Access to Education with a high-level event organised in partnership with the
European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) on the eve of the 1<sup>st</sup>
European Education Summit on 24 January. The event was hosted by Pavel Trantina,
President of the </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #333333;">Section for Employment, Social Affairs and Citizenship</span><span lang="EN-GB"> (EESC SOC) and attended by
Commissioner Tibor Navracsics, MEP István Újhelyi (S&D) and EESC member
Renate Heinisch.<a name='more'></a></span></span></h4>
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<span lang="EN-GB">Ever since
the Lisbon goals were set in 2000, the European Union has struggled to find a
way to become the world’s knowledge leader again. Recent debates following the
2015 PISA result and action planned subsequently are about adequate reforms of
school systems to offer today’s children what they really need for a bright
future. The planned Pillar of Social Rights as well as plans for the social
dimension of the EMU contain education as a lifelong process and emphasise the
importance of learning in early childhood. At the same time preventing early
school leaving is one of the EU2020 headline targets, and the recent EC policy
messages on tackling the issue emphasise the importance of enjoying, taking
ownership of learning – playfulness is a successful tool for. For a happy and
healthy childhood, it is necessary to provide for the basic right to play, but
at the same time it is not only a basic right for children, but as research
shows also essential for a heathy psyche at all ages. Research shows that the
two, play and learning are the best combination for the kind of learning
necessary in the 21<sup>st</sup> century, at a time when we are educating
children for a future of jobs non-existent today. For this reason probably the
most important competences to foster are learning and creativity. It is
becoming clear that we must educate lifelong learners, and as people usually
like doing things they enjoy, playfulness is an important element. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">Pavel
Trantina highlighted in his introduction that the aim of education should be to
offer a promising future in Europe. According to him the event is very timely
before the Summit as it is high time to start not to talk about education, even
less about teaching, but rather to put learning in our focus. Learning should
be supported lifelong and life-wide, in formal, non-formal and informal
settings, focusing on supporting the development of soft skills. He linked this
and EPA’s initiative to national validation strategies due next year. Mr. Trantina
also offered his commitment to playful learning related to his background in scouting
based on the principle of game with a purpose and being aware of the skills and
competences developed by that as an underlying element.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">Commissioner
Navracsics welcomed the idea of such an event by saying that most discussions on
education are about outcomes and it is rarely discussed how they are achieved.
He identified playful learning as a way of not only skills development and
acquiring knowledge, but also as a foundation of social engagement and thus
active citizenship. He highlighted some important elements of play for
learning: the opportunity to create, discussion, communication, unrestricted
imagination and safely stepping into a fictional world, social and emotional
power, free choice, building on internal motivation and a different learner-educator
relationship. He highlighted the European Commission’s commitment to these
learning principles and the need to support formal education to embrace it as
well as their responsibility for supporting the creation of suitable social and
physical spaces. He also underlined the need to introduce new ways off
evaluation to support this. He also highlighted the importance of empowering
parents and mutual learning. He finished his contribution by quoting Confucius ‘learning
without thinking is useless; thinking without learning is dangerous’ and added
that it is up to us to make sure play is part of this equation.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAx4LVbcks3gP67cIxrucMgjTYea7ksUmx5Khi7h5zAPK4pi1zek_5U0pxloDPSXvSvLFBPqbiZEpScILjox51h7RtuQProvSGVYvDeUOscB6E44YiwYq9DabbTpstYoXTPIjCkVVAZi4/s1600/EP+logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="165" data-original-width="294" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAx4LVbcks3gP67cIxrucMgjTYea7ksUmx5Khi7h5zAPK4pi1zek_5U0pxloDPSXvSvLFBPqbiZEpScILjox51h7RtuQProvSGVYvDeUOscB6E44YiwYq9DabbTpstYoXTPIjCkVVAZi4/s200/EP+logo.png" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">MEP István
Újhelyi, father of 5 children of different ages underlined his commitment to
the right to the right education. He expressed his wish that all children will
have the opportunity to be educated as it best suits them to maintain their
curiosity and wish to learn. He welcomed the EC’s initiative to establish a
European Education Area highlighting the fact that Europe cannot afford
national schools systems that provide a much lower quality education than
others. When talking about the timely revision of the key competences
framework, he asked the Commissioner to make sure transversal skills will get
an equal focus to the digital and entrepreneurial competences emphasised in the
new education package. Being the Ambassador of circus he highlighted the importance
of joy for mental health.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd8WwYpgxVsgvrPTgtOzZfgW-RihAHbTLrFr5G1QRgkXCJUcbpRRglWlHvGv8UeG-Uijou-eP4qKK8q4zrjOb-GbOBqHYFtlGdPkKYoQLYNlgOUd3Z4KDQIIFjQFqrkM_ABrW4FW-jNQM/s1600/epa_logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="79" data-original-width="138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd8WwYpgxVsgvrPTgtOzZfgW-RihAHbTLrFr5G1QRgkXCJUcbpRRglWlHvGv8UeG-Uijou-eP4qKK8q4zrjOb-GbOBqHYFtlGdPkKYoQLYNlgOUd3Z4KDQIIFjQFqrkM_ABrW4FW-jNQM/s1600/epa_logo.jpg" /></a><span lang="EN-GB">Eszter
Salamon, President of EPA and member of the Playfutures Advisory Group introduced
the <a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=1FbZ1XdsFfFkt0WnKcduQN5NJpBF1QhIG">rights
basis of equitable access to education and playful learning</a>, putting the
rights to the right education, the right to play and the rights of parents to
choose the best education pathways for their children without any restrictions
or constraints. She also made the link to Sustainable Development Goal 4,
Equitably Quality Education for All, and called for the EU’s institutions to
follow the lead of UNESCO to rethink education and consider education as a
global common good – owned and shaped by everybody for the good of the individual
and the whole community. She also introduced the characteristics of playful
learning: joyful, actively engaging, meaningful, iterative and socially
interactive. She also emphasised that most of them should always be elements of
good learning and quoted the work of Mihály Csíkszentmihályi on flow. At the
end of her presentation she introduced the Lifelong Kindergarten by Mitch
Reschnik and his team as an inspiring practice<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">Charlotte
Wieder, Manager of Playfutures, an initiative by LEGO Foundation presented some
<a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=1XgYXChX912LFfuUsxSHx69atZBSnzRkN">casestudies to inspire participants as well as the structure, activities and goalsof Playfutures</a>. She started her presentation with a hands-on activity
inviting everybody to build their LEGO duck and introducing the multitude of
learning opportunities of such a simple action. A holistic lifelong learning
approach was the heart of her presentation, highlighting the importance of a good
start in early years, the need to cater for learner diversity and linked it to
the current and future needs of labour markets that are not catered for
properly by contemporary traditional formal education. She invited policy
makers, stakeholder representatives and practitioners present and represented
by those attending the event to join the Playfutures community and be part of shaping
the present and future of learning and education.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">Two inspiring practices were presented afterwards:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB">-<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=1J02mu-ZZxPd0T_6ofIEGsPryKV7L4Adh">KórházSuli
(HospiEdu)</a>, a Hungarian start-up initiative that offers playful learning
opportunities to hospitalised children, but also children and young people
prevented from regularly attending school for other reasons, and<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 3.0pt; margin-top: 3.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=1svQLsWvf_HVDrlvKAdoU32IeYO6ai-iv">TOY,
Together Young and Old</a>, the winner of the Lifelong Learning Award 2016, an
intergenerational learning initiative bringing children under 8 and older
people together in various settings for fun learning and developing
interpersonal relationships.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">Renate Heinisch, a long-time advocate of parental
engagement and the importance of grandparents greeted the initiative and
congratulated on the achievements of all practices presented.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">Pavel Trantina also highlighted an inspiring practice
known to him, <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.ackee.hopskoc&hl=en">Hopscotch</a>,
an Czech-developed application for parents to support them to play with their
children in a conscious way to develop skills.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">A question from the audience, from a
representative of the LEGO Group set us the most important task: how to
influence national level given the commitment of Eu institutions. This is what
EPA will try to do during the Year of Equitable Access to Education and will
keep the readers of this blog informed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4054274532328993781.post-7409000806977510542018-01-11T18:25:00.000+01:002018-01-11T18:25:10.340+01:00Public consultation on the future EU budget<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC3zBVMGOYogcpQqYqWornIAdd_ahs9dVjj4sBViPuKd_EOV7bAUvfQWH0lb2mK6hDbOC8z-aRwmPH6sJb6RaLi0esdFm5ZPTy2WmmiQgf7MMvB0sRaVbNbzt90CpH-BUZDA0xnHdT-xI/s1600/EC_logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC3zBVMGOYogcpQqYqWornIAdd_ahs9dVjj4sBViPuKd_EOV7bAUvfQWH0lb2mK6hDbOC8z-aRwmPH6sJb6RaLi0esdFm5ZPTy2WmmiQgf7MMvB0sRaVbNbzt90CpH-BUZDA0xnHdT-xI/s200/EC_logo.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #1f497d; line-height: 150%;">The European
Commission launched launched <a href="https://ecorys.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b79954d855caa0005d70fba18&id=f4f6b12d3f&e=f8fc8ba4a3" style="text-size-adjust: 100%;"><span style="color: #0563c1;">a series of public consultations</span></a> for preparing
the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) </span></span><span style="color: #1f497d;">on 10 January 2018</span><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: inherit;">. Organisations and Eu citizens alike are invited to contribute to it in the next 2 months. EPA wants to make sure that the voice of parents is raised in this consultation, and will work hard on it being heard, too. </span></div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #202020; line-height: 150%;"><br />
</span><span style="color: #1f497d; line-height: 150%;">The consultations cover the entire spectrum of EU future funding
to collect the views of all interested parties on how to make the most of every
euro of the EU budget. The consultation clusters reflect the current structure
