Brussels, 23 December 2024

ECSWE welcomes EU roadmap on school success for all

In 2024, ECSWE continued its membership in the EU Working Group on Pathways to School Success. The group’s new roadmap for ensuring school success for all could inspire our curriculum development efforts in 2025.

Continued participation in the working group

Rep­re­sent­ed by Dr Mar­tyn Raw­son, ECSWE con­tin­ued its mem­ber­ship in the Work­ing Group on Path­ways to School Suc­cess in 2024. The group brings togeth­er rep­re­sen­ta­tives from EU mem­ber states, civ­il soci­ety organ­i­sa­tions, and inter­na­tion­al organ­i­sa­tions like UNESCO and the OECD to address themes such as inclu­sive edu­ca­tion, pupil and teacher well-being, school lead­er­ship, and improv­ing basic skills. Activ­i­ties linked to these themes include ple­nary ses­sions with all mem­bers, longer peer-learn­ing activ­i­ties in mem­ber coun­tries in small­er groups, and top­ic-spe­cif­ic sem­i­nars and webinars.

Key result: a roadmap for ensuring school success for all

In Decem­ber 2024, the work­ing group pub­lished its Roadmap for Ensur­ing School Suc­cess for All, a key resource pro­mot­ing inclu­sive, equi­table, and high-qual­i­ty edu­ca­tion sys­tems. The roadmap address­es chal­lenges, such as ear­ly school leav­ing, learn­er diver­si­ty, well-being in schools, and pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment for teach­ers and school lead­ers. Based on a whole-sys­tem and mul­ti-lev­el approach, it sug­gests action­able strate­gies for pol­i­cy­mak­ers, edu­ca­tors, and oth­er stake­hold­ers to sup­port inclu­sive reforms and improve edu­ca­tion­al practices.

Possible inspiration for our curriculum work

The roadmap’s sec­tion on devel­op­ing inclu­sive core cur­ric­u­la (pp. 47–50) offers valu­able guid­ance for ECSWE’s cur­ricu­lum work­ing group to fur­ther align its com­mon core cur­ricu­lum frame­work with inclu­sion prin­ci­ples. A first review sug­gests that our frame­work already sup­ports inclu­sive edu­ca­tion through its focus on devel­op­men­tal path­ways, adapt­able teach­ing strate­gies, and diverse learn­ing aims. It could, how­ev­er, be improved by more explic­it­ly address­ing inclu­sion prin­ci­ples, ele­ments of social-emo­tion­al learn­ing (SEL), and the sit­u­a­tion of learn­ers with spe­cial edu­ca­tion­al needs (SEN). The guid­ing ques­tions on cur­ricu­lum devel­op­ment pre­sent­ed in the roadmap could be valu­able point­ers in this regard.

Further reading