of the MFF but they do not prejudge the structure of the future MFF. to decide which questionnaires are relevant for your work, check the list of Policy Areas under the title of the specific consultation. From a parents' perspective, most probably the ones on <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/info/consultations/public-consultation-eu-funds-area-cohesion_en">Cohesion</a>, <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/info/consultations/eu-funds-area-migration_en">Migration</a> and <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/info/consultations/public-consultation-eu-funds-area-values-and-mobility_en">Values and Mobility</a> are the most relevant.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #1f497d; line-height: 150%;">The consultations include questions on current performance and
future challenges of our programmes. This will help the gather your relevant
feedback on what has worked well in the past and what could be improved in the
future. </span><span style="color: #202020; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #202020; line-height: 150%;"><br />
</span><span style="color: #1f497d; line-height: 150%;">The views already expressed in previous consultations done in
the context of Mid-term evaluations will also be taken into account when
designing future programmes.The results of the consultations will be used in
2018 by the Commission to make proposals for the next generation of financial
programmes.</span><span style="color: #202020; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1f497d; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The questionnaires are accessible
in 23 languages. <strong>Please note that this public consultation will run until 8 March
2018</strong>.</span></span><span style="color: #202020; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4054274532328993781.post-82964512392989320722017-12-11T14:59:00.000+01:002017-12-11T14:59:02.335+01:00Statement on Vaccination<h4 style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="text-align: left;">Published for the Vaccine Hesitancy Seminar </span><span style="text-align: left;">on 11 December 2017 in Brussels</span></span></h4>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span lang="EN-GB">Parents</span></b><span lang="EN-GB"> are the ones
responsible for upbringing their children, thus also for their health and a
safe environment for them (UNCRC Article 5). Parents’ rights emerging from this
<b>responsibility have to be respected</b>,
so any decision should be theirs, <b>no
state obligations</b> should contradict this approach or prevent them from
responsible decisions.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-GB">To come to the right decision, parents <b>need objective information and support</b> (UNCRC Article 18). <i>Reluctant or anti-vaccination parents often
act out of a position of lack of information and misunderstanding</i>.
Therefore <b>governments</b> are <b>responsible for</b> supplying such concepts
and activities for a better understanding, <b>avoiding
bias</b> towards pro or anti opinions, and <b>offering
clear and simple explanations on public and private benefits as well as risks</b>.
</span><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-GB">All these efforts must not be biased by pharmaceutical industries or any
other organisations or institutions with primarily economic interest. </span><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">All parents love their children and have great aspirations for them. If
you can manage to provide clear and comprehensive information with reasonable
arguments, <b>most parents will follow your
recommendations</b> for the sake of their children, while <b>others will take their own responsible pathways</b>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span lang="EN-GB">Anti-vaccination</span></b><span lang="EN-GB"> movements are <b>not to be tackled by oppressive measures</b>,
but authorities have a responsibility in reviewing individual cases if
necessary and seek the decision of independent courts in case parents appear to
be unable to fulfil their duties in bringing up their children. <b>Parents</b> must possess the <b>right to decision</b> <i>as long as an independent court has not restricted their guardian
duties</i>.</span><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-GB">Problems arising from a <b>shrinking
percentage of vaccinated children</b> should be tackled by <b>analysing the reasons, offering a balanced approach to pros and cons,
ensuring media coverage and individual support to parents</b> in their decision
making, but <b>not by introducing
compulsory vaccination against the parents’ will</b>.</span> </span></div>
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<u><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Who we are: <o:p></o:p></span></span></u></div>
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">EPA has
been the only EU-level representative of parents as stakeholders in and
responsible for ensuring the best interest of their children since 1985. As an
umbrella organsation of national parents associations we cover 30 European
countries and bring the voice of about 150 million parents to the EU and raise
this voice on all issues concerning the lives of parents and children according
to our statutes. We always pursue a rights-based approach, one that requires
empowerment and involves responsible decision making by parents taking the
children’s voice into consideration and the best interest of children as a
basis, thus not ones based on restrictive measures.</span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4054274532328993781.post-74865140880230922512017-11-29T21:31:00.003+01:002017-12-07T17:20:46.626+01:00Suitable Pathways – conference report<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Role of
Parents in Guiding their Children towards the Most Suitable Personal Careers</h4>
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<span lang="EN-GB">The
European Parents’ Association held its annual conference on 24/25 November 2017
in the Tallinn School of Service under the auspices of the Estonian Presidency of the European Union and as part of the second <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?langId=en&catId=89&newsId=9002&furtherNews=yes">European Vocational Skills Wee</a>k on career guidance and suitable individual learning pathways for today’s
children, with special focus on counterbalancing the bias towards university
education (by the media, education policy and consequently very often by
parents, too). The representatives of parents’ associations and students, VET
providers, career guidance services and school heads participating at the
conference looked at ways of home-school cooperation in career guidance,
transversal skills for well-being, future life success and lifelong learning
with special focus on entrepreneurship, and the role of parents and parents’
associations to improve the image of vocational secondary education and
non-university tertiary education to help people understand that for most
people it has always been and will always be a first and best choice. Bellow
you will find a detailed report of the conference with download links for
presentations and related documents.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">The
conference was officially opened by the Estonian Minister of Education, <b>Mailis Reps</b> who emphasised the
importance of creating a safe and supportive environment for learning, invited
parents to take responsibility for it and to make our children responsible. She
highlighted the states’ role in providing extra support to those in need to
create equitable circumstances, to focus more than before on STEM (science,
mathematics, engineering and mathematics), arts and digital skills, and the
importance of citizenship education.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-GB">Janar Holm</span></b><span lang="EN-GB">, Deputy Chancellor greeted the conference on
behalf of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour. He called parents to
participate at defining necessary skills for the future. According to him the
role of parents is to help their children build windmills, not walls when the
wind comes. EPA also received a </span><span lang="IT"><a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=1eNhMpG0RFKVuxbXWiZMRTPyyuRZctLYQ"><span lang="EN-GB">video message</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB"> highlighting the importance of parents for VET policy makers from the European Commission.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="IT">The first inspirational talk
of the conference was delivered by <b>Anthony
Gribben</b> (European Training Foundation) on entrepreneurship, and </span><span lang="EN-GB">what each individual parent and
parents associations can do for having an influence on policy and for the next
entrepreneurial generation. He recalled that most people think entrepreneurship
is in the genes, but the flare is there in everybody. At the same time building
it up is a cultural issue, first of all by supporting our children to build
self-confidence. As entrepreneurship does not have one policy home in the EU
and member states, it is the responsibility of civil society, especially
parents’ associations, to take the lead and create the necessary links. He
emphasised that it is very unlikely that the required reforms will be initiated
by education policy, being the least entrepreneurial. He also called the
audience’s attention to the importance of involving children and young people
into the discussions about education reform. EPA bears his promise to offer a
webinar sometime at the beginning of 2018 to follow the topic up and find ways
to bring parents on board. The basis of discussions would be two EU documents,
the </span><span lang="IT"><a href="https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/publication/eur-scientific-and-technical-research-reports/entrecomp-entrepreneurship-competence-framework"><span lang="EN-GB">European Entrepreneurship Competence
Framework</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB">
and the </span><span lang="IT"><a href="file:///C:/Users/salam/Documents/EPA/2017_Nov_24_25_TallinnEPA_GA/a)%09European%20Entrepreneurship%20Competence%20Framework"><span lang="EN-GB">European Digital Competence
Framework</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">We had the
opportunity to listen to various members of the <b>Mengels family</b> from Estonia who showed us how career guidance can
be a family aim. They emphasised the importance of happiness and joy of
learning, a notion that was revoked several times during the subsequent
workshops. They also stressed the importance of failure, to teach children to
learn from it and further themselves as a result of it. Their approach is based
on letting children explore what they are really for, to choose your path based
on answering the question why, not what.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-GB">Petri Lampinen</span></b><span lang="EN-GB">, representative of the European vocational
education network EUproVET gave an </span><span lang="IT"><a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ZOf47qCn97Ss3EzsknbCj69c9-ssOCK5"><span lang="EN-GB">overview of European VET policies
and the state of play</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB">. He advised everybody to have a positive mindset, recalling an example
where robotization resulted in the creation of more jobs, not less. He gave a
comparison of academic and vocational pathways, highlighting the importance of
career guidance also by data showing that those choosing academic paths more
often have no career guidance before the decision is made. However, it must be
ensured that vocational pathways are no dead ends in any member state.
Statistics are positive there, over 50% of people say it is very easy to
continue in higher education after VET. In his home country, Finland 1/3 of
higher education students come from VET pathways. He extensively relied on the </span><span lang="IT"><a href="http://www.cedefop.europa.eu/en/events-and-projects/projects/opinion-survey-vocational-education-and-training-europe"><span lang="EN-GB">CEDEFOP VET Opinion Survey</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB"> in his presentation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-GB">Epp Vodja</span></b><span lang="EN-GB"> (JA Europe, Estonia) briefly presented
different ways for children to have entrepreneurship education through
practice, and referred to parental engagement in it as mentors as parents are
usually more experienced in this field than teachers. Her </span><span lang="IT"><a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=1TqBYbv-8oAJq1HXoiYeTdxD8xwdnWIz2"><span lang="EN-GB">presentation</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB"> was offered in more detail at the
Entrepreneurship workshop.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="IT">Ton
Duif</span></b><span lang="IT"> represented the European School Heads Association
and <a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=13iyZ6puyMgVV8jQkK5hGBrqbTyL_QwSb">presented</a>
their Open Schools for Open Societies project calling participants to provide
insiring practice on parents’ engagement and open policies around it. He
emphasised the importance of having a whole school approach and the whole
community to take responsibility for education together.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="IT">The keynote session was followed by two rounds
of workshops on entrepreneurship, career guidance and vocational education, so
that everybody had the opportunity to participate at two workshops of their
preliminary choice. The outcomes of the world café sessions are being made <a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=1gy-yaoEl_4VswpLwoy3rPPazDSoHJbGw">available
online</a>, but they were also presented to the plenary of the conference in a
well received fishbowl session.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4054274532328993781.post-5339969067569387792017-11-28T18:21:00.000+01:002017-12-07T18:21:58.949+01:00Highlights of the Lifelong Learning Week 2017<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtcmWC-nZ9k7Jkcw7vl79l6lpgYbvPDvTGOU2bdc8cF-Uo3KfTu3EQXSboy3xyeBuq7LHAgte6zfRKSXwPHIBgJ-DYieKMKqkL7mB2OIedIwKYjWvOg5LhJC7YPPRFSkQo9PlObk2K6xo/s1600/lllweek2017.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="135" data-original-width="374" height="115" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtcmWC-nZ9k7Jkcw7vl79l6lpgYbvPDvTGOU2bdc8cF-Uo3KfTu3EQXSboy3xyeBuq7LHAgte6zfRKSXwPHIBgJ-DYieKMKqkL7mB2OIedIwKYjWvOg5LhJC7YPPRFSkQo9PlObk2K6xo/s320/lllweek2017.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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The 7<sup>th</sup>
Lifelong Learning Week (LLL Week) took place in parallel and in collaboration
with the 2<sup>nd</sup> European Vocational Skills Week (VET Week), 20-24<sup>th</sup>
November 2017. This year the topic of the week was the topic of the year for
Lifelong Learning Platform, EPA is an active member of: Education in a Digital
World. Three subtopics were covered by the events as well as this year’s LLL
Award: democracy, inclusion and innovative pedagogies. Thanks to the generous offer
of the European Commission to host one representative of all EPA members on the
occasion of the VET Week, the events could be held in the presence of the 5 EPA
members that accepted the invitation.</div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">The first
event of the LLL Week was exploring the implications of the Social Pillar on
education. Speakers from the European Student Union, the European Trade Union
Confederation, Solidar and OBESSU were all highlighting the importance of the
Social Pillar and underlined that the Gothenburg Summit just a few days before
the event was a historical moment for officially making an EU commitment on it.
However the speakers raised several issues around this commitment. There was an
agreement among speakers that civil society has an important role in ensuring
the Pillar serves people and we must closely follow developments of the
detailed regulations related to the Pillar. The event had surprisingly few
participants showing that the education community is yet to recognise the
importance of this new EU commitment in their field.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">Another
highlight of the week was the meeting of the Erasmus+ Coalition in the presence
of MEPs, the European Commission, the representative of the Estonian Presidency
of the EU, national agencies and civil society. From EPA’s perspective it was
important to see that while the European Commission is implementing a success
communication strategy, the MEPs working on reporting on the current Erasmus+
programme and the preparations of the successor programme to be implemented
from 2021 fully understand and endorse <a href="http://euparents.eu/parents-contribution-mid-term-review-erasmus/">all
issues raised by you</a>, parents during the summer of 2017 when we conducted our
Erasmus+ survey. There is an agreement that there is a need to fully rethink mobility
granting that the European Commission and youth organisations are pushing for to
make them available for everybody instead of the privileged few and relatively rich
of today. There is a need to make Erasmus+ one programme, not 30+ of today,
national agencies must follow one path in the future. There has been a lot of
discussion around the need to simplify the programme and the absolute necessity
to introduce a uniform procedure in all countries.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">This LLL
Week re-visited the topic of recognition and validation of non-formal learning.
In line with the topic of the LLL Week, there was a presentation of online skills
evaluation and recognition tools, mostly presented by youth organisations. The approach
is important for low skilled adults to be able to (re-)enter the labour market,
and in this respect EPA will continue to work on the validation and recognition
of diverse skills acquired during parenting.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">You will
find a detailed report of the LLL Week on the LLL-P website soon.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">Eszter Salamon<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">President<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span lang="EN-GB">EPA<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4054274532328993781.post-11167424719165209942017-11-23T17:52:00.000+01:002017-12-07T17:53:07.175+01:00EPA’s endorsement of the New Education Forum’s Smart Education Indicators<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBxgoSvUd4JGaaKzGzBKbanF9tj_AN3WWdJ2iQi3EQNVKsOlj-3f7IQNXHxvdqvRTVflFvYdhZ1ULV3Abgpw5yTGKwwKhziWiG6SD-H74Fqp26DNevIhRr0xo6DNni9YtAoEIiXcvn6sI/s1600/nef-logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="348" data-original-width="950" height="115" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBxgoSvUd4JGaaKzGzBKbanF9tj_AN3WWdJ2iQi3EQNVKsOlj-3f7IQNXHxvdqvRTVflFvYdhZ1ULV3Abgpw5yTGKwwKhziWiG6SD-H74Fqp26DNevIhRr0xo6DNni9YtAoEIiXcvn6sI/s320/nef-logo.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The Centre for Innovative Education invited EPA to participate at this year's New Education Forum. Janko Korosec and Claudio Masotti, EPA's Vice Presidents participated <a href="http://europeanparents.blogspot.hu/2017/05/new-education-should-be-based-on-soft.html">at their regional events</a> during the year. The New Education Forum published Smart Education Indicators closely linked with the UNESCO Smart Cities initiatinve at its closing event in the European Parliament on 22/23 November 2017. Before publication they asked EPA for an endorsement of the indicators that you can read below.</div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">In 2015, celebrating
30 years of being the sole representative of parents in Europe, the European
Parents’ Association (EPA) reviewed its policy and activities to formulate a
list of necessary measures in order to provide our children with an upbringing that
ensures that they become <b>responsible 21<sup>st</sup>
century European citizens</b> and <b>reach
their full potential for a happy and fulfilling life</b>. According to the <b>EPA Manifesto 2015</b> this requires that
the EU and national governments provide <b>equitabl</b>e
(and not equal) <b>and inclusive</b>
opportunities in <b>education</b> for
children and their parents. The review has been done on the basis of the UN Convention
on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and calls for measures especially in the
fields of creating a 21<sup>st</sup> century education system, <b>active citizenship</b> and <b>participation, digital literacy</b>,
supporting and endorsing <b>parenting</b>
and parenting skills, and <b>balancing work
and family life</b>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">The <b>indicators</b> developed <b>by New Education Forum</b> (NEF) <b>fully resonate with the demands parents</b>
have formulated recently and address the issues that concern responsible
parents all over Europe. The approach that emphasises <b>the important role the EU and its institutions</b> must play in the
major paradigm shift towards an education that can give answers to major
demands of the 21<sup>st</sup> century and help fundamentally <b>reforming outdated education systems</b>
resonates with concerned parents all over Europe. A joint effort to revamp our
provisions for the future of Europe, our children, could help <b>rebuild trust in the European project</b>.
At the same time the EU is not rich enough to finance the long-term
consequences of school systems that do not have solutions, thus creating environmental
and health problems, unemployment, lack of participation in society and growth
of extremism. We also need to support non-EU countries in their efforts to <b>provide a desirable future to children</b>.
It is crucial for a sustainable future that people can see there is a future
for them and their children, also where they were born – be it anywhere in the
EU or outside - and a decision for migration should not be for sheer survival,
but based on a real choice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">At the same
time there is a general belief that <b>decisions
are best made as close to the people</b>, children as possible, so we fully support
<b>subsidiarity</b> and the <b>focus on municipality level</b> to carry
out universally agreed goals <b>involving</b>
all major stakeholders, in the case of education first of all <b>children, their parents and professional
educators</b>. When designing and implementing new education, policy makers not
only need to stick to the principle of ‘’nothing about them without them’ in
the case of children, but also to ‘nothing about us, parents, and our children
without us’ acknowledging that the primary responsibility for educating
children is with the parents – as stated in the UNCRC, a piece of legislation
ratified by all EU countries. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB">1.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB">Learning within sustainable environment<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<span lang="EN-GB">It is very important to start introducing this topic in early childhood
education, but starting in formal provisions is too little too late. Education
for sustainability should <b>start as early
as possible</b>. It is crucial to empower families, especially young parents,
in order to introduce environmentally conscious home practices. <b>Early education done by the parents</b> in
the first 1-3 life-years is absolutely crucial, so there is a need to focus on
this age group, too, making all professionals working with young families
(paediatricians, district nurses, social workers, etc.) aware of their role and
responsibility in it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB">2.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB">Active citizenship and inclusion<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<span lang="EN-GB">Active citizenship starts at home in early childhood with the
introduction of <b>participatory parenting
practices</b>. For this, parents need <b>support
and training.</b> As many parents and teachers come from a different culture,
we also need to make kindergarten/<b>school
the training ground for participatory democracy</b>, where <b>children, teachers and parents learn</b> this practice <b>together</b>, having responsibilities for
their decisions, but in an ultimate safe environment where wrong decisions have
no grave consequences, but you experience the downside of opting out.
Implementing a <b>whole school approach</b>,
highlighted by EC policy messages in 2016 is the best to-date to involve
stakeholders, helping them to take ownership of the school and of their own
learning. It also requires schools to become <b>community learning spaces</b> where the whole local community can learn
and also educate nearly 24/7.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<span lang="EN-GB">Children deserve to get childhood back, and thus <b>playful</b> approaches are very much welcome. It is also the best basis
for lifelong learning, playfulness helps it become second nature as it makes
learning enjoyable and satisfactory. Learning best happens in the state of <b>flow</b> research shows, and it happens in
the case of the right mix of challenge and joy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<span lang="EN-GB">Inclusion in education is necessary for cradle-to-grave lifelong
learning to become natural in Europe. A good tool to evaluate the inclusiveness
of institutions against another set of indicators is the <b>Index of Inclusion</b> developed this year by NESET.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB">3.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB">Development of potential<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<span lang="EN-GB">Education, a joint effort of the home, the community, non-formal
providers and formal education, should aim at every child to <b>reach their full potential</b>. For this,
there is a need to fundamentally <b>reform
curricula</b>, to make them <b>focus on
skills rather than academic content</b>. It is the <b>joint responsibility</b> of professional educators, policy makers and
parents’ organisations <b>to help parents
understand</b> why it is in the best interest of their children.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<span lang="EN-GB">There is a need to introduce an <b>equitable</b>
approach to <b>education </b>and ensure
that every child and also adults have access to provisions best for that
individual. Access should never be restricted by financial constraints, so
there is a need for adequate funding for all forms of education – be it formal
or informal, state, church or private – according to the joint choice of
children and parents. This is the only way to provide children with the right
education for them – a <b>basic right </b>ensured
by the UNCRC.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<span lang="EN-GB">This also means the need to introduce a <b>holistic approach to education</b>, ending subject and segregation, for
all learning to be endorsed and validated, and for schemes that <b>acknowledge learning outside of school</b>,
especially education at home by the parents.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB">4.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB">Vocational education and training<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<span lang="EN-GB">Policy makers and educators – both professionals and parents – need to
make <b>efforts to change the public
opinion</b> on vocational education in order to stop seeing it as a second
choice and <b>making VET pathways an equal
choice</b> to academic pathways. This should be the choice of at least 2/3 of
the population and they must feel themselves first class citizens.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<span lang="EN-GB">At the same time all stakeholders are also responsible for ensuring
vocational pathways to provide <b>skills
development</b>, <b>up-to-date professional
knowledge</b> and fosters <b>aptitude for
learning throughout life</b>. Career guidance and vocational education need to <b>promote entrepreneurial spirit</b> and <b>new forms of employment</b>. This is also
crucial to ensure current and future parents can <b>balance work and family life</b> better.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB">5.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB">Up-to-date skills<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<span lang="EN-GB">Policy makers, professionals and parents need to work together to <b>move away from</b> a culture of <b>standardised testing</b> and towards a <b>focus on developing skills</b>, especially <b>transversal</b> ones. Embracing and
exploiting <b>digital opportunities</b> as
well as introducing digital practices as early as possible should be part of
it. Children and adults need to <b>learn to
safely navigate in the digital world</b> and we should stop believing that it
is possible to create some kind of safe parallel digital highway for minors.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<span lang="EN-GB">Up-to-date skills also mean there is a need for up-to-date <b>validation, certification and
acknowledgement of skills</b> regardless of the settings they had been acquired
at – be them <b>formal, non-formal or
informal</b>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB">6.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB">Broad cooperation<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast">
<b><span lang="EN-GB">Inclusion of ALL</span></b><span lang="EN-GB"> parents and ALL children as well as
all professionals in reforming education and operating the revamped systems is <b>crucial for success</b>. But it cannot
happen without <b>investing in empowering</b>
each stakeholder group for this role, and developing skills, especially for <b>democratic participation</b>, <b>taking responsibility and managing
challenges</b>. Different stakeholder groups also need to learn to acknowledge
and <b>appreciate other stakeholders</b>.
This can only happen if we can make sure everybody is included, appreciated and
thus participate. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Smart
indicators should be implemented in a smart way, implementing specific <b>SMART (specific, measurable, achievable,
realistic and timely) goals. </b>The European Parents’ Association is ready to
be a partner in it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4054274532328993781.post-24048331181500887932017-11-20T13:22:00.000+01:002017-11-20T13:24:15.752+01:00Parents are there to help #KidsTakeOver on Universal Children's Day<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuKf3ICbpDiKSSh5-4NEfY_Bm20Otd0Tbw6UY9y7gx7jURWz-R4UZ7pkbm8NPg0fw1u3QpCc1zSfaLU1EKOB_bj04YIg1mb_s7TpFl6F6egAKzAcHFMkrESfi2woqKHcrCCwBf516XNdM/s1600/UNchildren-day.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="702" data-original-width="700" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuKf3ICbpDiKSSh5-4NEfY_Bm20Otd0Tbw6UY9y7gx7jURWz-R4UZ7pkbm8NPg0fw1u3QpCc1zSfaLU1EKOB_bj04YIg1mb_s7TpFl6F6egAKzAcHFMkrESfi2woqKHcrCCwBf516XNdM/s200/UNchildren-day.jpg" width="198" /></a></div>
Today marks
Universal Children’s Day, the anniversary of the UN adopting the Convention on
the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). So far all countries in the world except the
USA have joined the Convention, showing political will to protect children and
their rights.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The
European Union, not a signatory of the Convention (yet), but having Member
States that have all committed themselves to align their policies with the
Rights of the Child, is facing its greatest challenges in decades. At the same
time the current European Commission has recently announced measures that
affect the lives of children in Europe – directly or by influencing the lives
of their parents and the institutional framework around them. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The
announcement to build the Pillar of European Social Rights was welcomed by all,
including parents all over Europe. The EU Summit in Gothenburg last week has
proclaimed the construction of the Pillar, a major demonstration of political
will. The Summit also marked the publication of a new EU initiative on creating
a European Education Area by 2025.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">These
political initiatives are more than welcome, binding EU-level measures to
ensure children’s right to parental care, guidance and education, the right to
a good start in life, the right to 21<sup>st</sup> century formal education (if
parents opt for that) and lifelong learning opportunities for all have been
demanded by organised parents all over Europe for years. At the same time, as
the saying goes, the devil is in the detail. Representatives of parents,
bringing the voice of their children into the debate, will work hard in the
forthcoming years to ensure measures are implemented in a way that ensures the
rights of children and their parents as protected by the UNCRC.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">This
Universal Children’s Day is therefore the best opportunity to emphasise the
need for strong measures to ensure that parents are empowered by knowledge and
financial support to provide the best and make the best choices for their
children, and to remind policy makers that they are obliged through the UNCRC
to provide this in their own national contexts and push for this approach to be
implemented on European level. Investing in families is key for tackling
today’s problems as well as preventing tomorrow’s. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">It is
crucial that planned measures answer needs and wishes of parents, a large
cohort of voters at the 2019 European Parliament elections, showing signs of
growing scepticism towards the EU. Civil society organisations, first of all
EPA, have a major responsibility to amplify the voice of parents with regards
to this political agenda. The majority who do not want to be forced, but make a
free choice to go to work while they have young children, who do not necessarily
want to take their children to an early childhood institution at a very young
age, but see the need for their own learning to provide the best education for
their children. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">EPA will
continue to voice the wishes of parents concerned about and responsible for
ensuring the future of their children. Parents are concerned about the formal
education of their children, about creating a free option that is not yet there
in any country in Europe, to ensure the best interest of the child is ensured
by equitable measures, and to be part of curricular and methodological reforms
towards a really 21<sup>st</sup> century education.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">This year’s
topic for the Universal Children’s Day is #KidsTakeOver. We must make sure they
are not left alone, but guided and supported by their parents – and policy
makers accept our right and children’s need for this.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Eszter
Salamon<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">President<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4054274532328993781.post-38003909694545168972017-11-19T15:00:00.000+01:002017-11-19T15:00:01.335+01:00Role of NGO’s in the Holocaust Remembrance activities <h3 style="text-align: center;">
Personal reflexions of Herminio Correa, EPA Ambassador</h3>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq6hhnctC3IALqIHE9HYpnVjZQeVu7ZXmsWIAMFvQQzzOeFvcOSe8p1bTP5BM89ujr1_Fat37lgTa29kTlPLNoBavoWSiwdmSWg4kzE9jjs1pM626x4hALo1fLYdMi9VpGFmVKbwFVaTA/s1600/holocaust_CoE.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="247" data-original-width="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq6hhnctC3IALqIHE9HYpnVjZQeVu7ZXmsWIAMFvQQzzOeFvcOSe8p1bTP5BM89ujr1_Fat37lgTa29kTlPLNoBavoWSiwdmSWg4kzE9jjs1pM626x4hALo1fLYdMi9VpGFmVKbwFVaTA/s1600/holocaust_CoE.png" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">After many years of studying, reading, and
listening to testimonies and watching movies and documentaries about the
Holocaust, it was finally time to make a visit to Auschwitz and Birkenau.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">A hard, cold and unforgettable experience, that
have aroused in me an emotional roller coaster and left in the air a question: How
could this happen?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Yes, why so many men and women, ordinary people
just like us, suddenly became terrible predators and cold killers?</span></div>
<a name='more'></a><o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Walking through the concentration camps, I can’t
help wondering the subhuman conditions of life in which, so many human beings
lived, that the only crime was to be different in their way of thinking, their
origin, religion or culture.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Every stone on the sidewalk, every brick, every
piece of wood tells a barbarous, tragic and inhuman story of total contempt for
human life that shames all mankind. Every piece of clothing, shoe, or personal
object taken from the victims tells a story of life, family, work, hope and
love.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Entering the facilities of the fields, from the
quarters to the unimaginable latrines, from the execution wall to the gas
chambers, I felt a great emotion and sadness, but at the same time I felt a
great inner strength that tells me that nothing that has happened here will
ever be forgotten. This is the message that I will have to spread to my
organization and to all those with whom I live. It is the best way to honour
all those who have been murdered here.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">I felt the greatest emotional shock when I
visited the quarters where mothers and sons tried to survive. The drawings on the
walls made by someone are a faint attempt to keep alive a memory that was dear
to them and thus somehow keep hope alive and try to lighten the dark
environment in which they were forced to live.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Dr. Mengele's ward is the most barbaric and
inhuman testimony of what madness and utter disregard for human life can do.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Talking to a survivor was a story of life,
struggle and hope. Listening to the living memory of a concentration camp by
those who passed through it and miraculously survived is something I will never
forget. So, thank you Bogdan Bartnikowski.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Victim's struggle for survival sometimes has no
rules or limits. They fight for their own lives, to stay alive and sometimes they
forget everything and everyone and deny their basic values and principles of
life. These are the limits of the human mind when the most primitive instincts
dominate it. We must forgive and understand the huge suffering, both physical
and psychological, of the victims of these Nazi concentration camps. We must
respect their memory.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">It was a very important week for me. I saw,
heard, reflected on, discussed and learned with a group of extraordinary people
that I will never forget.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">So, thanks to: Jean-Philippe, Andrzej Kacorzyk,
Piotr Trojanski, Marta Berecka., Alicja Bialecka, Natalia, Artur Szyndler,
Margrit, Agnieszka, Marta Swieton., Anna, Alekandra, Loizos, Richard, Monika,
Ciprian, David, Nick, Naomi, Louise, Oleksandr, Magdalena, Alexandra, Ioannis,
Jillian, Kathryn, Anna Makowka, Fanny, Ilda, Andrea, Gordana, Caslav, Dmitry,
Ana Radovic, Lokman, Igor, Sumru, Zsolt, Vitmar, Daniel, Olga, David Kennedy
and Krzysztof. (Sorry if I forgot someone)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Hermínio Corrêa – European Parents Association<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4054274532328993781.post-1242053174008601672017-11-15T18:53:00.000+01:002017-11-15T18:53:05.219+01:00The Post-2020 MFF Must Invest In Children And Aim To End Child Poverty<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3uP4piXxC0VSlTw_hgUHEFudQ2upzvtRRkAG7PGxqN7oAsUmNiKEmLAo0tUdn-6jCjrfrLBklDjq2yzVgEAntXIbJSbXqYH-Rav3hbYOOprlhIGkk0ADVz4feZeJcs4dCvuUSIDReiNI/s1600/IiC+logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="152" data-original-width="331" height="90" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3uP4piXxC0VSlTw_hgUHEFudQ2upzvtRRkAG7PGxqN7oAsUmNiKEmLAo0tUdn-6jCjrfrLBklDjq2yzVgEAntXIbJSbXqYH-Rav3hbYOOprlhIGkk0ADVz4feZeJcs4dCvuUSIDReiNI/s200/IiC+logo.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This week
the European Commission, European Parliament and Council of the EU will sign
the inter-institutional proclamation of the European Pillar of Social Rights in
Gothenburg,(1) which reiterates commitments to promote social inclusion and the
rights of the child.(2) The future Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) should
contribute to translate these commitments into action.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">More than
20 organisations within the EU Alliance for Investing in Children urge the EU
institutions and its Member States to invest in children and develop a future
MFF that works to end child poverty and promotes the social inclusion of all
children in Europe.</span></div>
<a name='more'></a><o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The future
of Europe depends on investing in children, in particular in children and
families in vulnerable situations. The EU and its Member States need to act
urgently to protect around 25 million children estimated to be living in or at
risk of poverty or social exclusion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Growing up
in poverty can negatively affect children’s opportunities for the rest of their
lives, with far-reaching consequences – for instance, on their future
education, health, participation in the labour market and society. Acting early
on child poverty and investing in early childhood education and care is not
only a moral imperative, it is also a cost-effective measure.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The MFF is
an important instrument for the EU and its Member States t</span>o leave no-one behind
and to invest in children. In June 2017, the Council of the EU stressed the EU’
and Member States’ commitment to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs), including through greater efforts to promote social inclusion of
vulnerable groups, such as children.(3)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The
Commission’s Reflection Paper on the Future of EU Finances acknowledged that
investing in people, from education and training to health equality and social
inclusion, is the overarching priority for the EU.(4)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The EU
Alliance for Investing in Children fully supports these commitments and is
proposing the following recommendations to ensure that the next MFF invests in
children:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">1. Ending
child poverty and social exclusion in Europe should be a clear and visible
priority in the next MFF<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">2. The
next MFF should be underpinned by a strategy to implement the 2030 Agenda, the
European Pillar of Social Rights and the Recommendation on Investing in
children: breaking the cycle of disadvantage:(5)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">This
strategy should prioritise the drastic reduction of child poverty in Europe in
line with SDG 1 to “reduce at least by half the proportion of men, women and
children of all ages living in poverty”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The
strategy needs to integrate the European Pillar of Social Rights and its
relevant principles, including principle 11 which recognises that children have
a right to protection from poverty.(6)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The
Recommendation on Investing in children is the strategic framework to realise
principle 11 of the Social Pillar. The Recommendation’s implementation should
be financially supported by the EU.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">3. The
size of the next MFF should be adequate to fight child poverty in Europe:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The
resources for social inclusion in the next MFF should be increased. At least
the equivalent of 30% of the current European Social Fund should be earmarked
for social inclusion. Such spending on social inclusion must cover efforts to
prevent and tackle child poverty.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The UK
leaving the EU and the possible development of new financial instruments for
the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) should not result in fewer resources for
social inclusion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">4. The
next MFF should promote a life cycle approach to social investment and social
protection:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The
Alliance recommends that in case EU funding for boosting employment, skills and
combating poverty are gathered under one financial instrument, its main
objective should be promoting social inclusion, social investment and adequate
social protection with a life-cycle approach.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">This would
ensure a strong focus on investment for the most vulnerable children and
families so that they have access to quality, accessible and inclusive
community-based services (e.g. health, social services, family support,
education, housing, and child protection) and adequate social protection for
children and families throughout the life cycles (e.g. minimum income,
unemployment, child and housing benefits).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">5. The
EU funds aiming at poverty reduction and social inclusion under the next MFF
should be linked to national poverty reduction strategies and action plans:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">EU funds
should support Member States in implementing policy reforms to tackle child
poverty in line with the EC Recommendation on Investing in children and its
three pillars: access to resources, access to quality services and child
participation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">In doing
so, Member States should make sure that EU funds reach all children and
families experiencing poverty and social exclusion regardless of their
migration or residence status.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Local
stakeholders play an important role in the implementation of national poverty
reduction strategies and action plans. EU funds should support the capacity of
local stakeholders, who provide frontline services and are best placed to
deliver policy outcomes such as those included in the Recommendation on
Investing in children.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The
European Commission’s monitoring role of EU funds needs to be strengthened, and
formalized in the monitoring committees, as well as ex-ante conditionalities
should be monitored both at the programming and the regulation levels. Civil
society and service users should also be fully involved in the development,
implementation and monitoring of projects.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">6. The
simplification of the rules of the future MFF should aim to fu</span>rther promote the
engagement of stakeholders, including CSOs, and increase funds absorption:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Civil
Society Organisations (CSOs) have an important role in reaching people in
vulnerable situations and the most disadvantaged. To support, monitor and
report on implementation of EU and national policies CSOs need sufficient
capacity and support to play this role and to help improve financial
mechanisms. EU funds are essential to strengthening the capacity of CSOs, and
access to these funds also needs to be ensured for grassroots organisations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">New
resources should be dedicated to involving children and their families in
vulnerable situations in the design, delivery and monitoring of child poverty strategies
and in the related EU funding.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Endnote:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The EU
Alliance for Investing in Children has been advocating for a multidimensional,
rights-based approach to tackling child poverty and promoting child well-being
since 2014.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">This
statement was endorsed by the following partner organisations of the EU
Alliance for Investing in Children: Alliance for Childhood European Network
Group; ATD Quart Monde; Caritas Europa; COFACE Families Europe; Don Bosco
International; Dynamo International – Street Workers Network; Eurochild;
Eurodiaconia; EuroHealthNet; European Association of Service Providers for
Persons with Disabilities – EASPD; European Anti-Poverty Network – EAPN;
European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless –
FEANTSA; European Parents’ Association – EPA; European Network of Social
Authorities – ENSA; European Public Health Alliance – EPHA; European Social
Network – ESN; Mental Health Europe; Platform for International Cooperation on
Undocumented Migrants (PICUM); Save the Children; SOS Children’s Villages.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
http://www.alliance4investinginchildren.eu/the-post-2020-mff-must-invest-in-children-and-aim-to-end-child-poverty/</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Notes<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">(1) Social
Summit for Fair Growth and Jobs https://www.socialsummit17.se/<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">(2)
European Commission, Council, European Parliament “Proposal for an interinstitutional
proclamation endorsing the European Pillar of Social Rights” : “The Union shall
combat social exclusion and discrimination, promote social justice and
protection, equality between women and men, solidarity between generations and
protection of the rights of the child”, available at:
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/publications/draft-joint-proclamation-european-parliament-council-and-commission_en<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">(3) Council
of the European Union, Council Conclusions (20 June 2017): A Sustainable
European future: The EU response to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2017/06/20-2030-agenda-sustainable-development/<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">(4)
European Commission (June 2017), “Reflection Paper on the Future of EU
Finances”, available at:
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/publications/reflection-paper-future-eu-finances_en
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">(5)
European Commission Recommendation (20 February 2013) Investing in Children:
Breaking the Cycle of Disadvantage (2013/112/EU) http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32013H0112&from=EN<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">(6)
European Commission (26 April 2017), Commission recommendation on the European
Pillar of Social Rights
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/publications/commission-recommendation-establishing-european-pillar-social-rights_en
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4054274532328993781.post-64037384189374160772017-10-13T18:46:00.000+02:002017-10-13T18:46:54.538+02:00Protecting Children in Audiovisual Media Services -Current and Future Measures workshop report<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-lpUqjgWnWXK-LYm3_bo1jUoB-qvBRXrRY7uKmnVSww4-TE5abZIKKbPcThcGyzVoc6pFkv3PzTAwV-Nz-aVmk7IEKPBkGBa4L2IhU2XUyTO53bv1op-6RSnRNt1XfkuCFzYIuoUo23A/s1600/ERGA_logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="228" data-original-width="300" height="151" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-lpUqjgWnWXK-LYm3_bo1jUoB-qvBRXrRY7uKmnVSww4-TE5abZIKKbPcThcGyzVoc6pFkv3PzTAwV-Nz-aVmk7IEKPBkGBa4L2IhU2XUyTO53bv1op-6RSnRNt1XfkuCFzYIuoUo23A/s200/ERGA_logo.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/audiovisual-regulators">ERGA</a>, and
independent advisory body to the European Commission organised an interesting
workshop on 4 October in Brussels with different stakeholders presenting their
present and future activities on the protection of minors. The role of parents
in this and services targeting parents were constantly highlighted by both
industry and policy speakers. EPA was offered the opportunity to present our
view and approach in this area as well are reflect on the state of play and
plans presented.</div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Madeleine
de Cock Buning – Chair of ERGA highlighted the importance of raising
awareness among parents, the desire of parents to have transparency of services,
especially of those platforms where self-produced content can be published. She
also mentioned a policy push for enhanced parental control measures. She quoted
that “parents want safe heavens for their children” that is an illusion apparently
while some protection measures are clearly desirable. She also highlighted the
need for good practices to be shared without legal obligations. She emphasised
that protection of minors should be a joint efforts of authorities, companies,
parents and educators, and that flexibility and openness are necessary for
that. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Lubos
Kuklis offered a recap of the ERGA report on the protection of minors that
contain the measures used, approach of the largest players and measures in the
pipeline. When in comes to television services it was mentioned that obligatory
labelling systems are not there in every member state and if they are there,
they are not the same. In this field there are PIN protection and parental
control services. In the video-on-demand field the so-called watershed
methodology is present as well as parental controls and dedicated children apps.
Video-sharing platforms are mostly rely on users, trying to create communities
of attentive users. Audiovisual content distributors use labelling, PIN or
parental control in selected services, and rely on info by content producers.
In their cases PIN is always in place for content not suitable for minors.
There are also some trans platform initiatives: You Rate It, miracle, alliance
to better protect minors online, ICT Coalition.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The German
age rating system of games and apps and the Dutch age-rating institutes
methodology were presented as inspiring practices, as well as the policy of
Google on YouTube, and Netflix. Spanish Telecom and Sky have presented their
policy as intermediaries, with the former focusing on information and
cooperation, especially with parents, and the latter presenting their new default
setting on Sky devices being 13+, a setting 6-7% of users turned on voluntarily
before, with no restriction becoming a private setting rather than default.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Miracle, an
age classification initiative based on legal regulations, developmental
psychology and flexibility of parenting. The presenter said “we are likely to
come to a point of parental control fatigue and parents will refrain from
turning it on”, a thought challenged by EPA’s standpoint promoting dialogue,
education and parenting measures instead of applying any parental controls.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Some new
initiatives raise a number of child rights issues so they need to be followed
and scrutinised by parents association in order to prevent any initiative to
become operational that harm the rights of the child, the GDPR (General Data
Protection Regulations to come into force in May 2018), EPA has been dealing
with for some time, being one of them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">There was
an opportunity to present EPA’s official policy and standpoint at the event. Of
the 2014 policy paper it was highlighted that parents are responsible for
guiding their children, and we need information and support, request constant
dialogue from companies and authorities and want transparent rules on content
not suitable for minors. The need for minors to be able to fully delete content
was also highlighted. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The parents’
organisations’ demand to have no restrictive regulation</span>s<span lang="EN-GB">, but more support to change
parenting practice and bulid trust was emphasised in the presentation. It is an
illusion to think there is a ‚children only’ online highway, thus we need to
learn how to cross the same road together – a thing parents need to be
empowered for and let to educate their children. Ratings are a useful
information tool for parents, but it is not clear as it is, so there is a need
to develop a uniform European system and involve the parents in it. There is a
need to use different approaches to parents of under 10-11 and of those over.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">This
workshop was declared to be the first in a series of events and we bear the
promise of ERGA to be involved in all future ones.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Eszter
Salamon<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">EPA
President<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4054274532328993781.post-9437813187062260942017-10-08T11:34:00.000+02:002017-10-08T11:34:47.482+02:00Inspiring school leaders<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirYiGWPLOKPy8LRCWN-aTASbmriI1o9mEwV4VAVtse1f4d2_lnlBZbRt1CQC_Rv4apyDSQP2F7YG6tiV1bcyMQ1F7weZT9T41y8-jrkpJElONl8NvGHYedhzIDwAW3p-j43EUTR-xQnBI/s1600/islcambridgelogo.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="145" data-original-width="540" height="84" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirYiGWPLOKPy8LRCWN-aTASbmriI1o9mEwV4VAVtse1f4d2_lnlBZbRt1CQC_Rv4apyDSQP2F7YG6tiV1bcyMQ1F7weZT9T41y8-jrkpJElONl8NvGHYedhzIDwAW3p-j43EUTR-xQnBI/s320/islcambridgelogo.png" width="320" /></a></div>
The Inspriring School Leaders Confernece was held in Cambridge University's St. John's College on 22-24 September 2017. EPA was offered the opportunity to inspire school leaders from all over the world to engage parents for a 21st century school system.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
In the short inspirational presentation the question of why to engage parents was introduced. While we recalled some current phenomena in the world (eg. radicalisation, Trump, Brexit, xenophobia), we highlighted the role of parents as primary educators, being the first, the responsible and most impacting ones. Some of the main benefits of parental engagement have been highlighted, such as inclusion (rather than integration), taking ownership of and responsibility for the schooling process, active citizenship skills and other soft skills (of parents, teachers and students) being developed, higher academic achievements and the local community becoming a learning one. We have clarified the differences between involvement and engagement, advocating for the latter.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCCKNPoiHu_zBc-V3QUb26_LXsMj5H9x7-o9a7CyRdss3ur2Tmad9RKI8VPlYLySAqOTffA_OtPesX-6OHPjyzyy4Fj3i47dH9s7GM9qxgpPoH939UNlBfwNdf_zi0Tni6iuBrb9Y58Ho/s1600/ISL_1537.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCCKNPoiHu_zBc-V3QUb26_LXsMj5H9x7-o9a7CyRdss3ur2Tmad9RKI8VPlYLySAqOTffA_OtPesX-6OHPjyzyy4Fj3i47dH9s7GM9qxgpPoH939UNlBfwNdf_zi0Tni6iuBrb9Y58Ho/s200/ISL_1537.jpg" width="133" /></a>School leaders are clearly the game-changers in this process, they can move away from closed school doors to schools becoming community learning centres, from full control to mutual learning and shared leadership. It was made
clear that a school head with a vision can ‚convert’ 80% of their teachers, get
the parents on board, engage the (school and local) community in planning, involve
the community in implementation, make everybody take ownership – of school and
learning, make everybody a learner and an educator and create a learner- and
learning-centred school - regardless the legal framework. This is what we think
necessary to help educating responsible active citizens who are apt lifelong
learners – of primarily the students, but also of teachers and parents.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The primary
aims of ISL Cambridge were to explore latest trends that will transform
education by re-considering the role of school leaders in instructional
excellence and to offer a host of new strategies to make a difference in their school communities and expand their leadership capacity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">ISL aimed
to;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<ul>
<li>examine
full array of roles and responsibilities of school leaders</li>
<li>explore how
the roles are distributed and discover new ways of sharing the responsibilities
across the school</li>
<li>offer
perspectives based on cutting edge empirical research on effective school
leadership and how it influences learner outcomes</li>
<li>provide
professionally stimulating opportunities for reflection on school leaders’ core
values and practices</li>
<li>create a
constructive dialogue about how leadership skills can be improved to be able to
overcome the toughest challenges in the national educational system</li>
<li>explore
latest trends that will transform education by re-considering the role of
school leaders in instructional excellence</li>
<li>offer a
host of new strategies to make a difference in your school community and expand
your leadership capacity</li>
<li>identify
the key roles and distinctive characteristics of effective leaders</li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The
following issues were discussed through the plenary and parallel sessions
during the ISL Conference:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<ul>
<li>motivating staff and students</li>
<li>characteristics
of 21st-century schools</li>
<li>success stories of educational leaders</li>
<li>latest models of educational leadership</li>
<li>becoming an effective school administrator</li>
<li>leading successful change in educational systems</li>
<li>managing
and trategy: learning from the private sector</li>
<li>global trends in education, teaching, and school administration</li>
<li>effective communication</li>
<li>design thinking, creativity and innovation</li>
<li>self-management
and time management</li>
<li>beyond bureaucracy: embracing change</li>
<li>benchmarking: learning from best schools</li>
<li>leadership
and organizational effectiveness</li>
<li>managing diversity in education</li>
</ul>
<div>
Eszter Salamon</div>
<div>
EPA President</div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4054274532328993781.post-41141865927454677132017-10-08T11:06:00.002+02:002017-10-08T11:35:02.006+02:00Books and screens and the reading brain - conference in Vilnius<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDx1-L77YNRByYbSeUdqNan-fLeeYbh4iOb4VOoVnhNzaEXBj6-OyhHL0B4NVpEUJMtmtcXyCS3wypUb0ZP-oo1WaSJ2naeupGt1vbVgtXIylbEFtJS2f49YQaef1njozXYLgJsR9KGPg/s1600/e-read-2017-juodas.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="64" data-original-width="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDx1-L77YNRByYbSeUdqNan-fLeeYbh4iOb4VOoVnhNzaEXBj6-OyhHL0B4NVpEUJMtmtcXyCS3wypUb0ZP-oo1WaSJ2naeupGt1vbVgtXIylbEFtJS2f49YQaef1njozXYLgJsR9KGPg/s1600/e-read-2017-juodas.png" /></a></div>
E-Read, a scientific project financed by COST organised a major conference in Vilnius, Lithuania on 27-29 September 2017. A stakeholder round table was held as part of the conference, focusing on textbooks and other reading material used in and by schools, and EPA was invited to present the parents' view.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
Textbook publishers presented their survey results showing that although both children and parents are more open to using digital learning material, 90% of teachers are committed to using paper books. They also emphasised that the goal is not only to remove paper and underlined the fact that scanning books into pdf is not making e-learning material.<br />
<br />
There was an agreement between parents, researchers and publishers' perspectives: while there is a clear danger of simply stopping printing, there is a need to join forces to promote digital material. It has to happen paralel to promoting new pedagogies, the fact that in today's reality students, parents and teachers are all educators and learners at the same time. With non-specific content is readily available for everybody and becoming more and more common in the school context, there is a need to focus educational efforts of critical thinking.<br />
<br />
On top of this it has also been emphasised that digital material is not enough for a learner-centred pedagogical approach. Very often the highly service-oriented approach of school material publishers make ready-made, easy-to-apply material readily available for teachers and this works against focusing on diverse learners' needs. However, there is a need to focus on the topics of digitalisation and digital learning material. With suitable technical equipment becoming available at a very low cost, digital learning material is clearly an element towards equitable access to eduation.<br />
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You can read more about the conference here: http://www.eread.kf.vu.lt/<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Evolution of reading in the age of digitisation (<a href="http://ereadcost.eu/">E-READ</a>)</strong> is an COST Action with goal to improve scientific understanding of the implications of digitization, hence helping individuals, disciplines, societies and sectors across Europe to cope optimally with the effects. E-READ comprises a number of projects and initiatives at different levels and scientific scope.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Eszter Salamon</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">EPA President</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4054274532328993781.post-81227076217317556062017-10-08T10:40:00.000+02:002017-12-07T18:11:39.851+01:00If Kids can do it... - Parents and children together for tackling food waste<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">EPA has been represented in the <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=1207&langId=en">FEAD Network</a> by our Ambassador Herminio Correa (second left in the picture). In the network they are trying to find cooperation possibilities of projects financed from FEAD funds and those working with groups of people, those who are the most deprived in Europe, to amplify the effect of FEAD funding. The following project idea was developed at the last network meeting at a contest and won. It is a simple but great idea worth considering to implement. Let us know if you decide to make it a reality.</span></span><br />
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<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-size: 16.0pt;">“Best Project idea for
tackling food waste”<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-size: 14.0pt;">Winner 1<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-size: 14.0pt;">If Kids can do it…<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt;">1.This project aims to tackle the substantial issue of
food waste in families.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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2. The name of our project is <b><i>If
Kids Can Do It</i></b><i>…<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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3. The objective is two-fold. First, it is intended to include more people in
awareness around food waste, as it is from understanding that action comes. Our
second aim is to practically change behaviour.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt;">4. Starting in schools, the activities would get
children involved and invested in the food process. We would organise cooking
workshops using resources that would otherwise have gone to waste. School
kitchens are a key location for these activities, and children could also visit
farms and factories depending on where they are based (making the project
applicable in various settings).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span><span lang="PT" style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt;">5. How does this connect to FEAD?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<li class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; color: #222222; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: PT;">It reaches children from all backgrounds, including the most deprived.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; color: #222222; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: PT;">It provides a meal from kids from otherwise wasted resources.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; color: #222222; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: PT;">Community-building aspect: kids bring home what they learn to their
parents. Parents could also contribute their skills, in turn; for example,
by arranging show-and-tell of their work in the food industry, perhaps in
a factory, farm, or shop.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt;">6. Who? This project includes children, teachers and
school authorities, parents. It is important to underline the value of
volunteers to contribute their personal skills on a case-by-case basis.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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7. When? The project could start with a pilot in schools in one commune in the
city, and one commune in the countryside.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt;">8. In this way, <i>If
Kids Can Do It</i>… helps prevent food waste with each meal created and by
teaching the younger generation, while connecting families with FEAD, and
fostering community.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt;">Harriet Brooker – Red Cross EU<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt;">Patrizia de Felice – Fead Managing Authority<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="PT" style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt;">Louis
Cantuel – Restaurants du Coeur<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="PT" style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt;">Hermínio
Corrêa – European Parents Association<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4054274532328993781.post-57704571616293900942017-10-08T10:29:00.001+02:002017-10-08T11:35:27.023+02:00Facebook parenting page<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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As most of our children live a substantial part of their lives on social media and Facebook is one of the most important ones, they have decided to offer parents, especially ones who are not advanced users of their social media service, a special site, Parents Portal. EPA has started working with Facebook Europe to ensure that their service offer and the wishes of parents for the safety of their children online are aligned.<br />
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Please spend a few minutes on the following survey. Facebook wishes to learn more about parents' knowledge, attitudes and concerns, and adjust their services accordingly. The survey is available at the following link: <a href="https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/KJT5SMC">https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/KJT5SMC</a><br />
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They are open to our approach that is against restrictions, but aks for an approach that ensure the rights of children, especially their right to privacy. On the one hand it rules out all direct parental controls, but on the other hand it demands empowerment and the right to have data deleted permanently upon request for all minors, everybody under 18.<br />
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In our view the Parents Portal in its current state is not well-know and not yet totally useful for parents, but based on your survey answers that Facebook is ready to share with us, EPA and Facebook will join forces to improve it.<br />
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Let me take this opportunity to recall that one of the main concerns regarding Facebook is that their regulations regarding minors are not in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, but a US law, <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/rules/rulemaking-regulatory-reform-proceedings/childrens-online-privacy-protection-rule">COPPA</a>, and thus the right of children under 13 for the freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly are not ensured.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0